Make Your Own Tire Changing Tool
I got old and I got weak. Bummer. But between my ears has not eroded. So I had to substitute brains for brawn...and on a strict budget... Breaking lug nuts has become daunting. Especially those tha...
Forum Discussion
Standing on a breaker bar is not very safe at least for me. But Jesús snapped off the tang on a nearly new Harbor Freight breaker bar just like the one in the picture. The square prong was OK, the swivel pin was bent and then snapped.
I had a flat tire fixed on the toad last week. The tire man was señor gorilla, incarnate. With a truck cross four way lug wrench, he tightened lubricated lug nuts until they squealed "SKAREEEEEEEEK!"
Maybe I can find a 3/4" drive breaker bar, impact extension, and black impact socket. Have the welder across the street tack weld the breaker bar straight, and tack on the extension and socket. That way the bar cannot swivel. Puzzle out how to make a magnetic plate with handle for the top of the toad. Something to steady up with and not really to grab.
This area is remote. For 75 miles not even a barbed wire fence. Sometimes hours go by with no cars. At night it's even more desolate. To add insult to injury summer daytime temps can climb to 110F.
I'm trying my best. New Michelin tires are going on the front of the car. A 2 ton 12-volt electric scissors jack is waiting for me up north. But I would feel comfortable sorting out the tools issue before the trip. Once I cross the border it's like a Keystone Cops melee. Me, the doctors, frantic shopping, and avoiding almost total traffic jams morning and afternoons. I get jabbed, stabbed, drained, probed, and my personal wheels come-off around 3:00PM Pooped. If I show up without a plan the stuff never gets done.
BTW Quicksilver has a one-inch-drive Ingersoll Rand impact wrench driven off the bus air system. I can no longer even lift the impact but there is somebody always around back home. Here, it's a tiny toad, a Samlex 300 watt inverter and not much else. I am planning to use the original car jack as a back up support underneath as fiddling with it is easy as long as I don't have to lift the car.
With this stupid herniated disc I can't even bend way over. To change tires, I spread a mini tarp, sit down and use a 24" spoon end pry bar to lift the tiny 195x70x14" tires. The welder made a loop on the end so the tire does not roll off. Hah! standing back up is a real zoo.
I hate all this nonsense rigamarole but what can I do? Outsmart it, is the only thing I can come up with.
I had a flat tire fixed on the toad last week. The tire man was señor gorilla, incarnate. With a truck cross four way lug wrench, he tightened lubricated lug nuts until they squealed "SKAREEEEEEEEK!"
Maybe I can find a 3/4" drive breaker bar, impact extension, and black impact socket. Have the welder across the street tack weld the breaker bar straight, and tack on the extension and socket. That way the bar cannot swivel. Puzzle out how to make a magnetic plate with handle for the top of the toad. Something to steady up with and not really to grab.
This area is remote. For 75 miles not even a barbed wire fence. Sometimes hours go by with no cars. At night it's even more desolate. To add insult to injury summer daytime temps can climb to 110F.
I'm trying my best. New Michelin tires are going on the front of the car. A 2 ton 12-volt electric scissors jack is waiting for me up north. But I would feel comfortable sorting out the tools issue before the trip. Once I cross the border it's like a Keystone Cops melee. Me, the doctors, frantic shopping, and avoiding almost total traffic jams morning and afternoons. I get jabbed, stabbed, drained, probed, and my personal wheels come-off around 3:00PM Pooped. If I show up without a plan the stuff never gets done.
BTW Quicksilver has a one-inch-drive Ingersoll Rand impact wrench driven off the bus air system. I can no longer even lift the impact but there is somebody always around back home. Here, it's a tiny toad, a Samlex 300 watt inverter and not much else. I am planning to use the original car jack as a back up support underneath as fiddling with it is easy as long as I don't have to lift the car.
With this stupid herniated disc I can't even bend way over. To change tires, I spread a mini tarp, sit down and use a 24" spoon end pry bar to lift the tiny 195x70x14" tires. The welder made a loop on the end so the tire does not roll off. Hah! standing back up is a real zoo.
I hate all this nonsense rigamarole but what can I do? Outsmart it, is the only thing I can come up with.
