Helpful Ideas for Alaskan Travels

Donh1 wrote:
I'm new to this but I have an important thing that is a must do before leaving home. Make yourself very familiar with your jack and spare tire. If you have aluminum rims be sure that they are properly greased between the rim and Axle. The aluminum and steel tend to corrode together and are almost impossible to get off at roadside. The best thing to do is to physically satisfy yourself that you are able to do the tire change both for your truck and trailer. You may discover that you will need an extentsion on your lug wrench just to undo the wheel nuts. Better to sort this out in your driveway rather than on the side of the Alaska highway.

One of my tires leaked down while in my driveway. I decided to pull the tire myself and take it back to the tire store rather than drag the FW. The store is on a narrow side street with a very small parking lot.

I couldn't get the lugs loose. I was a mechanic for many years and I'm a big guy. I used an impact wrench and when that didn't work I tried a breaker bar and a three foot long pipe. I bent both the pipe and the breaker bar. I finally gave up and took the FW back to the shop. I can't believe they managed to tighten the lugs that tight without damaging the stud.