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Old 08-05-2015, 11:31 AM   #21
rfs
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Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Eastern Iowa, Iowa
Trailer: 2013 Escape 21
Posts: 136
I have to agree with the recommendation to practice changing a tire at home or in a non emergency situation and to assemble the components you may need including jack if needed, wood blocking and wheel wrench of some type. I use a spare 1/2 inch breaker bar with a six inch extension and have three sockets in my toolbox. The socket for the escape wheel nut, a socket for the anode on the water heater and the right socket for the tow vehicle. I changed a car tire on Sunday and guessed the torque with a breaker bar. Then when I located the manual which listed the proper torque at 80 ft lbs., I checked it and found I was only off 5 lbs. While I like the torque wrench it's not mandatory. The prior practice and having what you need to change the tire with you are what you really need.
Dave
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Old 08-05-2015, 03:58 PM   #22
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Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Olathe, Kansas
Trailer: 2015 21ft Escape "Spirit of the Plains", 2014 GMC Sierra with max tow package
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If you use a breaker bar to put a tire on, I would agree as far as torque that you will be in the ball park. What really gets me are these tire shops and garages that just chop the tire on using only an air impact. What you get is warped rotors and a tire that is next to impossible to get off with a hand wrench. We had to have a tire repaired in Missoula, Montana on our way back from Chilliwack last fall and I was lurking around the corner to see if they would use the torque wrench. Thankfully they did. Loren
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Old 08-05-2015, 05:19 PM   #23
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Trailer: 2014 Escape 19, sold; 2019 Escape 21, Sept. 2019
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Yah, I think I hurt the tire guy's feelings in a little town in Alaska. I asked him to only start the lug nuts and said that I'd finish them by hand. He assured me their impact wrenches wouldn't over tighten them and asked if I'd ever had a problem with a shop using an impact wrench. Well, I gave him a couple of examples and he let me do up my own lug nuts.

The only slight problem with using the term breaker bar is that in 1/2" drive I have 3 lengths, 13", 17" and 19" (and a piece of pipe to make it longer if needed ) But, in general, if the handles over a foot long and you put just as much force into it as you can it usually works out just fine.

Ron
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Old 08-05-2015, 09:27 PM   #24
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ron in BC View Post
s much as I like my full BCAA coverage, being able to change the tire yourself is good because you don't always have cell phone coverage.n
I have CAA RV coverage too, and I too carry the tools for a spare tire change for both the van and the trailer. We are currently using a motorhome and I don't have the tools for it... but I also don't have a spare, which is normal with this size of vehicle because it isn't practical to change a tire by yourself anyway. An Escape wheel and tire is manageable.
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Old 08-05-2015, 09:33 PM   #25
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ron in BC View Post
... others might be horrified at my downplaying using a torque wrench.
I'm not horrified
I think that the use of a spare should be put in perspective. I don't know of any motor vehicle which comes with a torque wrench, even though most come with a spare and tools to put it on. The assumptions seem to be that
  1. normal people won't dangerously over-tighten with the provided wrench (as Ron explained)
  2. the spare will soon be removed to go back to the regular wheel and (new or repaired) tire, so there won't be a lot of time for under-tightened nuts to come loose.

If you use your Escape spare the way car spares are usually used, all the same logic applies. But you might use it differently...
  • An Escape (like most trailers) has a spare tire identical in size and type to the rest of the tires, on the same wheel (unless you order alloy wheels and don't get an alloy spare), so it might be reasonable to put on the spare and then continue to use it indefinitely. If you do that, I'm not saying you need to carry a torque wrench, only that you should check the torque on the nuts at the earliest available opportunity (such as when getting to the next city).
  • Some people use a long breaker bar (or a snipe on a shorter wrench handle) to apply enough leverage to get tight wheel nuts off - I carry a reasonably long 1/2" drive breaker bar. If that bar is used to tighten wheel nuts, it is easy to over-torque them (I could easily apply 300 lb-ft), so some advance planning to determine how tight they should be would be in order.
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Old 08-05-2015, 09:36 PM   #26
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Loren & Cathy View Post
What really gets me are these tire shops and garages that just chop the tire on using only an air impact.
An impact wrench with a torque-limiting bar looks just like an impact with a simple extension, so sometimes what looks like incompetent ramming on the nuts is actually perfectly reasonable... but yes, some just ram them on!
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