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Why does the car come with a jack and other tire changing tools

Discussion in 'Prime Main Forum (2017-2022)' started by EyePrime, Feb 4, 2019.

  1. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    That's a speed-bump in my morning thought train. But yeah, I know what you mean.

    Somehow that doesn't win me over.
     
  2. frodoz737

    frodoz737 Top Wrench

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    Why would you need buy 4 tires for a single flat?
     
  3. Lee Jay

    Lee Jay Senior Member

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    Because the cause of the flat was lack of maintenance. All the tires were at between 1 and 3 32nds, and the tire that went flat wore through on the inside of the tread.
     
  4. frodoz737

    frodoz737 Top Wrench

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    Seeing this was your Wife's car...maybe this is information you should have kept to yourself.
     
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  5. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    Yet, when I place my hand against the sides or top of the tire, I don't feel the hundreds of pounds of car weight pushing back.

    That's because the important force here isn't air pressure, it is gravity, and it pushes down.
    Tired Weight: Math & Mechanics Science Activity | Exploratorium Teacher Institute Project

    While the pressure inside the tire is pushing against all its surface equally, the tire is pushing back, with some help from ambient pressure, with equal force. If it did not, the pressure would pop the tire.

    If the force of gravity, the car's weight, was distributed to the entire tire surface, then the pressure inside the tire would change when on and off the car, and that could be measured. That isn't the case though. When installed on the car, the pressure in the tire stays the same. Instead, gravity pushes down, causing deformation of the round tire where the ground is pushing back against gravity.
     
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  6. Lee Jay

    Lee Jay Senior Member

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    Correct, but for clarity, when we measure tire pressure, what we get is the so-called "gauge pressure" or "psig", which is the pressure difference between the inside and the outside, not the absolute pressure "psia". So, the "help from ambient pressure" is there (obviously, unless you're in space - see the Space Shuttle, X37b and Dream Chaser) but it's accounted for already by the way we measure the pressure. If you want to calculate the inside and outside forces separately, you have to measure psia inside and separately measure psia outside (also called barometric pressure) and do the calculations from there.
     
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  7. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    When swapping all-seasons and snows, my son's always asking if we should hang off checking tire pressure, till the wheels are back on the ground. I don't think there was a lot of difference.
     
  8. EyePrime

    EyePrime Active Member

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    Yeah, but if you want to change your own tires to their winter tires on rims every year shouldn't they buy good propper equipment for their tire changing need (Like Me) instead of risking the car falling or the lug nut being stripped beacause you didn't buy the propper socket.
     
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  9. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    If I had to rotate/switch tires with just the scissor jack I'd lose it.
     
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  10. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i keep a breaker bar (3' pipe) in the back storage area

    the oems scissor jack is an accident waiting to happen

    i'd be shocked if osha has seen it
     
    #70 bisco, Feb 5, 2019
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 5, 2019
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  11. Dave Lane

    Dave Lane New Member

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    We'll, I have been using stock scissors jacks and stock lug wrenches for decades - never had a car fall off yet! The original question asked why include one - changing snow tires is one reason. I don't like doing it either, but up here in the winter wonderland, trying to even get an appointment in November/December to get it done can take a couple of weeks. If a storm is coming, being able to do it yourself is a valid reason to have a jack.

    --- Dave
     
  12. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    And it's a poor scissor jack, if you can believe it: Honda makes one with a simple difference to the torsion bar connection (sheperd's crook? Not sure of the proper name.) that operates so much smoother.

    And guess what: put the scissor jack at the proscribed location, start boosting it up; it is cupping around the pinch weld, actually bearing on the sheet metal directly behind, and will dimple it with a single use. That pinch weld is the same thickness and material, all the way along.

    Rotating over to snow tires with a scissor jack, ugh. I like to lift the front with a floor jack, settle it onto a pair of safety stands (not at the scissor jack locations, but inward a bit, at reinforced/heavy points), so that the wheels are just slightly off the slab. Then repeat at the back. With all four wheels slightly clear, a lot easier.
     
    #72 Mendel Leisk, Feb 5, 2019
    Last edited: Feb 5, 2019
  13. Dave Lane

    Dave Lane New Member

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    Hi Mendel,

    Well I just got my (new) 2018 Prius yesterday and snow tires were on, so guess I'll find out in March how well the jack works :)

    --- Dave

     
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  14. EyePrime

    EyePrime Active Member

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    Exactly what I was trying to say:LOL:
     
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  15. 3PriusMike

    3PriusMike Prius owner since 2000, Tesla M3 2018

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  16. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    You can do it with the emergency jack, and a cheap home set of tools will work when it is all you got. If the job is something you regularly do, then better tools will make it easier.
     
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  17. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I got a 3 ton made-in-China jack at Summit tools, about a decade back on Boxing Day, for $69. A couple of sets-of-four safety stands, 3 ton and 6 ton, around $100 I guess. Heavy rubber wheel chocks, a set of four, also a must. A few sledge hammers, various sizes, and some wood blocks, are good for breaking loose rusted-on wheels.

    Appropriate deep sockets, long handled wrenches, and of course: a torque wrench. Also a few brushes, old tooth brushes, rags, a tub of anti-seize.
     
  18. frodoz737

    frodoz737 Top Wrench

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    Like rotating your own wheels every 4-5,000 miles? What used to be a right of passage...has turned into free WiFi for smartphones at the Service Department.
     
  19. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Yeah it's funny to look at the line up at Mr Lube (as I'm pouring out my used motor oil into their catch tank): everybody sitting looking down at their laps; it's like some near-future science fiction movie.
     
  20. road2cycle

    road2cycle Active Member

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    The same thought crossed my mind today when I pulled out the lug nut wrench and wheel lock socket from the rear before rotating the tires for the first time now that Toyota Care expired on my Prime. If I get a flat on the road there isn’t a spare tire to change out. I’m going to remove the jack and tire changing tools because the tire is either going to get removed by me in my garage or the mechanic in their shop.