Can you get the spare tire down on your Chevy?
I got stuck out on the Forest for several hours last night, because the tube that runs from the bumper to the spare tire winch on the new pickup wasn’t attached at the winch end.
Since the tube is there to guide your jack handle onto the drive for the winch; you can’t get the drive on the winch when the tube isn’t lined up, and you can’t lower the spare tire. This leaves you stuck in the woods with no way to change the tire. Luckily, I could call dispatch on the radio, and have a tow truck sent out.
The guy driving the tow truck said this is the third new Chevy, which has had this problem.
With two of us there it was possible for him to lie under the truck and move the tube around while I looked down the tube with a flashlight until I could see the drive, and he could then hold the tube in place while I got the handle on so we could lower the spare tire.
I’m going over to the Chevy Dealer this afternoon to have them attach the tube. I could simply snap it into place myself, however I am taking it to the Dealer, because I think it is important that Chevy realizes there is a problem.
So, if you have a newer Chevy you might want to invest 10-minutes to see if you can lower the spare tire, before your stuck somewhere and can’t.
Replies
I have almost come to the conclusion that spare tires are outdated and unnecesary.
#1 they add cost and consume resources
#2 they add weight which reduces mileage 100% of the time
#3 they are rarely if ever used
#4 cell phones and service trucks have made them all but useless
#5 most people have no clue if their spare is even usable
#6 tire technology has progressed to limit their need
#7 road technology and maintenance has progressed to limit their need
#8 they force engineers to compromise designs and space that could be better used and used more often
The bulk of the driving public couldn't change a tire if they needed to and I would guess the majority of those that do know how to change a tire would never do so if presented with the need to do so. In 30 years of driving, I can count on one hand the number of times I have used a spare and that is only because I am ultra cheap and do most everything myself. There isn't a single time I have used a spare that I couldn't have just as easily called for a repair.
In short, the bulk of cars in this country are carrying around a useless appendage that they paid for, have liltte to no idea how to use, don't know if its viable and costs them at the pump every day.
Matter of where you drive.
In much of the west there is no cell service, and on some of the highways few if any cars. Go off the highways, onto the dirt back roads, and there may be a car a day. Leave the bladed roads and go out on a two track, and it could be one truck a month during grazing season, ten trucks a day during hunting season in the fall, and then none untill spring when the cows come back.
When you work on construction sites, you end up with flats from dropped nails and screws. I once got a flat from a screw driver. On work trucks you need to have a spare. On my back country two track truck I carry two, and have still had to walk thirty miles back to a ranch to get help.
The tow truck driver who came to my assistance had to tow a new BMW, (the designers of which agree with you), the 300+ miles to the nearest BMW dealer in Boise. BMW paid for the tow, the new tire, and the overnight stay in Boise, while they flew in a new tire. The new tire got lost in shippment, and the owner was asked to spend another night in Boise.
The owner had party to attend at home so he had to rent a car to drive the 150-miles back to his home in Ketchum for the night. The next day he had to bring back the rental, and pick up his car. When he selects his next new car, do you think he will buy another BMW, or any other that doesn't have a spare tire?
Many people from the east have little or no concept of the big wide open distances, of the west, and how few people there are.
I have a plugging tool, a card or two of plugs and a can of fix a flat. I used to have a couple of those little CO2 cylinders they had in the mid 70s cars when you had a deflated spare but you can't get one of them filled. That will take care of most flats.
I know some HVAC guys who have aired up tires with Freon but that was before it was over $30 a pound
Get yourself a "pig".
Get yourself a "pig".
I have an assortment of various CO2 tanks but they cost more than a can of fix a flat to fill.
Not a Chevy...
but I had a very similar problem with my 2003 F-150 a week ago. Got a slow leak, drove it home, and tried to lower the spare. Per your description there is a tube that guides the tool to where the winch mechanism is. The end of the tool is female, and it's this goofy clover-shaped recess that's barely 1/8" deep. Next time hire German or Japanese engineers, please. I was finally able to get it engaged and lower the tire part way, but the mechanism stalled there and I had to get my body under the vehicle, lift the tire with my legs, and use my hands to try to get the hanger out thru the hole in the wheel. I was cursing like a sailor on a freighter being overtaken by Somali pirates.
Do a little searching and I find out this is common. In fact, on Youtube there's a guy who shows how to modify the mechanism so it will actually work. I'm going to have to unbolt the damn thing, rebuild it, and put it back on. No way in hell I can tolerate having a wheel in the truck bed for the rest of my life.
In fairness, this is the first and only thing to go wrong with this truck. It has been a massively good investment of vehicle money, totally dependable and trouble free for 8 years of being a work truck every day.
Go to the salvage yard, and pull the wich off a Toyota, that has a chain instead of a cable.
If you keep the cable, be sure to pull the tire back as far as you can after you put the holder through the center, and use the winch to drag it under the truck and lift it.
The cable springs out on the reel when there is slack, and then when you put load on the cable the tight cable gets pulled into the loose coils. Then, when the drum snugs up the cable ends up over itself in a very ugly kind of slip knot.
The chain style doesn't have this problem.