I just had a flat 2 nights ago, I was fortunate for 2 things, 1 it wasnt that cold, and 2 I had a friend to help me with my predicament. Recently I had 4 new tires and RIMS put on my car. Because the tire shop that I had them balanced at decided the lugnuts I had were wrong they replaced them. I used my friends 4-way wrench to take my tires off when I changed out my brakes, no issues. What I Failed to pick up on, is the lugnuts were a different size than my stock lugs were. Now we fast forward, I come out of the gym, sweating and in shorts, (luckily my fleeze jacket) to find that one of my tires was flat. Knowing what to do, I sprang into action, had my Scissor jack, my spare, and my stock Lugnut wrench WITH Lugnut Lock Adapter. Put that wrench on and realized all too quickly, that I should have done a check on the lugnut size VERSUS the wrench size. Fortunately my friend goes to the same gym so we could easily go back home, grab the 4 way, and I grabbed my old tire and rim so I didnt have to put on a spare, there is a lot to be said for a full size spare....
So my contribution is this, there are a bunch of FAILS in my story, and all because I failed to conduct a good PMCS (Military term - Preventative Maintenance Checks and Services) which I would have found that the lugs were a different size than my stock lugnut wrench. I did have clothes in the car I could have changed into had I needed too, so Im not a total failure there. However, if I didnt, I just would have broken up my tire change into sections, remove some lugnuts and get back in the car to warm, get out and remove more, warm up, and continued a work/warm up pattern to complete the change over.
You have a 2-4000 Pound machine whose biggest bi-product is heat, there is no reason to freeze to death changing a tire, just be really gentle getting in and out of the car and you wont force the car off the jack. If you are really worried about the car falling off the jack, put the tire you just took off under the Brake Disk or Drum so if it falls, it falls on the tire and not the ground, so you can get back under with the jack. You might ruin a rim, but its better than dropping your car on the ground.... This has been my $0.02, I hope it helps!
So my contribution is this, there are a bunch of FAILS in my story, and all because I failed to conduct a good PMCS (Military term - Preventative Maintenance Checks and Services) which I would have found that the lugs were a different size than my stock lugnut wrench. I did have clothes in the car I could have changed into had I needed too, so Im not a total failure there. However, if I didnt, I just would have broken up my tire change into sections, remove some lugnuts and get back in the car to warm, get out and remove more, warm up, and continued a work/warm up pattern to complete the change over.
You have a 2-4000 Pound machine whose biggest bi-product is heat, there is no reason to freeze to death changing a tire, just be really gentle getting in and out of the car and you wont force the car off the jack. If you are really worried about the car falling off the jack, put the tire you just took off under the Brake Disk or Drum so if it falls, it falls on the tire and not the ground, so you can get back under with the jack. You might ruin a rim, but its better than dropping your car on the ground.... This has been my $0.02, I hope it helps!
