During the summer, a lot of blowouts happen with the hot air causing tires to expand. A blowout on a semi-truck can delay your route and turn your normal trip into a long one. No one wants to have to spend extra time out on the road because of a blowout. The task of fixing a semi-truck tire may look more intimidating than it is due to the sheer size of the vehicle. If semi-truck tire repair Flint MI experts are not an option for you, follow these steps to change your semi-truck tire.
Steer The Truck To A Level Surface
When facing a semi-truck tire blowout, you want to steer your rig onto a level surface where you can keep your truck straight. Hopefully, the road you can find is clear of traffic and have room so you can safely start taking your tire off. If you are stuck on a major highway, look for the shoulder where the grass is level on the side so you can have some extra breathing room.
Prevent The Truck From Moving
Once you face a blowout, you want to place tire stops underneath the functioning tires. Tire stops prevent the tires from rolling while you are working on the repair. If you don’t have tire stops, wood boards and bricks work just as well. Any kind of weight that can nest itself in front of the tire.
Remove The Hubcap
Once the tires are secured, you want to remove the hubcap from the damaged tire. You can pry it off using a general tool like a screwdriver or a crowbar. It may take a few tugs on different sections of the hubcap, but it should come off pretty easily.
Loosen The Lug Nuts
Next, you want to loosen the lug nuts by turning them counterclockwise. This can be quite the challenge and may require some muscle since lug nuts can be quite stiff. You will have to put a lot of weight on the tire iron or even utilize the basic lubricant to loosen it up. Sorry, there is no way to change a semi-truck tire without breaking some kind of sweat.
Raise The Truck With A Strong Jack
For a commercial, large vehicle, you want to use a hydraulic jack to slowly lift the vehicle off the ground. A safe spot for the jack should be near a sturdy area by the tire, either the frame or notches by the wheel well. Don’t place the jack under a weak piece of the rig. It needs to be structural. If you have jack stands, place them underneath the truck around where the hydraulic jack is being used. If you don’t have enough jacks, put down as many as you can then use the flat tire as a jack stand once it is removed.
Mount The Tire & Lower The Truck Slowly
After you mount the tire, you want to slowly release the jack and lower it back to the ground. Before you lower it, you need to remove the jack stands so it doesn’t face resistance when coming back down to the pavement. Don’t remove the jack until the process is fully complete in case something goes wrong and it needs to be raised again.
We hope this helps you out on the road!