52 Things – Learn to change a tire

This was another one of the items that got done during our trip to Big Bear/LA:

My intention with this one was for me to actually change the tire but since I wanted every step, I am going to count it for now because I did learn to change one. I will still plan to change one by myself this year, too and if I do, I’ll come back and edit this.

When we went to Big Bear, our tire was being funny but we added air to it and got on the road. After the three days it sat in the driveway there, it was completely flat. So we had to change it.

As it turned out, we were missing the toolset for it, but thankfully Kendall’s car had what we needed the most. (Kendall and Holly were in Big Bear with us and had rented a car.)

The first thing was to take off the spare. We have a CRV so we had a full-sized spare.

He then unfastened the bolts in the tire (the flat one) one quarter turn and then jacked up the car (you had to find the part under the car that the jack hooks into to make sure the car doesn’t topple over.

After he jacked up the car so the tire was completely off the ground, he took of the bolts and the tire and put the new one on. Then he fastened the bolts (not too tight cause it will break the rim and it will make it hard to remove the next time.) Then we slowly put the car back down and put the flat tire in the place where the spare was sitting and bolted it back and we were pretty much set.

It all sounds easy and Kendall made it look easy but I think it’s pretty hard and I just hope never to have to do it by myself.