"NY" wrote in message
o.uk...
"Richard" wrote in message
news
And don't get me started on the pillock who invented the space-saving
spare wheel.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-20984194

Ah good. We know where to send the hate mail ;-)

It sounds like a good idea, but it depends critically on that naive
assumption that "I asked how many times that person had used their spare
wheel. I was told they had never used it." My experience is different.
Driving on poorer country lanes and places where there may be crap on the
road, I have probably had a puncture every couple of years.

Yeah, I've managed about that. And its much more convenient to be able
to use the full sized spare than wait for the AA equivalent to show up and
given that I can fix most stuff that dies and can usually get a mate to give
me a hand if say the battery dies to get a new one, and our AA equivalent
is happy to let you sign up at the time you need them, I dont bother with
the considerable cost of belonging all the time. I've only ever had to call
them once in more than 55 years of driving, when I managed to come
off the road into an irrigation drainage channel which only had little
water in it and needed the tow truck to pull the car out.

I managed another of those quite recently and the next fella that
passed had a decent ute and snatch strap and pulled me out himself.

The other week I had to go off the edge of a road surface onto a verge to
make way for an oncoming tractor, and there was a lip on the edge of the
tarmac with a wheel-width trough in the grass verge. My wheel went into it
and the road surface gouged a hole in the inner sidewall of my almost
brand new tyre. It was a small enough hole that I didn't notice and
completed my journey, but then found I had a flat tyre a hour later. And
I've lost count of the number of nails that I've had through the tread -
lucky most of the time the puncture has been repairable.

Yeah, most of mine have been. Not all tho. With the Getz it isnt hard
to not even notice a flat and **** the tyre driving on that by the time
you notice its flat.

The problem with tyre sealant and inflator packs is that they are only a
get-you-home measure. The tyre can never be repaired and must always be
replaced, whereas with a conventional tyre many punctures can be repaired,
allowing you to get a normal life out of tyre and not having to replace it
while it still has plenty of tread.

I've never yet had a wheel whose nuts I couldn't undo. With a cranked or
cross-shaped wheelbrace it is easy:

I wouldnt say easy, but certainly doable.

- stand at right angles to the car (facing the front or back); I'm going
assume I'm facing forward and changing a nearside wheel, so my right hand
is closest to the car

- do not jack up the wheel yet, it needs to remain on the ground to stop
it turning (especially front wheel on a rear-wheel drive car) as you
loosen the nuts

Yeah, I always do it like that.

- in your left hand, hold the opposite end of the wheelbrace to the end
with the nut

- offer it up to the wheelnut with the crank at about 9 o'clock position
(as seen if you were to look towards the wheel)

- raise one foot and place it on the crank, or the end of a side arm
(cross brace)

- press down with your leg while pulling up with your left hand to
counteract the tendency for the wheelbrace to fall off the nut; if brute
strength isn't enough to shift the nut, give it a slight kick until it
gives

I used to do it like that with one of those big X shaped wheel braces
before someone mentioned the telescopic ones here. That lets you get
a lot more leverage on the nut and works fine without standing on it.

- once each nut has turned maybe 1/2 a turn, jack up the wheel and loosen
and remove all the nuts (put them somewhere safe like in a hub cap or
wheeltrim)

I dont bother and have never lost one.

- now squat down facing the wheel and hold it in your hands at 4- and 8
o'clock position on the tyre tread, with your forearms braced against the
inside of your thighs; ease the wheel off the central boss

I normally sit on the ground to do that.

- same technique to replace with new wheel

- tighten all the nuts, working in the order 1, 4, 3, 2 (or any order that
isn't consecutive - you want to avoid cyclic stress)

- lower the wheel onto the ground and get back into the original position,
now with the crank in the 3 o'clock position, and fully tighten the nuts

I've done that in about 5 mins per wheel. I've swapped over all four
wheels (exchange nearside front and back, and offside front and back)
which needs a total of 6 wheelchanges (allowing for temporarily fitting
and removing the spare) inside half an hour.

I dont bother to rotate the tyres anymore.

Modern parallelogram jacks don't make it easy because the handle won't
stay extended (it's designed to fold away for storage) and there is so
little ground clearance that I often scrape my knuckles on the ground.

I dont, because mine has a removable handle which is also the supplied
wheel brace, just an L shape. Certainly slow and fiddly initially tho.

I've been toying with the idea of a battery drill kept in the car to
make that more convenient but have decided that its not very likely
that the drill will be charged when I need it every couple of years.

A hexagonal nut on the side, into which you put the wheelbrace, would be
so much better, as you can disconnect the brace and rotate it back from 3
o'clock to 9 o'clock before putting it back on to turn it from 9 to 3 (or
vice versa for lower the jack), for the initial stage when there isn't
enough ground clearance to turn the brace through the lower half of its
rotation.

Or just a normal ratchet socket handle.