People around the world often have car trouble, whether an accident or just an internal problem. You may not know how to handle some of those situations but what most people must know is how to change a flat tire. It may not be as simple as people think but if you have the right tools it would save you the stress and trouble. If you ever happen to get into a blow out or a flat tire scenario, you should always make sure that you are away from traffic. Drive slowly to the shoulder of the road and make sure you park the car. In order to change a tire, one needs the right equipment, knowledge, and skills.
In the back of most cars should be 4 of the most important pieces of equipment you will need to successfully change a tire. These include a jack, lug wrench, metal stick, and your spare tire. First, get the jack and place it on the side of the car that has the flat. If you look carefully underneath the car, there should be a direct placement of where you can put the jack to elevate the car correctly to a safe position. Depending on what kind of jack you have you might not need the metal stick. Otherwise, use the metal stick and poke it through the hole of the jack to be able to turn it.
Once the car I elevated to the point where the flat tire is completely off of the ground, you can now use the lug wrench to untighten the screws (lugs) off the tire. Once this is accomplished, you may take the flat tire off and put on the spare with the lugs being screwed back on its original place. Make sure that you screw the lugs with the same amount of turns because this way the spare will be more aligned with the rest of the wheels. Afterwards, you may use the metal jack (if needed) to turn the jack in the opposite direction, thus lowering the car until the tire is completely rested upon the ground.
This completes the final process of changing a flat tire. There are many precautions to take when changing a flat tire such as the danger of cars driving by so close to the shoulder of the road at a high speed. So one of the things you may have to pay attention to is how close your body is to the side of the road when changing the tire. After the flat tire is changed to a spare, you must drive slowly with the emergency signal light on so as to warn others behind you that your car is in need of assistance.
A flat tire cannot last for more than at least a few miles, so make sure a gas station is nearby where you can ask for further assistance such as calling a tow truck to help you. Even though these steps are quite easy to accomplish and work through, changing a flat tire can become a very tedious task where several precautions should definitely be taken seriously. But when a person has went through this once, they shall never forget the experience and will be able to work at it easily if the flat tire scenario ever comes up again.
