How To Guard Against Flat Tyre

Road Safety By Jonas Agwu

How would you feel if you planned to leave very early in the morning for work or embark on a trip but on entering your car, you discover you have a flat tyre? How would again feel if besides the flat tyre , you also discover that your spare tyre is down too while your jack is faulty and because it is still early in the morning, there is no vulcanizer to help fix the problem. You can imagine your frustration!

Now, let us suppose that you have the above situation when you have already driven out and in an isolated/ dangerous spot and perhaps in the night or while it is raining? What if it happens to a medical personnel on an emergency or a couple on the way to their wedding? What if it is a school bus conveying children to/ from school and the driver leaves the children there in search of a vulcanizer? What if it happened to an ambulance conveying a sick person or road crash victim whose life depends on how fast treatment is administered or to even a security patrol vehicle on an emergency assignment? What if it happens to a lady and she is all alone? Situate this ugly experience happening in a deserted area where your safety and or the safety of your loved ones are not guaranteed? What if this happened to a learner driver or to a drunk driver?

The above scenario is no mere supposition or fiction. It happens every day and it could happen to you even if your tyres are just out from the factory and filled with the best tyre sealant in the world! I must confess that I have had my own personal experience along the Lekki express in Lagos State .It is saner for me to skip sharing the pain and anguish this caused me which made me miss a very vital appointment. The cause could be either a tiny puncture or a leaking valve stem. So how can you save your time, life and valuables in the event of such happening to you? There is only one way: ensure you always carry a compact tyre inflator that you can power from the cigarette lighter of your vehicle to pump the flat tyre.

How can the inflator save your time? T o answer this question, let us consider the steps you need to take to change to a spare tyre; see how much time this will take and then compare these with the steps you need to take to utilize the tyre inflator and see how much time involved. Let’s number the various steps needed to change to a spare tyre so we can get a clearer picture of what is involved. The first step is that ( 1) you will need to bring out your jack ( hoping it works) and secondly the nut driver ( spanner) or ratchet. The third is that you will need to bring out your spare tyre. This may not be easy depending on where and how it is stored in your vehicle and you could also be unfortunate to discover that the spare tyre is equally flat since most people hardly check to see the condition of the spare before driving.

The third step is that if you do not have wheel blocks in your vehicle, you will need to look around for something you can use to block the two tyres (front and back) farthest from the flat tyre so as to prevent the vehicle from rolling as you jack it up. The fifth step is that you need to remove the hub cap first before you can have access to the wheel nuts. The wheel nuts on the flat tyre have to be unscrewed, half way first and then fully when the vehicle is jacked up. Your wheel will normally have about five nuts and removing each is taken a step so this means further five steps (6, 7, 8, 9, and 10). Note that some nuts can prove very stubborn to remove. The eleventh step is that you will need to locate the proper spot under the vehicle to place the jack and this might not be easy to locate. The twelfth step involves the actual jacking up of the vehicle and you might discover that when fully operated, the jack has not given the vehicle enough ground clearance to remove the flat tyre. So you jack it down which is thirteenth and look for objects to place under the jack to support the height which is step fourteen while step fifteen involves jacking it up again.

When enough clearance has been got, you now fully unscrew the five nuts which will be another five steps (16, 17, 18, 19, and 20). After removing the nuts, you remove the flat tyre which is step twentyone and then go for the spare which is step twenty-two. You need to properly guide the spare tyre through the studs to click it in position which is step twenty-three. Having done that, you screw the five nuts back halfway first (another five steps 24, 25, 26, 27, 28), and then jack down the vehicle which is step twenty-nine. With the vehicle fully jacked down, you now screw the five nuts tight (another five more steps 30, 31, 32, 33, 34,). It is now times to (35) remove the jack, (36) pack it, (37) store away the flat tyre and (38) remove the blocks placed on the two tyres to prevent the vehicle from rolling. Process completed. You are now free to drive off.