Dry-run at changing a truck tire

We’ve read that driving the Dempster Highway wasn’t for the faint of heart. We knew it was going to be more of a challenge than your average, every day ride to the super market.

The Dempster Highway is really isolated and we didn’t want to risk being unprepared or worse, stuck alone until someone came along. We decided to make sure we had all the tools we needed to change a tire on the truck. We bought the truck used and never really looked at the spare tire before. So we decided to take a look before heading out.

Getting the tools together

Ford put the full-sized spare under the bed of the truck, so to get access to it you need to lower it to the ground using a special tool.

There’s a hole in the rear bumper where you stick the tool in to release the spare tire. The hole is secured with a plain lock you open with the ignition key. But after 7 years, it was corroded and I couldn’t get it to unlock with just the ignition key.

I had to get under the rear bumper with some pliers to “persuade” it to open. Unfortunately I broke some small metal clips on it and it won’t stay together anymore.

After figuring out how to assemble the tools and how to drop the tire, and making sure the spare tire pressure was good, we put everything back together.

Except I noticed I forgot to screw the tire pressure valve cap back on. Mmm, do I leave it off increasing the risk of not being able to inflate the spare on the road, or go the easy way and leave it off.

Common sense prevailed and I called out the teenager to once again get the tools out, and drop the tire, so the little cap can be put away properly.

The back-end of the lock was completely rusted over.

Now that the little clip is broken, we’re stuck with this new hole.

Supposed to prevent spare tire theft. All if did today was cause annoyance.

After putting the spare tire and all of the tools back, I noticed we forgot to put this little valve stem cap back on. : (

The tire change tool kit is under the back seat.

It’s pretty snug and can be hard to get back in there.

Taylor showing me how to put the lug wrench together.

This is how you raise and lower the spare tire.