Was recently on a 3 week trip up around Oregon and Washington area and when rollin thru No-cal area ( Yreka ) I noticed an alert on mt dash for a low tire pressure on my drivers side rear tire.
Didn't feel anything different but to be safe I got off at the next exit as I just saw a small mom and pop tire service shop along the frontage road about a mile back.

The remaining tires were showing 85psi or so and the suspect tire was showing about 60psi.
Got out of the truck and checked the tire and immediately saw that there was indeed a couple of deep gashes ( blowout? ) and some tread missing and the tire looked low.
So I hightailed it back down the frontage road to the tire shop to deal with my issue before having to pop the spare on.

I was able to park out of the way and quickly realized this tire was history and would need to be replaced.
The young attendant ( early 20's ) came out and asked what the issue was and I told him.
He said he didn't carry a tire that would fit my rig but would help me change the tire and get a large jack to raise the back end.

I should of mentioned I had my camper on and bike rack installed on the rear so I was a bit heavier than normal. I always carry a 12t bottle jack and some wood for just this reason but the kid helped me out with his jack which was fortunate for me in this case.
Popped off the tire and dropped the spare and set it on the hub and thats when I realized that the big nuts for these rims were only so deep and wouldn
t tighten enough for the stock rim I was putting on.

Rut Row.....

So the kid says to hold tight and splits for a few and comes back with 8 open end lug nuts that he removed from an old non working vehicle out back and gives them to me to use, no charge by the way.

So I ask him if there's a Discount Tire around these parts and he says no but there's a Les Schaub about a 1/2 mile down the road and he already called them to see if they had my exact tire that I was running and they said yes they did in fact they have a dozen.

So I pull out a couple of 20's and stuff them into the kids shirt pocket and shake his hand and tell him how much I appreciated his effort and then dropped the blown tire on my entry step ( fox landing ) made sure the lug nuts were secure and dropped the jack and left for Les Shuab down the road.

Pulled in and spoke to the lady behind the counter and they could get started on it right away and the indeed have (4) Toyo Open Country MT's 35 x 12.5 x 18's load range "F" in stock.

So 2 hrs and $2,500 bucks later we were back on the road headed north with all new skins.







So anyone that has aftermarket wheel on their rig verify that those lug nuts will work with whichever spare tire your carrying.
I would of been FU---d.
I did have a hacksaw so theoretically I could of cut the ends of these lug nuts off or somehow used something as a spacer but would of only been a temp fix at best.

Another thing which worked good for me was when I dropped the spare tire I was able to access the drop down jack hole easily and only used two of the extensions to engage the trolly and then used a set of vic grips to turn the handle to lower the tire to the ground.
Trying to turn fully the hand crank hand would of taken forever with the camper bottom limiting movement. But I already knew this so I was prepared.

So word of advice/caution CHECK THOSE LUG NUTS to make sure you dont have to sweat it if you ever find yourself in the predicament I was.

Was probably going to replace the tires at the end of the year anyway.
Had about 25k on em.

 

I like it when a plan comes together. Timing was just right for you to pull in with a young attendant with what you needed.

That is a tough spot to be in when the lugs do not match the spare.

 

Thanks for the story, and PSA