EarthCruiser - How Long to Change A Tire?

[Howard70]

During a recent conversation about EarthCruisers, someone asked me about the spare tire mounts and the accessibility of the spares. Since I was going to rotate our two spares onto the rear axle today, I decided to time the various phases of a completely manual tire change - driver's seat to driver's seat. While I can promise that you won't compete with the 19 guys that can change all 4 wheels on a Formula 1 racer in less than 3 seconds, an old guy like me can do the job in about 40 minutes. Here's how it broke down for me:

1. Park the truck, remove the lug socket and breaker bar from storage, lower and remove the spare (manual crank) - 8 minutes.

2. Loosen the lug nuts on the mounted ("flat") rear tire (thank Lance for that breaker bar) - 4 minutes.

3. Chock a front wheel, remove the jack from storage, jack up the "flat" rear tire, place a jack stand under axle, spin off the loosen lug nuts, remove the wheel and "flat" tire - 7 minutes.

4. Mount spare on axle (easily done by hand no aid needed) and snug down the lug nuts - 4 minutes.

5. Lower the truck, remove chocks, jack & stand, return the jack & chocks to storage - 2 minutes.

6. Tighten the lug nuts (I didn't use a torque wrench to confirm the correct torque, but I've previously checked the torque when the nuts are tightened by hand with the breaker bar and it's within spec) - 5 minutes. Took a bit of breather - huffing the lug socket and breaker bar deepens your breathing!

7. Mount, raise, and tighten the flat tire on the spare carrier, tighten those 5 lug nuts, put the spare cover on, pick up miscellaneous stuff, clamber back up to drivers seat and drive off - 10 minutes.

I realize that most of us will plug a tire without resorting to a spare for many of our flats, but even if you need to deal with a complete change by yourself it's a reasonable task.

Howard L. Snell

 

[haven]

Thanks, Howard. How much would you say your Fuso wheel and tire weighs? I think the EarthCruiser continues to use the 16 inch rims. Some of the vehicles with 19.5 inch rims have significantly heavier wheel/tire combos.

 

[SkiFreak]

Not sure to the pound, but I believe that all of the US ECs use Alan's alloy rims.

 

[Michelle@EarthCruiser]

The wheels and tires weight about 70 lbs. We do use Alan's alloy rims.
Its important for our female customers to be able to change a tire on their own if they have to.

 

[Howard70]

Its important for our female customers to be able to change a tire on their own if they have to.

Hello Michelle:

Good point. I should have mentioned that if we were in a hurry I'd let Heidi do the change while I napped..... Kidding aside, Heidi frequently takes our EC on multi-day trips of her own (or at least she abandons me) and she's confident she can handle most problems that might arise.

Haven:

As mentioned by SkiFreak and Michelle we have the 16" alloy wheels. The tires are Toyo Open Country Mud Terrains 315/75/16. I realize there are other discussions regarding the relative merits of the 19.5 versus 16" wheels and associated tires so I don't mean to awaken those points here. We're happy with the tire/wheel combination on Prima Terra (we named our EC after a sailboat we lived on for several years). When it comes time to replace the tires we might go with the Toyo Open Country All Terrain II's as we anticipate that they might last longer. The way we drive Prima Terra, poor-road traction has never been an issue so the AT II's would probably meet our needs well.

Howard

 

[Flys Lo]

Haven:

As mentioned by SkiFreak and Michelle we have the 16" alloy wheels. The tires are Toyo Open Country Mud Terrains 315/75/16. I realize there are other discussions regarding the relative merits of the 19.5 versus 16" wheels and associated tires so I don't mean to awaken those points here. We're happy with the tire/wheel combination on Prima Terra (we named our EC after a sailboat we lived on for several years). When it comes time to replace the tires we might go with the Toyo Open Country All Terrain II's as we anticipate that they might last longer. The way we drive Prima Terra, poor-road traction has never been an issue so the AT II's would probably meet our needs well.

Howard

On that note, I've run both the ATII's and the MT's. The ATII's definitely last a whole lot longer than Toyo's MT's (I'm looking to get double the distance out of the ATII's), are quieter on the hwy and still have quite an aggressive tread pattern if your size is available with their "XT" option. I run 295/65R20's. (~11.5" wide ~35.5" tall)

 

[Bandicoot]

A tyre and rim combo in our EC consists of a 17x9 inch steel rim and 37x12.5 inch Goodyear Wrangler MTR Kevlars. Together they weigh just over 60 kg. I must admit I don't like alloy rims for off-road work (too easily damaged and far too difficult to repair except in major cities). Realistically, you shouldn't need to change a wheel often anymore. Not only are tyres much better, but with TPMS, you can stop before the tyre is badly damaged and "plugs" are so quick and easy. I've repaired large punctures with up to 10 plugs successfully.

 

[Howard70]

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View attachment 244197View attachment 244198View attachment 244199

Now that's a tire repair job!!!

Howard

 

[dlh62c]

View attachment 244197

Great repair job!

That tire is shot. I'm not sure how well I'd handle the replacement cost.

Could a spotter walking ahead have prevented such an event?

 

[Bandicoot]

I should make a correction here. Each 37x12.5 Goodyear Wrangler tyre alone weighs 73 lb (33 kg) but this is considerably less than the 255/100R16 Michelin XZLs I was using which weighed 40 kg each (almost 90 lb each). However, I think the larger, wider steel rim (17x9 inch) for the 37x12.5 tyre compensates for the smaller, narrower rim for the XZLs (16x6.5 inch) and both sets run close to 60 kg (132 lb) as a tyre and rim combo.
rick

 

[Bandicoot]

No (and my apologies for going way off-topic now). We had 400 km (250 miles) of literally no-road work on this trip so too far to walk (actually 700 km from human settlement to human settlement)! Plus we were pushing through heavy scrub (very heavy scrub in places) for many kilometres at a time so not even possible for the driver to see the ground and there were lots of other concealed hazards such as termite mounds hidden in the scrub. And then we often needed a bit of a run-up to get over sand dunes which were also covered in places in heavy scrub. We were caught between the two conflicting requirements of high tyre pressures to reduce the potential of stakes through tyres and low tyre pressures for the sand and salt/clay pans. But the ECs are as tough as rhinos; a human would have had no clothes left on after the first 100 m!! This area is one of the most remote and inhospitable places in Australia. Only a very small number of vehicle based expeditions have ever been through here.
Five ECs in the party, 10 people.
From Mount Webb Western Australia to Ngulupi Western Australia

• Continuous length of no road/track of any sort: 400 km (250 miles)
• Days: 10 (including 1 layover day)
• Average speed: 7 kph (4 miles per hour)
• Obstacles: Sand dunes, heavy scrub, salt and clay pans, rocky ridges and "mountain ranges"
• Number of sand dunes: About 400 (re-count in progress)
• Fuel economy: My fully laden (320 litres fuel (85 US gal), 220 litres water (58 US gal)) 5.6 tonnes (12,400 lb) SWB Earthcruiser was 30 litres/100 km or 3.3 km/litre (7.8 miles per US gallon); other ECs (LWB/SWB) were roughly the same. Note this trip was "hard yards".
• Fuel consumption per hour: 2.3 litres per engine hour (approx.)
• Tyre punctures: More than 60 for the 5 vehicles (no final count since everyone still had slow leaks at the end of the trip)
• Most tyre plugs in one puncture: 10 (there were at least two punctures fixed with 10 plugs, plus a number of 7 and 8 plug holes). Note that a 10 plug puncture means 20 "threads" through the tyre
• Best tyres: the 16 inch Michelin XZLs
• Worst tyres: the 17 inch Hankooks (2 vehicles had these) and the 17 inch Goodyear MT/R with the Kevlar sidewalls (yeah, right!)
• In-between: the 16 inch Toyos

The overall trip was 8000 km (5000 miles). This was just one leg (but the toughest).
rick

 

[Barrabindi]

Sounds like a great feature length movie.
When does it start showing???

 

[Gatsma]

"In all local theaters next week" as far as you know........;-)
Bandicoot has ALL the details....

All kidding aside, sounds like one hell of an excursion! Glad you're OK, Bandicoot!

 

[Bandicoot]

It was one of the trips on my bucket list....However, not sure about everyone else's "bucket list" but as soon as I complete one item in my bucket I find I have replaced it with another two... Oh well, my cup (bucket) runneth over....

 

[Gatsma]

Oh well, my cup (bucket) runneth over....

And may it continue to do so.... it's what keeps us ALIVE!