When was the last time you changed a tire?

I think the last time was on a drive north from Fairbanks on the dirt road to Prudhoe bay, about 400 miles of dirt road with only 2 gas stations and no towns. I was in a rental car and the flat happened about 25 miles north of the Yukon River bridge, one of the gas stations. The rental car only had one of those small spares, not something I could drive back to Fairbanks on.

I put the small spare on and managed to limp to the Yukon Bridge, they said the tire could not be repaired. So I called National Rental Car and had a long frustrating talk with a rep in Chicago who had no concept where I was. Yukon Bridge is about 150 miles of dirt road from the next service station in Fairbanks. The rep said that National could not authorize a replacement tire that they would get me towed. A tow truck would have had to come out of Fairbanks, taken at least a day, and cost National a fortune. The guy in the shop listened to my end of the conversation and told me he had an old used tire he could put on for $25. The National rep said no, at that point I hung up and just told him to go ahead. I made it into Fairbanks on that old tire.

Rental car companies do not usually allow you to drive that road, but I managed to get a reservation agent, probably in Chicago to ok it and put it into the record before I picked the car up. In the end it didn't matter, but if I had done the tow truck it would have.
 
Based on what I’ve seen and read about the Road Service companies, you can have a long wait before they arrive.
 
The only flat tire I ever had was in 1966 on the highway from Lakeland to Tampa, driving my soon to be mother in law home. Thump, thump, ....un oh, pulled over, and immediately a man pulled over behind us. He called roadside service, and actually drove us back to Tampa, where the Dad went to retrieve the vehicle.
Nowadays, if a guy pulled up that quickly, I'd be locking my doors and windows and calling Subaru Roadside Service fast!
 
IrisSenior said:
Never as I am not strong enough to get the nuts off never mind cranking the jack.
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Once I exited a building with 2 other women. On reaching the parking lot, we found that one of them had a flat tire. To my shock, they set about changing the tire. At one point the two of them were standing on the lug wrench, bouncing up and down to get the nuts off. Seemed pretty dangerous to me.

I truly believe that some things were not designed for women. (We tend to be smaller and to have less upper body strength.) So I try to avoid doing those things.
 
I could never change a tire. I have a block with doing and learning things like that. I'm glad to have AAA and a cell phone.

My last flat was probably 30 years ago. So that's good.
 
2 or 3 yrs ago and i've changed maybe 3-4 in 48 yrs of driving, at least one of those being for another woman, cause she didn't know how. I knew how long before i ever drove, because my Dad made sure his 4 daughters knew how to stuff!
 
NorthernLight said:
Once I exited a building with 2 other women. On reaching the parking lot, we found that one of them had a flat tire. To my shock, they set about changing the tire. At one point the two of them were standing on the lug wrench, bouncing up and down to get the nuts off. Seemed pretty dangerous to me.

I truly believe that some things were not designed for women. (We tend to be smaller and to have less upper body strength.) So I try to avoid doing those things.
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I'm a small woman. I've never been able to change a tire even though I've tried. Standing on the lug wrench and bouncing up and down didn't budge them. They had tightened the lug nuts with an air wrench and it's impossible to get them off without one. I had to call called AAA to change the tire. So be it. That's why I pay them.
 

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