Skip to main content

The Manual may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.

Man School 101: To Change a Tire

Now sure, you could pull over and call for roadside assistance and sit there sniveling and whimpering and digging the toe of your stylish desert boot into the gray pebbled embankment as someone fixes your problems for you… or you could be a man, man! I’ll assume you went with the latter, so let’s talk tire changing.

1, Pull Way Over

Make sure you get your car as far off the road as possible. Take an exit or turn onto a side street if you can. Parking lots are best. Grass, dirt, or any surface that’s not hard and flat is the worst. Hills too are not so good. Just get to the flattest spot you can that’s as far from traffic as possible. Now put on those flashers and let’s set up shop.

  1. Inspect the Tire
    Is it flat? Yep, it’s flat. Do you have and know how to use a patch kit and inflator? No? OK then move on to the next step.
  1. Get Out Your Tools
    Get everything you’ll need before you start doing any actual work and lay the tools and parts out somewhere they’ll be easy to manage, ideally on top of a blanket or towel. What you’ll need, at minimum, is:
Recommended Videos

           A Wrench
           A Jack
           A Spare Tire

Additional items that are good to have

          A Flashlight
          Flares
          Gloves
          Pressure Gauge

And for super sticky nuts (yeah, ha, real mature, bro) some WD-40, as long as we’re talking about stuff.

  1. Loosen the Lug Nuts
    Do not remove the nuts, sir… merely loosen them. Lug nuts are often so tightly in place that you’ll need your entire upper body’s strength to get them to budge. You may even need to stand or jump on the wrench to get them moving, or pound it with a rock or hammer. (This is where WD-40 may come in handy! Just remember to wipe it away as best as possible before replacing the nuts later.) Should you need to jump on the wrench once the car is already jacked up, you run the risk of the car falling off the jack and turning a relatively unpleasant bad situation into a total shitshow.
  1. Jack It Up
    If you’re an amateur tire changer, don’t feel it unmanly to consult the manual (hey!) that came with your car before choosing where to place the jack. Many areas on the undercarriage of a vehicle can easily support thousands of pounds of weight concentrated on the small area atop a jack’s head. Other areas will snap or crack with alacrity. Pick a smart spot to place the jack, and then jack up the car until the wheel is about a fist’s height off the ground.
  1. Now Remove the Nuts
    Take those lug nuts you loosened off the car and place them very carefully in a pile or even in your pocket (or the hands of a helper). Remember what Ralphie did in A Christmas Story? Don’t do what he did.
  1. Pull Off the Flat
    Pull the flat tire straight toward you, supporting its weight so it will come off evenly and smoothly. If it starts coming off at an angle, start over, as it will easily get stuck.

7. Throw the Flat Tire Into the Woods
Just kidding. Please don’t do that.

Real 7. Put On the Spare
Put the spare tire on the car by carefully aligning it with the posts and then sliding it straight onto

  1. Put the Nuts On
    Same story with removal: put each lug nut back onto the tire and begin to tighten them, but do not secure them all the way.
  1. Lower the Vehicle Back to the Ground, Back Down to Terra Firma, Back to This Humble Orb All of History Calls Home, Back to Our Beloved Spinning Sphere of ah whatever put the car down
    Lower the car using the jack. Um, that’s it for this step.
  1. Tighten the Nuts
    Now use that wrench to get those lug nuts onto your spare tire good n’ tight! There ya go, great job. You showed those nuts.

11.  Check the Spare Tire’s Pressure
Ideally you will have a pressure gauge in your arsenal of tools. You can get one for like… like nine       bucks, dude. Just get one. The spare should say its ideal pressure on the side. If you’re close to it, great,   get outta there and get to a shop ASAP. If you’re way low, then you better hope you have a pump; if not, just take things easy and make it as short a trip as possible. If you don’t have a gauge, use the pad of your thumb and press into the tire’s wall. It should be good and firm.

  1. Clean Up
    Clean up.
  1. Hit the Road

Get on your way, mister! But don’t drive quite so fast, and don’t be one of those people that drive on the damn doughnut for days. Yes, that was some great alliteration there, but no, it’s still not a good idea. Get a new tire. And pro tip: invest in a full-sized tire as your spare.

Bon voyage, gents!

Steven John
Steven John is a writer and journalist living just outside New York City, by way of 12 years in Los Angeles, by way of…
The first trailer for Vince Gilligan’s Apple TV+ show Pluribus is here
The show now has a name and a release date.
The trailer for Pluribus.

After spending more than a decade in the world of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, Vince Gilligan is finally branching out into something new. The new series, which is coming from Apple, is called Pluribus and stars Rhea Seehorn, who also starred in Better Call Saul.

Now, we've got our first teaser for the new show, and it's just as baffling as you might expect. In the teaser, we see a woman licking every donut in a box of donuts, as well as a sign that says "Help yourself" along with a smiley face. The teaser is just 30 seconds long, and we don't see Seehorn or have any context for what the show is about.

Read more
The ultimate guide to cigar wrappers every aficionado should read
Why the wrapper is the most underrated part of your cigar
Guardian of the Farm Cerberus cigar from Aganorsa cigar tasting experience

If you’ve smoked a good variety of cigars, you’ll eventually have discovered a difference between wrapper types. Besides being just pretty packaging, that thin outer leaf can account for 60% of your cigar’s flavor! I’ve smoked cheap bundles and limited editions, and I’m telling you that the wrapper makes or breaks the experience. So, let’s delve into cigar wrapper types and change how you select your next smoke.

Why cigar wrapper types matter

Read more
Ted Lasso season 4: Everything we know so far
The show is coming back three years after the last season.
Jason Sudeikis in Ted Lasso

After plenty of questions about its future, Ted Lasso is back. The Apple TV+ hit seemed to be done following its third season, but production has officially started on the fourth, with much of the cast set to return for this new installment.

Now that we know Ted Lasso is coming back, there are still plenty of questions about what that means for the show, and how it might change moving forward — and everyone has opinions on what they'd like to see from season 4. Here's what we know so far, including when we might see that fourth season:

Read more