While driving to a concert that was out of town, my boyfriend hit a curb and popped his tire. Being in the middle of one of the most notorious traffic sections of the town, we were luckily able to get out of traffic and drive to the closest gas station.
Though I was clueless about changing tires, he knew a spare tire and all of the tools needed to do it. This led us to our first post curb hitting problem. We didn’t know that there was a lock lug nut with a special design that can only be taken off by a key with an exact copy of the design called the wheel key.
Not all cars have this, but the ones that do look like this (design patterns vary greatly.) Your car dealership should have a copy of the key, but if they don’t, and your car doesn’t have one, or if you are out of town and can’t go to your dealership, there isn’t really a way to get the wheel lock off without the help of a professional. The wheel lock is used to prevent tire theft, but for an owner that doesn’t have a key, it means a one-way tow truck trip to the closest tire shop.
Once concluding there was no way out of calling a tow truck, we needed to check what was covered by his insurance. There we ran into our second dilemma. He didn’t have a copy of his insurance with him. Having no access to the policy number or any of the information on the insurance card, we remained stuck at the gas station with no option but to wait until one of his family members could send him the information.
While waiting for his family to get back to him, I compiled a list of things I thought would be super essential for literally any who owns and drives a vehicle to store inside of it.
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Insurance
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Spare tire
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Jack
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Lug wrench
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Owner’s manual
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Tire key (if applicable)
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Extra charger for your phone
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Tire gauge (for cars that don’t have automatic tire air pressure checking systems)
Something to keep in mind in any car-related or non-car-related issues is always to keep your cool. It’s easy to get caught in a negative mindset being in a stressful situation, but remember that nothing will get solved if you can’t calmly articulate things. Think things through to set up a series of steps to take to fix the issue, and if you can’t do that on your own, call a trusted friend or family member who can help walk you through what you need to do.
For someone who knew just the very basics of vehicle use and maintenance level, this experience taught me a lot. You never really know what you need to know until you realize that you don’t know it. Because I don’t own a car, I didn’t think I needed to know how to change a tire, but I realize now how silly that sounds in an age where almost everyone drives a vehicle or knows someone who does.
Though we missed our concert, we learned a lot of things that day. I’m not sure when we’ll put this knowledge to use, but until we do, we’ll be wheelin’ it with us.