
I received a call from a friend one day. She was stranded
with a flat tire and she wanted me to pick her up. When I arrived, she told me
she'd called her husband and he had agreed to change the flat later that day
once his work day was finished. This plan meant that her husband would have to
drive home, pick her up, and drive her back to the car so she could drive it
home. When I suggested that we change the flat ourselves, she looked at me as
if I had two heads.
Why is it that many women think this kind of thing is
"man's work"?
Having grown up in a household of males (I was the only girl
of five kids), I could toss a football, swing a baseball bat, and climb trees
with the best of them. I guess that's why I'm not afraid of tackling jobs that
other women might shy away from. (On the other hand, it could be that I'm just
strange.)
Every woman should know how to change a flat tire. So here
are some simple instructions. You will need: a spare tire, a jack, a lug
wrench—all of these items should be in your trunk.
1. Park on a flat surface and
engage the emergency brake. Think about it. You don't want the car to roll
while you're changing the flat. If it's at all possible, brace the opposite
tire with something heavy (a block of wood, a large rock, a brick, etc). For
example, if your front passenger-side tire is flat, brace the front driver-side
tire.
2. Remove the hubcap. Most
newer-model cars don't have hubcaps, but if your car is older, you'll need to
remove the hubcap so you can access the lug nuts. If your car doesn't have
hubcaps, skip to #3. If you do have hubcaps, use the flat side of the lug
wrench to pry off the hubcap, prying in several locations rather than all in
one spot. Think of the hubcap as a clock face; pry at 9 o'clock and then 3
o'clock, then 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock, then noon. Prying the hubcap off all in one spot might bend the
cap.
3. Loosen the lug nuts.
(Remember! Turn in a counter-clockwise direction. Leftie loosie, rightie
tightie.) This is going to be the most difficult part of the job. Lug nuts are
always TIGHT and it will take all of your strength to loosen them. Use the lug
wrench and physics. Apply pressure to the furthest end of the wrench (as
you would a lever). Loosen but DO NOT REMOVE the lug nuts (yet).
4. Time to jack it up! Check
your owner's manual for proper placement of the jack. Make sure the jack
is firmly connecting with a solid part of your car's frame, the metal
undercarriage, close to the flat tire. Once you've got the jack in place, crank
the handle until the flat tire is lifted off the ground several inches.
5. Remove the lug nuts and
slide off the flat tire. Lay the tire flat on the ground; you don't want it
rolling into traffic (just imagine the screeching brakes, swerving cars,
mayhem!).
6. Line up the holes of the
spare with the bolts on the axle. Don't be surprised if you have to jack up the
car a bit more—the air in the spare will make it taller than the flat tire.
Slide on the spare as far as it will go and then hand-tighten the lug nuts onto
the bolts.
7. Use the lug wrench to
tighten the bolts, and when I say tight, I mean TIGHT! You don't want the
vibration of the car to loosen the bolts.
8. Lower the car and remove the
jack from underneath the car frame. Put everything into the truck: the
jack, the lug wrench, the flat tire, the hubcap.
9. Drive to the nearest car
repair shop or your favorite mechanic. Have the flat tire fixed OR buy a
new tire. You don't want to drive around on the spare as it might cause
road-wear on the other 3 tires. When installing the new/repaired tire, the
mechanic will probably use a compression gun to tighten the lug nuts.
10. Feel proud that you've changed a flat all by
yourself!
I used my flat-tire-fixing experience in a book. In the
opening scenes of
Mountain Laurel, two sisters are driving in the mountains
when they run into trouble--yeah, they have a flat, but the "trouble"
is a sexy forest ranger named Michael Walker who shows up and starts being a
bit bossy. *laughing*
Is this a job you think you can now try to tackle? I sure
hope so! If you've already changed a flat (good for you!!!), do you have any
wild and crazy war stories to share?
~ ~ ~
Donna Fasano is a USA Today Bestselling Author whose books
have sold nearly 4 million copies worldwide. Find her on the internet at her
blog, on
Facebook, and on
Twitter. She loves to hear from her
readers.