No problem here.
Except in my Mini with run-flats. There’s no spare there.
That’s fine if you only lose air pressure, but if the tire shreds, you’re screwed. Tow truck time.
Just changed a tire this summer while waiting for AAA to arrive. It’s a pretty simple operation, no reason for concern.
Happened quite a lot (to me and everyone else) before cell phones even existed. It’s funny how screwed many people would become without this bit of technology that was optional as recently as a decade ago.
Then why, dear fellow, didn’t you simply ask whether respondants had skill and tools to change a tire? Needlessly complex questions make hypothetical fighting inevitable. To answer the question you should have asked: yes.
My first car had front end problems and chewed through tires like crazy. I learned how to change a tire by essentially being in the situation outlined in the OP (difference -no cell phones back then).
As long as I have my jack, not the flimsy pain-in-the-ass to assemble jack they bolt the doughnut down with, I’m good to go. I keep it in one of the side cubbies, and my older than heck X lug wrench is in with the doughnut.
It’s not needlessly complex; most of the respondents got the point immediately. But many posters go out of their way to answer questions other than that asked in the OP, no matter how simply or intricately it is written.
Had a tyre (Aussie spelling) explode on the highway a couple of months ago. Put on the spare and we were off again. Cost us about 20 minutes. It would have been quicker except that I’d only had the car a few weeks and I wanted to read the manual to see if there were any “gotchas” to be aware of (there weren’t).
I can change spares by myself fine and have done so many times.
Actually the lonely road is better news than busy interstate for me when I’ve had car trouble. When on a busy interstate no one stops except law enforcement, but on the lonely road a large percentage of time a vehicle will stop when they see someone with car trouble.
I’d be far more nervous about changing a tire on the interstate than on the lonely road. Much more likely that some driver will slam into me.
In theory, I’m fine.
In practice, I don’t know. I’ve never tried to change a tire on my current car. In my last car, I once tried to change a tire and found that the lug nuts were screwed on so tightly that I couldn’t get them to move (not even standing (and jumping) on the longest lever I could fashion).
Hopefully, it won’t be an issue.
Is a car physically capable of hobbling along with a flat tire? I think I’d just keep driving, albeit slowly.
That’s a good way to ruin the wheel, I think, if you’re going any distance. And it’s also likely to leave the tire entirely ruined when it might have been repairable.
I’ve only had one flat while I was out on the road since I’ve been driving: a blowout in my Jetta on the highway. By the time I had the truck popped to get the tools, a man had stopped to help, so I let him.
I do know how, and I have the strength to do it. I hope it doesn’t happen in the F-250, though. That spare is a pain in the ass to access.
I’m not screwed. my spare is filled, and I know how to use a jack and lug wrench.
I would be just fine. I keep a Craftsman air compressor under my driver’s seat. It is about 6 inches by 10 inches and has a long cord that plugs into the cigarette lighter socket. (Great Christmas present!) This will hopefully allow me to put enough air back in the tire to get to a safe place to change it.
If not, I have a chrome 4 way lug wrench wrapped in a towel to keep it from vibration noise and it is hidden in the storage area with the stock supplied jack and the little donut spare tire.
If you rely upon that lug wrench that usually comes with your stock scissor jack and the nuts are hard to get off, that lug wrench will strip out either on the nut or on the wrench. And if you are not strong you can’t get enough leverage. A good 4 way lug wrench is great to have.
The little hard donut spare tire replacements suck, but they will get you home or at least out of harm’s way.
It was part of my son’s Driver Ed class homework. So, we went out to the driveway and I supervised him through a tire change on my car. If he ever has to do it, it will be something he has done before.
I can change a tire no problem. Unfortunately, both of our cars have those little donut-sized spares, which I think are limited to 50 MPH or so, and only good for a relatively short distance, so I’ll put it on and pull over at the first place to get it fixed properly.
I’ve lost tons of strength but I still know how to change a tire, so unless the lug nuts were put on by the Hulk, I probably am fine.
Technically, I know how to change a tire. Realistically, I’d have a bugger of a time getting it out and installing it. It took my husband a lot of muscle to get the lug nuts off the last tire that went flat.
To be honest, if it was daylight and a reasonable temperature outside, I’d walk to get help. I always have my tennis shoes in the car, so that’s not an issue. If it’s really cold and/or dark, I’m driving on the rim. Cause if my cell phone is dead, there goes my flashlight, too!
Lots of places around here have no cell coverage for miles… or any other services. Highway 6 from Tonopah to Ely is 160 miles with no towns in between.