Wondering about wild grapes

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Flat Tire

My wife and I went out and got into my Jeep Liberty and was heading out the driveway to go get the mail, etc.  It sounded real funny and felt like it was bouncing over something.  I stopped and got out and looked under it and around it and . . . there it was, the right rear tire was flat, flat, flat.

OK, I have a brand new tire for a spare.  It seemed simple enough to change the tire.  The Jeep had stopped almost out to the road, out of site of our home.  We walked back to the house, my wife stayed there and I got a cold drink of water and a pair of gloves and went back out in the 97 degree heat, and of course the high humidity.  This should have been an easy job, but with the heat and me being way out of shape, it was a lot harder than it should be and took a lot longer, also.

I dug the jack out from under the back seat and put it together.  It had never been used, but today my luck ran out.  I found a place to jack and did so.  Put the jack up about as far as it goes and the tire was still on the ground.  Now, I am soaked in sweat, hot, and not in a good mood.  I went back into the house and got cooled of.  Then back to the job at hand.  This time, I carried out a short piece of a 10x10 that I had sitting on the deck.  This time the jack, sitting on the 10" high piece of wood, put the Jeep up high enough to get the tire off the ground.  The process went smoothly from there on and I drove the Jeep back to the house and went back inside to that wonderful AC coolness.  That, my friends, was about all I could do the rest of the day.  Now, you all have a great evening, you hear? 

14 comments:

  1. I give you all the credit in the world for changing your tire, AND in all that heat and humidity. Please be careful in all this heat and humidity; we don't want to lose you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep, I should stay out of the hot sun. You know someone as sweet as me just might melt (grin).

      Delete
  2. Flat tires are not fun, good thing that it actually happened there and not on the highway. now you keep cool.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, if it has to go flat, it couldn't have been in a better place. Well, yes, it could have been in the shade, but noooo.

      Delete
  3. Not a great time to fix anything outside! But, did you ever get the mail? ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, didn't get the mail. Will try again today, maybe...

      Delete
  4. A can of Fix-A-Flat got me going the last time... just saying...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep, those are good to have in a vehicle, especially when you go off road.

      Delete
  5. Bummer! Of course you get a flat when it's way too hot and humid, or raining, or snow and ice... is there ever a good time? I had a flat on the Scion last summer... drove about a half mile on it before I knew for sure something was wrong. I thought it would just be patched or plugged and good to go... no... since I drove on it, it was trashed and I had to replace it. But, Diz, do you remember having a tire patch kit with little rubber patches, some glue, and those abrasive things on the lid to fix bicycle tires? When I was a kid it seemed I was always dunking an intertube in a bucket of water to find the hole then patching the darned thing. Bet you know what I'm talking about.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh yes, I remember those patches. Used them on car inner tubes also. The inner tubes we used to take to the ole swimming hole had lots of patches on them.

      Delete
  6. August 4, 2016
    Back on the seventeenth I was headed to town for groceries getting about seven miles from Buster the right front tire threw the tread, to be fair I had a thump for a couple of weeks where I was thinking I needed to get the tires balanced. This was late afternoon, and I was able to drive it back to Buster. The next morning it was find the jack and the “compact” spare tire. After an hour I had the jack out and “found where the “compact” spare tire was located. With the temperature of the day building and the thought of then finding replacement tire I decided to splurge on “Road Service”. Road service came the next day with two new tires 68 miles to Buster.

    George

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Many years ago, I also had the tread come off a front tire. Not a fun thing to have happen.

      Delete