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Old 11-27-2011, 09:02 AM   #20
Bill
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: The mountains of Scottsdale, AZ, and the beaches of Maine
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It's Sunday morning, and it sounds like you already have the problem resolved. Good for you! Let me toss in a couple thoughts.

If you have a good spare (and of course you do!), why not simply replace the bad tire with the spare and drive to the tire shop? No, I wouldn't drive for a long distance (like all the way home) without a working spare, but for a short distance - well, I've done this two or three times. That is what a spare is for. Once you get to the tire shop, they will jack up your TM using a couple of the big floor jacks they have all over the place. As has been mentioned, you must watch them do it, and insist that they put the jacks under the frame, rather than the axle - but they do all the work. Then they will pull the wheels, de-mount the old tires, replace the valves, mount and balance the new tires, and re-mount the wheels on the TM - all while you relax with a cup of coffee. They can even remove the fender skirt if you forgot to bring a square-drive screwdriver (tsk tsk!)

By the way, I am a big fan of the clamp-in valve stems that Bobby mentioned. And DO NOT skip the step of having the wheels balanced once the new tires are mounted.

As for the strength of the "stabilizer" jacks. Each one of these screw-down jacks is rated for 5000 pounds, which is more than the entire weight of the TM, so the set of four (or two, for that matter) can easily support the TM. The idea that they can't do so is a myth that goes back to the days when the TM had drop-down stabilizers, like the ones on lightweight popups today.

Glad you got the problem resolved.

Bill
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