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..at changing your tyres?

I managed to do 2 in 12 minutes today. In a damp/downright wet NCP car park, including dragging stuff out of the boot (fresh tyres & tangled tools) and putting it back in at the end. Quite proud of that especially as the technology at my disposal boiled down to three bits of shaped metal (wheelwrench, jack, and jack handle) and fingers.

Hardly F1 or WRC performance I know, but bring it on...!
(the WRC bit came later when I got paranoid that I could feel "float" and pulled over in a drizzly layby to double check all 16 wheelbolts)

right well I've recently been certified as a Work Study Engineer (time and motion man to you), and one of our theoretical tests was calculation how long it should take to rotate all 5 tyres (including the spare). Based on the speed I work, I estimated it to be 33 minutes, but the model answer was 20.5 minutes in good conditions. And I dont think that many people could do it in that time.

that'd be working bloody quick - i wasnt hanging around

rotating all 5 tyres? that means you've got an odd pair somewhere - not good. how do you work something like that out anyway?

33 mins would be fairly smart for a single chap on his own with no power tools or hydraulic jack.

I have to admit I'm crap with changing wheels and tyres it'd probably take me 33 mins to do 1, let alone 5! D'oh...

well the 5th tyre is the spare one. how many people these days have the spare tyre not used when by swapping them arround and if a tyre lasts 30,000 miles, then you effectively increase the tyre like of the remaining tyres by7,500 miles or put it another way the set you have will last 7500 miles more before changing them.

its a thought, so long as you can remember which ones which so you dont end up with badly uneven wear on one tyre and hardly anything on another so you can't make up a proper pair at the rear no matter how hard you try.

20 minutes is crazy. With standard tools It would take me at least double that.

If you think about it though, if you don't rotate the spare, the tyres will last 7,500 miles less, but you'll have one less tyre to pay for at the end of it. Doesn't really make much difference overall.

and the spare can always be counted upon to be "good", lots of tread, reasonably well inflated, and not harbouring any lingering nails etc you might have missed