Spare Tire

Hey all! I apologize, I'm still as green as summer peas as owning a deuce is concerned (and pretty green at working on vehicles in general), but I'm just trying to make sure I'm prepared for a road-side flat.


I'm just wondering what everyone uses to lower their spare tire with? I saw a video where the fellow welded a water valve wheel to a matching socket and could just "turn the wheel" to raise or lower his spare. I thought that was pretty slick.

Also, what do ya'll use to lift the axle? Just a 20 ton bottle jack? I'm concerned that it just won't have the reach though.

Oh, and what about actually removing the lug-nuts? Just a long break-over bar?


Thanks in advance!


(oh, and for ya picture aficionados, just take a look at my profile, that's the big girl)

Edit:
And another question I suppose I'll ask at the same time to prevent starting 2 threads.

I was interested at sometime in the next year perhaps going to super singles. Particularly, I thought the 46" tall Michelin XML 395/85-R20 looked great! See bottom of the page here:

100Dollarman - Tires!

I'm just wondering if anyone can share their experience using them, or provide further insight to the green addicted greeny!

• Clearance?
  • Steering from lock to lock?
  • Travel room for on/off road?
• How's the handling? Mine's manual steer, would these tires make that worse?
• Would I need new wheels?
• (for the rear tires) If I used the current "stock" wheels, which way is it better to orient the wheel? (as the inside or outside wheel is on the dually?)
  • Will I need to consider flipping the hub?
• Etc?

Thanks!

I have to put someting under the bottle jack to fully left the axle off the ground. (I need a taller/better jack)

I suspected as much! I'm not too big stacking like that, or on carrying an 8x8 (or whatever I'd need).

What if the flat is one of the tires in the duallies in the rear? If I was empty (i.e.: no load) could I not change the flat and just limp home? I can understand that it might depend on the tire damage...

I use the bottle jack that is in the BII to lift, and the supplied tire irons to lower the spare.

What's a BII? I'm envious of your supplied tire irons, my truck didn't come with any irons so I'll have to put something together...

Welcome to the wonderful world of deuces.
Basic Issue Items. You can download the manuals for your truck in the resources section and the TM 9-2320-361-10 manual has the BII in the back.

http://old.steelsoldiers.com/index.php?module=pagesetter&tid=1&page=9

Valence said:

I suspected as much! I'm not too big stacking like that, or on carrying an 8x8 (or whatever I'd need).

What if the flat is one of the tires in the duallies in the rear? If I was empty (i.e.: no load) could I not change the flat and just limp home? I can understand that it might depend on the tire damage...

Click to expand...

If the flat is on the outside tire, you can ride up on a 4x4 or 6x6 to get the tire off the ground then cahnge as normal.

You can use a breaker bar or look for a geared lug wrench which wil make life a little easier.

what ever you use letting the spare down, be careful! i read a post on here a while back where a guy got stitches in his head because the breaker bar got away from him while cranking it down, i have'nt taken mine down yet but i watched a friend of mine do it, loosen the nuts on top of the spare, flip the crank latch,rotate the spare so that the nut's fall through the holes, and move the **** out of the way! pretty sure the crank is for cranking the spare up, not down.

i watched a friend of mine do it, loosen the nuts on top of the spare, flip the crank latch,rotate the spare so that the nut's fall through the holes, and move the **** out of the way! pretty sure the crank is for cranking the spare up, not down.

Click to expand...

The accepted way to let the spare down is to in fact use the lug wrench and long metal bar and let it down slowly....letting the bar go and have the tire drop is a good way to get fitted for false teeth when the bar smacks you in the face if you are too slow about getting out of the way.

The long bar will give you enough leverage to let it down slowly and safely.....have I let one or more of them freefall when I was in the Army....yep...but I was a lot younger and dumber.

Ref lug nuts.....my weapon of choice is a 1" impact wrench if I am at the shop.

Out on the road I use a 1" breaker bar with a cheater pipe made out of a 4 foot section of aluminum pipe (actually a section of camo net support pole).

If you are jacking up on a hard surface and you have a big bottle jack you should be able to jack any axle up just by screwing out the adjustable riser.

On soft surfaces you need a wide flat piece of metal or thick wood to support the jack.

As stated above to change out a rear outside you can drive up on a piece of wood.....if the inside tire is fully inflated you can use a 2x4....if it is soft you may need a 4x4.

Having a large tire iron will help you get the tire on the drum.....roll the tire up on the end of the iron and line it up....lift the bar up and it will go on easy....to take it off back up to it and lift and pull it off.

Remember the drivers side lugnuts are left hand threads.....opposite of normal lugnuts.

The real booger is when you have to break the tire off the rim by hand......that is a thread all its own.

If you are well heeled you can just take it to the local big rig tire shop.

*****
So sort of a 5 year later thread update:

I was inspired by this video (I'm sure most of you have seen) of using an old water valve wheel to raise and lower the spare tire:
http://youtu.be/atYOye_gpC8

Those water valve wheels were fairly hard for me to find (I just used eBay until one with workable center dimensions came up - or who's seller actually responded to my inquiry).

Mine's not quite as elegant, but it disassembles nicely and does store in the tool box under the driver's side door. The parts (minus the wheel) go in an ammo box too.

Yes, I just squashed a 1" square steel tube to fit in the 15/16" wheel center and the 1" adapter to the 3/4" socket. For reference, the wheel is ~12.5" in diameter and the square tube is 6.5" in length.

Coincidentally, my wheel is also blue.



(From the angle of the last picture, it may look as if the blue valve wheel is touching the spare tire, but it is far from it.)

In a pinch you can limp the truck home and not risk working on the truck on the side of the road or in the dark. The saying goes that you have 5 spares when you run duals.

I agree with DJones, replacing tires and a few rims is way cheaper than today's funeral prices! I used to tow for a living, it is never safe to play mechanic on the side of a highway! Limp to the next exit and find a parking lot! As for changing the tire and spare, use the TM as said, everything in it, is a drivers job. The -10 last two numbers is your bible as an operator! Any other number is when you put on your mechanic hat! You can look on your dataplate on the dash to see your exact truck model, then the covers of the TM will tell you which model they cover! Most TM's cover many models!

Thanks guys for your helpful responses, but actually see my last post at the end of page one, which was actually the update to this 5-year old thread

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?55919-Spare-Tire&p=1718461&viewfull=1#post1718461

Not to derail what I resurrected this thread for, but actually your comments made me think of a question. The saying of "five spares on a dually" in particular.

If you were to use any of those duals as a spare, you obviously must have the inner tires in place, but (and here's the question) would you need to "balance" the axle? Meaning if you do not have an outer on one side, should you remove the outter from the other?

Valence said:

Not to derail what I resurrected this thread for, but actually your comments made me think of a question. The saying of "five spares on a dually" in particular.

If you were to use any of those duals as a spare, you obviously must have the inner tires in place, but (and here's the question) would you need to "balance" the axle? Meaning if you do not have an outer on one side, should you remove the outter from the other?

Click to expand...

No, you would be just fine with one tire on one side and 2 on the other, no worries.