Commentary
I replaced the
factory original tires at 49,200 miles, almost exactly two years
from the day we purchased the vehicle. The tires were
evenly worn with about 1/32 of tread life left before the wear
bars wore even with the tread surface.
I might have
let them go another couple weeks. But Maria called me one
afternoon to report that the tire pressure monitor was reporting
a rapid decline in pressure in one tire. I urged her to
find a landing zone and park the vehicle, which she did.
When I arrived,
the tire was flat and a piece of sharp gray stone was protruding
from the tire. I popped the rear hatch and fished out the
jack and lug wrench. This was the beginning of a four-hour
debacle that ended with a broken factory lug wrench, broken
Craftsman socket, broken Popular Mechanics ratchet, and two
rounded lug nuts!
A month earlier
the dealer had installed new rotors. It seems that when
they did, some genius put the lug nuts back on the vehicle with
an impact wrench. That by itself isn't a problem if done
properly using a torque stick to set the proper tension.
We'll never know for sure...
I started by
attempting to loosen the lug nuts. It's always easier to
do this with the vehicle on the ground. Once loosened a
little, the vehicle may be jacked up and the lug nuts fully
loosened and removed. I was not so lucky. The first
lug nut was very tight. So I applied more force to the lug
wrench and the paint flaked off. That didn't surprise me,
I attributed it to the newness of the lug wrench - we'd never
used it. But when the wrench started to twist like a
Toosie-Roll, I became concerned. This was certainly not
normal. When at last the end of the lug wrench twisted
clean-off, I knew it was going to be a long afternoon.
I took Maria
home and picked up my tools - a 3/8 ratchet and 3/4" socket, and
my long piece of pipe that always works well as a breaker bar.
I drove back to the Jeep and got busy. I slipped the
socket onto the lug nut, put the pipe onto the socket, and gave
it a twist. "CRACK!". I took a look and found that
the socket had split! Wisely I had brought along another
socket so with some dismay, tried it. "BOING!" The
ratchet fell to pieces!.
Now I am big
and tall but make no mistake, I am not a body builder. I
know how to apply force and use leverage. And in doing so
had broken all the tools in my array that would get these lug
nuts off. So I got back in the car and drove to Sears and
purchased for permanent storage in the Jeep Commander a
long-handled ratchet and 3/4" socket, then drove back to the
Jeep. This time I would not be denied.
And this time I
got the lug nuts loosened. But not before two of them,
with their cursed stainless-steel jackets all galled up.
Finally, I jacked up the vehicle, dropped the spare from the
under-vehicle storage location, removed the tire from the
vehicle and installed the spare. Four hours and three
trips later, and I was finally done.
During the
encounter, I called the dealer and tried to appeal to their
sense of customer service to send someone out with an impact
wrench to get me through this. Instead they suggested
towing, a breaker bar, or bring it by when you figure it out.
It took every fiber of my being to remind myself that being
hostile, antagonistic, confrontational, and rude would not get
me any satisfaction. But I sorely wanted to unleash the
fury of Hades. Managing not to be a jerk paid dividends
later.
The following
week I brought the vehicle to the dealer. When I got to
the service counter I quietly gave my name, and lightly set the
destroyed lug wrench on the counter. The message was very
clear. Here was a brand new tool, cleanly split in two,
with not a speck of rust. The paint that had not flaked
off was still shining like a new car. The service manager
knew who I was. I asked to have the four new tires I had
being holding to be installed, the damaged lugs to be replaced,
the vehicle to be inspected, the washer bottle we had ordered to
be installed, and the lug wrench to be replaced. I also
left instructions for the factory-supplied spare to remain in
the position I put it and for the four tires to be mounted on
the remaining wheels and spare position. The service
manager was very cordial and considering my short notice request
for an appointment, very accommodating.
When I arrived
to pick up the vehicle, my requests had been fulfilled to the
letter. The tires had been mounted and balanced for no
charge, and the remaining items completed as requested.
This was a satisfactory outcome to what was otherwise a real
pain.
With all this I
almost forgot to comment about my selection of tires. It's
rare for me to stay with the factory original tires. But I
found that these tires gave us great service, long mileage, and
we never had any problems with winter traction or wet handling.
I wanted to get something "cool" but in the end the value of
these tires really compelled me to buy them and install them as
before. Given that I have become accustomed to
high-performance tires providing less than 20,000 miles of
service, these are wildly long lasting in comparison.
They're not going to win any prizes in the woods but as can be
seen from this site, that has not been the road often traveled
with this vehicle...
The rest of
this write-up contains pictures of the tires installed, the
specs for the tires, and some general info.
11/6/2011
Time for tires
again. (90,000 miles). This time I decided to opt for a
tire better suited to snow.
Fortera
TripleTred(Highway
All-Season)
