Hobo Jungle

[J. Smith]

Does anybody besides me remember the 3 leg jack ( tripod ) that was about 3 feet tall? Chrysler made them and they were much safer to use than the jacks that ratcheted up on one steel beam with a square base plate. Those devils could & would kick out & drop the car if not properly set up. I carried & used the Chrysler jack in every car I owned until real bumpers disappeared.

Jack

[HONDO74]

Wayne
I think you have to look under taking the driving test.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kin ... iving_test

Look under Vehicle safety questions. I don't see anything about changing a tire but I believe the rest of it is there. Since they seem to be changing the rules at times maybe the part about the tire was eliminated.

Robert

[webenda]

Vehicle safety questions:

Before the candidate (U.K.) is taken out onto the road, the examiner asks two questions about car maintenance and safety. These are phrased in the form "Show me..." and "Tell me..."; as such, this component of the test is often known as "Show me, tell me". For example:
Show me how you would check that the power assisted steering is working before starting a journey.
Open the bonnet, identify where you would check the engine oil level and tell me how you would check that the engine has sufficient oil.

A failure to answer one or both of these questions correctly would result in a driving fault being marked against the candidate. The questions that may be asked are changed from time to time. From July 2008, there are 19 different questions which can be asked in 13 different combinations.

I am still researching the other questions.

NOTE--I got side tracked by taking a written practice test. My score was 42 out of 50 (43 out of 50 is passing.) I thought language would be a problem but it was not. My problem was differences in sgns and laws, like the first sign of a train coming in Arizna is flashing red lights before the gates come down. In the U.K. it is a flashing yellow light. One wrong! Trailer towing speeds are different also. There is no limit in Arizona. Etc, etc... I failed.

[Mitch]

A word or two here on the current subject, though there is another thread where this could be appropriate.

First off, Pete's right about garages, dealerships, and yes, even tire stores who have employees who know nothing about proper torque and how hard a 1/2" air powered impact gun hits. We have guys right in the dealership where I work who don't know, (or worse, don't care). I've broken studs with the impact tryin' to get a wheel off the vehicle, and in some cases where the stud wouldn't break, ya end up roundin' the lugnut completely off, then ya have to drill, starting small, and going consecutively bigger until the stud is hollowed out enough to break. PIA!!! And the owner would never get a nut loose with the little tin wrench that the automaker puts in the car.
Another thing to deal with, even when you're lucky enough to get the lug nuts off, is to get the wheel off the hub. Aluminum wheels on steel hubs corrode so thoroughly that one must use a sledge hammer to get the wheel loose. I then end up chippin' all around the hub with a hammer and an old screwdriver, and then buffin' the backside of the wheel with the air powered roloc wheel. PIA!!!
Jack, I remember the tripods well! Had one in my '63 Newport.
Murph, can't understand how anybody could get enjoyment outta changin' a tire. To me, that's kinda like lovin' to mow the grass.

But if you're lookin' for a vote on the subject, then I say if you have a license and you drive a vehicle, then you should know how to change a tire.

[jw_clarke54]

the reason-IMHO- is that NO ONE can jack up a car w/a plastic bumper!! Front or rear. with most cars & trucks being a Uni-body design the welded seam on the side of the vehcile is where to put a jack. But there is that button for roadside assist.here in Tx on the BACK of your DL is an 800 # to call might be a while though. you also have to read the booklet that comes w/the car to FIND hwere everything is AT!!!! James

[webenda]

Murph, can't understand how anybody could get enjoyment outta changin' a tire. To me, that's kinda like lovin' to mow the grass.

Mitch,

You have noticed there are all kinds of strange people around, even in PA.? I have always enjoyed changing tires. (Check the strange square next to my name.) It is partially ego, if I am helping someone stranded, as in the video, it boosts my ego to think I can do it and they can't. Of course they may be like Murph. He can but does not want to. Doesn't matter, I still enjoy changing tires.

Last time I needed new tires for the truck (2009) I ordered them over the internet. When they arrived, I mounted and balanced them myself using hand tools. It was great fun. Especially breaking down the newly mounted tires, rotating them on the wheel and checking balance again. Front tires required no wheel weights. Rear tires needed four ounces because the wheels (not the tires) were out of balance.

I don't like the new jacks either. If I am at home, I use a floor jack.

Regarding too tight lug nuts:

Twice I found lug nuts that tightened suddenly at the end of travel. Took the nuts back off and saw the lug holes in the wheels had expanded till they were too big. I could not let the customers drive out like that. If the wheel fell off, it would be my fault because I was the last one to install the wheel. Fortunately I always did final tightening with a torque wrench so I knew I did not ruin the wheels. The customers were all for putting new wheels on their cars.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

...Murph, can't understand how anybody could get enjoyment outta changin' a tire. To me, that's kinda like lovin' to mow the grass. ...

I know, I know, I've wondered about that myself, even back then when I was a teenager. All my frineds could change a tire but were awkward at it, or were dressed-up for some event, etc. To me, it felt good solving somethng like that for folks. I liked doing favors and think it had to do w/ the danger of it, too, esp. the fact that it involved a relatively sizeable machine. Also, I got a kick out of following the rules to-a-T, producing desired results.

Being comfortable w/ using the jacks of "yesteryear" continued right into the 70's for me by my applying snow chains to my rear-wheel drive 1967 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme (my first car), and my (next car) '72 Pontiac Gran Prix, on top of snow tires. More than once, I came out of school at early-dismissal due to ever-quickening, signficant snowfall, went directly to the trunk, got out the bricks, jack, and chains, raised her up, and had those chains mounted in fifteen minutes (or so it seemed,) much to the cheers of my students who had gathered in the falling snow to watch their 3-piece-suited Mr. Murph perform a task they had not anticipated of him, I imagine.

[webenda]

Wayne
Look under Vehicle safety questions. I don't see anything about changing a tire but I believe the rest of it is there. Since they seem to be changing the rules at times maybe the part about the tire was eliminated.

Robert

Could have been eliminated, yes. Since you do not have to actually perform the answers for Tell me/Show me, "How would you put on the spare tyre?" would be a perfectly reasonable question.

All nineteen questions:
http://www.driving-test-success.com/sho ... ll_me.html

No question on how to put spare on the spare tyre, but...
Tyre questions:
Q11. Tell me where you would find the information for the recommended tyre pressures for this car and how tyre pressures should be checked.
Part of the answer is don't forget the spare tyer.
Q14. Tell me how you would check the tyres to show that they have sufficient tread depth and that their general condition is safe to use on the road.
Part of the answer is don't forget the spare tyer.

I was not able to prove it, but I believe you are or were correct about, "...to get a drivers license in the UK that you have to prove that you know how to change a tire..." As you said, the Q & A keep changing.

U.K. driver's license test is more comprehensive than what I am familiar with. I think knowing how to maintain a vehicle would be good for everyone who drives in the USA.

[webenda]

sy,

[The Dirt]

I remember those long bumper-jacks with which you’d have to stick the shaft into a 6-inch-square base. Of course nowadays, to find the jacking points on the frame rail, you have to get on your knees and get your face under there to see where they are, and you have to get it right and get it square, or you’re going to bend or break expensive things- there isn't much room for error. Too, they’re maybe 8” long, but they’re only 3” wide (if that), and it doesn’t take much fore or aft movement to topple the car off the jack. I won’t raise a car with one of those without blocking the other side of the car, both tires, so it can’t budge. I’ve also seen people trying to loosen lug nuts after the car is already in the air- a sure recipe for getting maimed.

And this very afternoon, on the way to work at 1430, I was coming westward on Rt. 80, a two-lane divided interstate, and sure enough, there were two young ladies with their trunk lid open and the spare leaning against the car, looking helpless beyond finding the tire, but even if I’d been on their side of the highway, I would have been hesitant, because they had pulled off and were stopped on the shoulder of the fast lane, a situation that screamed for a State-ie with his lights flashing and blocking off the lane. I’ve watched too many episodes of “Cops”, I guess. I had no phone or I would have made the call myself.

Wayne, loved the tune!
D*mned white people. Couldn't just stay in Europe, could they? Had to come over here and wipe out the native population, and darn near everything else that moved.

[HONDO74]

D*mned white people. Couldn't just stay in Europe, could they? Had to come over here and wipe out the native population, and darn near everything else that moved.

[The Dirt]

That's about right!

[webenda]

Another BTW, have you watched full metal jousting, yet? The second episode aired last night. Besides, watching the competitors... I dig the HEAVY horses. I've never been a horse guy before, but those beasts are magnificent... with some weighing in at around 2000lbs. Percheron's, Shire's and Belgian draft horses; and mixes of these breeds, are some of the different breeds used for modern jousting competitions.

Sy

No, haven't seen Full Metal Jousting, other than a promo. Two thounand pounds sounds about right for the horses in the promo. There are horses bred just for size. These weigh in just under 3000 lbs (sometimes just over).
Reference: http://youtu.be/0WnAg61gvUA

[britbloke]

Two tales to add to this, following on from the two girls on the fast lane shoulder. I drove cabs on Long Island, did quite a few long runs mainly on the L.I.E. Once I came over the brow of a hill and nearly ploughed into an old guy who had stopped his Caddy in the fast lane and had a map opened out on the hood! Fortunately it was mid-afternoon and the traffic was light, radioed the base to get the cops out there.

Jousting.
In England I used to like the hippy 'medieval' fairs, they tended to be ad hoc run in some farmers field usually behind a pub and were an excuse to pretend to be a barbarian, carry a sword or axe and be festooned with your choice of knives, studded wristbands etc, etc, eat roast ox and swig beer on a Saturday afternoon.

One I went to offered a go at jousting. They had a sack cloth fence about four feet high. Two Honda 50 step thrus. The riders crouched down and the gallant knight sat on the pillion padded up with pillows and homemade steel armor, equipped with a long bamboo lance with a blunt rubber pad on the end. The two step thrus started up opposite each other at either end of the divider and wobbled and slid precauriously towards each other at I'd guess about 15mph if we didnt go down on the wet grass.

It was huge fun, being drunk helped with the pain, the impact was surprising felt like an elephant had stepped on my ribs. They had you sit right on the edge of the saddle so you'd go over easily and helmets were mandatory, motorcycle or metal, I went with the modern full face (my own). Two goes were enough for me but it was huge fun and you could also wear proper armor and beat the crap out of each other with bokken.

I suppose it should be obvious but the thing that surprised me most was how bloody tiring it is to fight like that by days end I had to leave the bike and bum a ride, I was too exhausted and sore to ride my BSA home.

[webenda]

Alley Cat and Cat from Hell helping me find weeds with flowers. Easier for them, they are closer to the ground


I call these Belly Flowers because I have to lay on my stomach to photograph them. The flower is about 0.1 inch across.

No idea what this one is.