On my way home tonight (well, last night technically--it's late) from the SDForum Audio Search event, I managed to get a flat tire in highway 87. I got off one exit short of the one I'd normally take to get home.
A quick call to AAA yielded a tow truck 20 minutes later. Rather than tow me home so that I could deal with changing it in the daylight and out of the traffic (that was my plan), we moved the car about 1/4 mile and the guy just did it on the spot.
Kick ass!
Now I've gotta deal with getting the blown tire repaired. It looks like I ran over a small nail or metal sliver on the way past some of the major construction that's been going on the widen the highway.
I guess with the Citabria engine trouble earlier, this hasn't been my day for transportation.
Oh, check out Yahoo! Instant Search. Someone's been playing Ajax on our search page.
Posted by jzawodn at September 15, 2005 12:45 AM
Wait a minute, you called a mechanic out to fix a flat tyre?
I've had two blown tires in the past two months. The first time, Good Year was able to patch the hole, and save my tire - the second time I had to buy a new tire - which was around $80.
Either way, I became used to changing a flat tire (on my own). Now I think I could do it in the daylight, or dark - not that I want to be tested on those thoughts, but you get the idea.
(I probably just jynxed myself)
Dude, you can fly a glider, fly a prop plane, build mySql clusters like it ain't no thing, but you can't change your own tire?
I'm disappointed.
Put a can of Fix-a-Flat in your trunk!
BTW, I got stuck in Las Vegas for about a day with a similar magneto problem... on a Mooney 231, which has pressurized magnetos -- had to be flown in from LA. Was tempting to just go... but the FBO was repainting one of the gear doors because the line guy had taxied us over a loose tie-down cable that had caught on it. There's just no end of things that can go wrong. It was tempting to head home, but...
WTF?
Did I not say that my plan was to get towed home so that I could change it in the daylight and out of the traffic?
The tow truck driver (not a mechanic) said "I can pu the spare on faster than I can get you hooked up and tow you home..." so I was't gonna say no.
But, hey... believe whatever you want I guess. Your version or what really happened. It's a free country (or used to be).
Instant search seems to sputter on the second or third term in the search?
For example, if you type "laptops under $1500", the instant part of the search is only on the first work. If you type "cricket scores for england", it dies out on the third term?
AAA is good for more than tires (which i tend to just deal with myself)...i had a battery die when i went to pick up some take out food a few months ago. no guys, this is not one of those problems you can just macho your way out of at 9pm on a saturday. AAA gave me a charge and a very competitive rate to replace it in my own driveway the next day. right there the yearly fee paid for itself.
by the way jeremy your first thought of waiting until the next day to change it in the daylight was wrong. leaving a car on a flat overnight can warp the axle, depending on the weight of the vehicle, if you park it on a surface that is not near-flat etc. you were right to let the AAA dude fix it.
Discount Tire - free tire repair. If the place you bought your tires from doesn't offer this, then, well, they suck.
http://www.discounttire.com
> i had a battery die when i went to pick up some take out food a few months ago. no guys, this is not one of those problems you can just macho your way out of at 9pm on a saturday.
Sure it is. Get a jump and drive home on the alternator's power.
> by the way jeremy your first thought of waiting until the next day to change it in the daylight was wrong. leaving a car on a flat overnight can warp the axle, depending on the weight of the vehicle, if you park it on a surface that is not near-flat etc. you were right to let the AAA dude fix it.
No to mention the rims.
>> Get a jump and drive home on the alternator's power.
are you from 1950? your average fellow citizen has about as much interest in loaning you battery juice as they do loaning you their credit card.
and to be honest i do not want my fellow citizens bothering me for juice, they should be civil enough to have their own AAA membership. my engine area is filthy, i have no desire to muck around in there at night.
not to mention those times when batteries fail and there is no one around.
Wow, what hard-core area do you live in? Requesting/giving a jump or other help is no big inconvenience. Now, *that's* civil. Hopefully people in your area can be bothered to at least not run over accident victims that get in the way. Unbelievable.
Mucking around in the engine compartment? Hooking up jumpers is about as difficult as checking the oil, filling washer fluid, etc. But I guess today's "busy", car-ignorant people can't be bothered.
oh i can tell you with certainty that 98% of drivers do not know how to jump a car, and that 95% do not even carry jumpers
be honest, are there jumpers in your car? i have them but never have used them, our other car doesn't even have them
but if you would rather roll the dice given these odds to save $39 for a AAA membership...well, enjoy walking!
I think those numbers are rather high. And, yes, I do have jumpers - and a bunch of other tools and car-related stuff - in my trunk, which have tremendously helped me from time to time, saved me and other drivers I've helped from waiting around for AAA or whomever else, and paying $39/year. Still, $39/year (I thought it was higher last I checked) aint bad - there's no getting around needing a tow when big stuff breaks - like a timing belt.
grumpY!'s not too far off.
A few years ago I had the...pleasure? of seeing a guy blow the caps off a battery by attaching the cables wrong.
I think, in addition to people being a little more "mind your own business" (depending on your area) they're also kind of afraid to damage someone else's car just by trying to help.
On a related note, I was shocked that one of my coworkers didn't know how to bump-start his motorcycle, when his battery died, so go fig.
One word, Ultraseal. Fix flats before they happen. No joke.
Fixing a flat tyre became my problem last month.Being a newbie,i don't know much of technical fixes and my dad always guide me doing it.When it happen in the middle of the road,i was lucky that someone help me out to fix it.
