"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...
- 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.

Easier to squat down than to sit on the ground - and less likely to get a
wet or dirty bum! Also easier to move around - eg to pivot to one side to
put the tyre on the ground and then to pick up the new tyre and pivot back
round to offer it up to the hub.


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.

Nor me, except that when I bought a new (second hand) car, its front tyres
were a lot more worn than the back ones (though still within the legal
range) so I swapped them round to have more tread on the front driving
wheels.

Since then, I've gone through several sets of tyres and I've never had the
front ones wear down so much compared with the back ones, and they've always
lasted a lot longer than 18,000 miles which is what the car had done when I
bought it. I'm not sure how the front tyres came to be so worn in that
distance.

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.

Yes, that would be even better. Do they make sockets for the range of wheel
nuts used on most cars?