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A week ago or so, on what the weather forecaster described as “likely to be the last warm afternoon of autumn,” I at last got around to rotating the tires on our, Carol’s and my, RAV4, which had, on that day, 7,933 mostly slow-speed miles showing on the odometer. My father had owned RAV4s in the last decade-and-a-half of his life, and he and I used to schedule tire rotation as a pleasant father-son activity at the farm, doing both our vehicles at once, taking turns with his floor jack and his Craftsman torque wrench on the level concrete slab outside his garage. Dad and I had reason to believe that we applied more exacting standards of care than the dealer would have, especially when it came to torquing the lug nuts at precisely 76 foot pounds. The paid mechanics tightened nuts hastily by feel, while Dad and I did it with the slow turn of the clicking wrench.
It’s been a couple of years, or more like three, since I last lifted a 17" wheel off the wheel studs and, more importantly, just that long since I last muscled each mounted tire an inch or so up off the ground to put it back in place. I don’t know if tires have grown heavier over time or if I possibly have grown more elderly, but I can tell you, when I finished switching back-to-front and front-to-back on just the passenger side of the Toyota, I was perspiring enough to take my jacket off and toss it aside. I wasn’t sure I was up for doing the driver’s side, but of course it had to be done and I was losing daylight with no one else around and no way to get back to town without phoning someone for help, so I did manage to do it. I will figure out a system for reducing that “inch or so” the next time. If you have ideas, let me know.
Though it made me miss my dad, that little end-of-autumn project was satisfying, and it reminded me of occasions years ago, when I had tire trouble while traveling. Tires are less fragile now, and I’ve been lucky in recent times, but, you know, I would hate to have to try nowadays to change a tire on the soft shoulder of a country road, so I made myself a note to call State Farm and ask if Emergency Road Service is included in our policy. But let’s knock on wood; I hope I never need it.
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