Life in Montana: Changing Tires
This article was prompted by some email correspondence I recently had with the best online friend I've ever had. *hugs Oracle really tight*
She lives somewhere in a concrete jungle near LA. I'm not sure exactly where, but there are a lot of highways, and lots of people, and yeah.
So, she tells me a story of a tire blowing out, and the person she was with calls Triple A, and they come and tow the car and etc. I don't want to go into too many details, because that's her story, but hopefully you get the point.
Here's my comments on a typical, similar situation in Montana.
You're driving down the road an get a flat tire. The first thing you do is try to get the vehicle off of the road, or out of traffic areas. In some cases, you might not have to move, because no one will be coming down that street anyway. I personally might try to call someone, (as in my dad,my mom, or a friend or something) I would not call Triple A.
Depending on where I was, or what happened, the following would occur:
Someone I know would probably take pity on me and come help me. In the meantime I would open my trunk, and get out the following: tire iron, spare tire, and jack.
Depending on how long they took, I would attempt to loosen the lug nuts myself. I may even get one loose. When they show up, they will probably get them all loose in like three seconds. (only one second if it is my mom, she's seriously like super woman)
Then, they would jack up the vehicle. I admit to be afraid of this, although I have a feeling they might make me do it anyway. grr. Lets hope I dont get a flat tomorrow.
Then the tire comes off, and the spare goes on. The flat goes in the trunk (which come to think of it, I need to clean out. 'doh!)
So, the truth is, my parents told me that before I could drive (get my license), I needed to know three things.
1. How to change a tire.
2. How to change my oil.
3. How to drive a manual transmission.
This is Montana, sometimes you are a long ways from an "autozone" (we dont have those, we have like napa and checkers)
It is imperative that you know how to change a tire, and at the very least that you have the equipment to do so in your vehicle. You should also have a set of jumper cables, and preferrably, some sort of emergency road kit. (I mean things like a blanket for snow, etc.)
So, anyway, to me, it is very humorous that someone would need to tow their vehicle due to a flat tire. It is just completely unheard of here, and due to the expense of such endeavors, not typically an option. Should a need arise to tow my vehicle, I would again be calling on my parents. I also have gotten quite good at (due to a vehicle I had in college) driving a vehicle that was being pulled by a tow chain. My dad has asked me to go with him to tow other vehicles as a result of our teamwork efforts. (I didn't hit anything, and I was good about not letting the rope slack too much)
My coworker used to live outside of "town" on a 5 mile dirt road. He told me stories of flats. Apparently when they grate the dirt road it turns up all kinds of fun tire toys, and it was pretty often they would get flats from that. Cell phone reception is iffy in such areas.
He recalled some times where his mom called him up to have him come help her change a tire, almost like a routine. They had "mile-markers" on the road so he would know where to find her. (by the old tree, past the s-curve and so forth)
I don't see anyone in the LA area referring to their location based on the landscapes. :P
Montana is at times, a whole different world.
She lives somewhere in a concrete jungle near LA. I'm not sure exactly where, but there are a lot of highways, and lots of people, and yeah.
So, she tells me a story of a tire blowing out, and the person she was with calls Triple A, and they come and tow the car and etc. I don't want to go into too many details, because that's her story, but hopefully you get the point.
Here's my comments on a typical, similar situation in Montana.
You're driving down the road an get a flat tire. The first thing you do is try to get the vehicle off of the road, or out of traffic areas. In some cases, you might not have to move, because no one will be coming down that street anyway. I personally might try to call someone, (as in my dad,my mom, or a friend or something) I would not call Triple A.
Depending on where I was, or what happened, the following would occur:
Someone I know would probably take pity on me and come help me. In the meantime I would open my trunk, and get out the following: tire iron, spare tire, and jack.
Depending on how long they took, I would attempt to loosen the lug nuts myself. I may even get one loose. When they show up, they will probably get them all loose in like three seconds. (only one second if it is my mom, she's seriously like super woman)
Then, they would jack up the vehicle. I admit to be afraid of this, although I have a feeling they might make me do it anyway. grr. Lets hope I dont get a flat tomorrow.
Then the tire comes off, and the spare goes on. The flat goes in the trunk (which come to think of it, I need to clean out. 'doh!)
So, the truth is, my parents told me that before I could drive (get my license), I needed to know three things.
1. How to change a tire.
2. How to change my oil.
3. How to drive a manual transmission.
This is Montana, sometimes you are a long ways from an "autozone" (we dont have those, we have like napa and checkers)
It is imperative that you know how to change a tire, and at the very least that you have the equipment to do so in your vehicle. You should also have a set of jumper cables, and preferrably, some sort of emergency road kit. (I mean things like a blanket for snow, etc.)
So, anyway, to me, it is very humorous that someone would need to tow their vehicle due to a flat tire. It is just completely unheard of here, and due to the expense of such endeavors, not typically an option. Should a need arise to tow my vehicle, I would again be calling on my parents. I also have gotten quite good at (due to a vehicle I had in college) driving a vehicle that was being pulled by a tow chain. My dad has asked me to go with him to tow other vehicles as a result of our teamwork efforts. (I didn't hit anything, and I was good about not letting the rope slack too much)
My coworker used to live outside of "town" on a 5 mile dirt road. He told me stories of flats. Apparently when they grate the dirt road it turns up all kinds of fun tire toys, and it was pretty often they would get flats from that. Cell phone reception is iffy in such areas.
He recalled some times where his mom called him up to have him come help her change a tire, almost like a routine. They had "mile-markers" on the road so he would know where to find her. (by the old tree, past the s-curve and so forth)
I don't see anyone in the LA area referring to their location based on the landscapes. :P
Montana is at times, a whole different world.