Vehicle prep?

[HaveGun]

Got a reminder tonight about the importance of making sure vehicle preps are adequate. As in making sure you can make a variety of repairs to your vehicle if needed.

Got a call from my girlfriend that she got a warning light saying she had low tire pressure. She was still at work (works in the aviation department for a private corporation at their hangar). She looked at her left front tire and found a large bolt in it. I was at work a few miles away, so drove out there to help her. She had pulled on the ramp near a large floodlight so we had plenty of room to work in a well-lit area. She had already retrieved her doughnut spare from the compartment.

I verified that the tire did indeed have a large bolt in it and that putting slime in it was not a good idea. So I went to my handy dandy tote chest full of preps in the back of my 4Runner and first grabbed some work gloves, then a lug nut wrench, and then looked for the brand new bottle jack I had purchased. Uh, oh. Forgot to put it in there. So, grabbed the factory bottle jack out of it's storage thing and proceeded to change her tire. She soon complained that her hands were cold and if I had any extra gloves. It was 32 degrees and windy. I had 5 pairs of gloves in my tote, lol. Gave her a pair and said to keep them in her car.

When I went to put the spare on, I noticed it seemed a little low. Went to get a tire pressure gauge and realized I didn't have one. So I dug out my power pack with the built in compressor and gauge and hooked it up. Tire was only at 20 psi. Fired up the compressor and pumped up the spare.

Overall, was able to change the tire pretty easily, but realized I needed a few more things. I have those heavy-duty carpet squares that I got from when my company replaced carpet in one of the buildings. Those things are about 1/2" thick with rubber on one side and carpet on the other. I use them all the time when working in my garage for padding to lay on. I should have had a couple in my rig for tonight. My left side is still chilled from laying on frozen concrete.

So, I'll throw in some carpet squares, a tire gauge, the bottle jack, some tire slime, and it reminded me that my factory spare won't work since I went up in tire sizes when I lifted my vehicle. Time to upgrade the spare.

So, girlfriend is home and will go to the tire shop to see if they can plug her tire in the morning. Not sure if they can save it...

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[Reacher120]

I now carry a "good" tubeless plug kit (not Harbor Freight) in all our cars, along with a small 12v air pump. I have a couple tires with plugs I put in two+ years ago, never had a problem.
I do keep an eye on them though... this bolt hole is probably too big without an internal patch, may not even work then..
I also carry 3-4 of the same carpet squares in each car, one of the local Restores have them every few months.

 

[USMC1911]

Pretty good size bolt and judging by the wear its been in there a minute.

 

[oremike]

Over the years at various times I couldn't be help for my wife in a timely manor so we got AAA Plus.

 

[revjen45]

"Over the years at various times I couldn't be help for my wife in a timely manor so we got AAA Plus."
AAA is worth what it costs. Obviously, it's not to be considered as an option for SHTF, but until then it rocks!
I will be upgrading to RV+ when we get the sidecar on the road.

 

[Camelfilter]

Over the years at various times I couldn't be help for my wife in a timely manor so we got AAA Plus.

Yup!

Back at my truck in long term parking PDX after a heck of a long travel day. I had remote started it, nice and toasty was going round knocking the ice chunks off ...guy comes sauntering up and asks if I'd mind giving his car a jump.

I had just put a new battery in a bit before the trip, got it on a super spscial, but wrong terminals/oversized. Had to fiddle with the instal etc.

Was so tired from the trip, without thinking told the guy "can't, the poles are reversed on it"...

 

[edzz]

"Over the years at various times I couldn't be help for my wife in a timely manor so we got AAA Plus."
AAA is worth what it costs. Obviously, it's not to be considered as an option for SHTF, but until then it rocks!
I will be upgrading to RV+ when we get the sidecar on the road.

AAA is a good approach. Being generally cheep a few years ago we decided to cancel our AAA membership. After all our regular insurance policy provides towing, lock out, jumps, etc.. don't ya know.
What we learned using those "benefits" bumped our insurance rates as each "benefit" use was viewed as an "incident". Would have been cheaper to maintain AAA or deal with the issue ourselves.

 

[HaveGun]

AAA is a good approach. Being generally cheep a few years ago we decided to cancel our AAA membership. After all our regular insurance policy provides towing, lock out, jumps, etc.. don't ya know.
What we learned using those "benefits" bumped our insurance rates as each "benefit" use was viewed as an "incident". Would have been cheaper to maintain AAA or deal with the issue ourselves.

It's pretty much common knowledge that using your T&L coverage a couple of times a year has no effect on your rate. But if you are needing an excessive amount of tows, jump starts, lockout service, etc, then it can begin to affect rates.

Sounds like your household is better served with a service specifically marketed for helping you out on a regular basis.

 

[solv3nt]

I remember back in the day during drivers ed, the question was asked on what tire is the worst for a blowout. My sarcastic butt said the spare, which elicited laughs. All kidding aside, your spare tire is no good if it is empty.

 

[Certaindeaf]

AAA is a good approach. Being generally cheep a few years ago we decided to cancel our AAA membership. After all our regular insurance policy provides towing, lock out, jumps, etc.. don't ya know.
What we learned using those "benefits" bumped our insurance rates as each "benefit" use was viewed as an "incident". Would have been cheaper to maintain AAA or deal with the issue ourselves.

Yea, I found that out like 10 years after the fact on a fluke with my agent.. got a $1000 tow with my insurance and never heard a peep about it till he was extremely surprised I wasn't canceled for it.

 

[Kruel J]

I just pulled a decent sized screw out of my left rear tire this morning. I have fairly aggressive off road tires and luckily it only went into one of the lugs. I yanked it not knowing if it had actually punctured the tire.....luckily it didn't.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Speaking of jacks and stuff, I put some short lengths of 2x8's on my rig to prevent the jack from just disappearing into the asphalt.
A shovel of some sort is also a good idea.

 

[JohnnyMac]

So, girlfriend is home and will go to the tire shop to see if they can plug her tire in the morning. Not sure if they can save it...

If you're taking it in, I'd have them patch it vice a plug. Plugs aren't bad, but they are considered temporary fixes. Great story BTW and funny because 3 days ago I found a nail in my tire as well. I keep a plug kit in the truck now so just plugged it myself. My dad used to carry around a small box of various sized screws and some tire glue in the truck. He said the best plug for a screw in your tire is a bigger screw....and it worked quite well. While in Kodiak, Alaska, I had a set of Firestones on my rig and all four tires had plugs. One had 22 plugs in it that's how bad the back roads were (and how bad Firestones were). Still held air fine, but I finally replaced the tires with a good set of 'Merican made Coopers and never had another puncture. Dad's fix with a bigger screw and some glue got me back to civilization many a time though so I do keep a few in my truck as well....

**EDIT** That looks like a toilet closet bolt. If so, that's a chitty puncture right there...

 

[Bobbygun]

I check the tires on all of our vehicles every month or two. I learned the hard way to check all of the tires - including the spares. I got a flat on I-5, pulled over and put the spare on. My son asked: "Did you screw up and put the flat back on instead of the spare?" Doooh! Managed to limp into Cottage Grove at low speed.

I use a gauge too. The old "pound it with the palm of your hand" doesn't cut it. When I had a pickup tire go really low, I took it off and took it to the tire store. Off of the pickup it felt just fine, despite having only 12 psi on my gauge. The tire guys couldn't find a leak and thought it was okay. When I said: "You do realize it only had 12 pounds in it?", they looked genuinely surprised. They took it into the back, remounted it, gave it a new valve stem, cleaned the rim, etc. and I haven't had a problem with it since. Still no idea why it went low. I was hauling firewood, but I've hauled quite a bit of firewood since with no problems.

 

[cigars]

Over the years at various times I couldn't be help for my wife in a timely manor so we got AAA Plus.

Check your auto insurance policies. Often they offer Roadside assistance/towing as part of the policy.

 

[Knobgoblin]

Pretty good size bolt and judging by the wear its been in there a minute.

" a woman will drive for 2 years on a flat tire"
Daniel Tosh

Misogyny not mine , but it is funny

 

[Ura-Ki]

YUGE fan of AAA for towing and other services, well worth the money spent! I blew the rear end out of my Sprinter yesterday and called AAA to come tow it to the shop that had just did the work 700 miles ago! I have lost count of the times I have had to use their services, and they are worth it!

 

[v0lcom13sn0w]

id drive it on the rim vs change the tire myself

 

[cigars]

YUGE fan of AAA for towing and other services, well worth the money spent! I blew the rear end out of my Sprinter yesterday and called AAA to come tow it to the shop that had just did the work 700 miles ago! I have lost count of the times I have had to use their services, and they are worth it!

Amex used to have free Roadside. You got something like six free tows per year. One year I used it four times, it was great. Then all of a sudden they did away with it. I found that out when I needed to get my daughters car towed back home. That cost me $150. Then I happened to be on my insurance website and I saw that they had free Roadside (Amica). Dooh! Long story short, it's on speed dial on all of our phones now.
Pics of the Tahoe tow-of-shame. Once for a failed transmission and once for a blown out rear end.

 

[Certaindeaf]

id drive it on the rim vs change the tire myself

The world revolves around me so this doesn't even make sense.




lol