How old do you have to be before one of these young guys in the jacked up 4x4 pickups will stop and ask you if you need any help changing your flat tire. I have grey hair, no azz, skinny legs, creases on my face, all attributes of an old phart. I look old. I wouldn’t have accepted any help and I’m still going strong, I but it would have been nice if even one had slowed down.

I can’t guess the number of tires I’ve changed for people over the years, and I’m not going to stop. But if I think that you are younger than me, from now on, you are on your own.

I agree with you. Many people are scared to stop. When I worked mid night shift I wouldn't stop at night unless there were women and kids. I would call the state police and inform them.

I always stop and ask people if they need help.


Then I drive away. Regardless of their response.

What if they are injured and totally incapacitated?

Will you stop then? Call 911? Get out your tourniquet and stop the bleeding?

Nah, he'd ask how they're feeling, and then drive off.

Sometimes I tell them my favorite knock-knock joke before hitting the gas.

You got to be a geezer to be knowledgable about changing a tire. These young guys don't even know how to do it.
If they get a flat, they get on the Iphone and call for help, and stand by texting somebody, while a man shows up to do the work.

Many of the new cars these days don't even come with a spare.

Matsr, one of the things I did for myself to assist me in case of a flat was pretty cheap. Local O'Reilly's had small castored floor jack for $30 and a 4 way wrench for less than 10. Next thing I did was go to the salvage yard and get a spare stock wheel and had a good used tire mounted on it. I carry them so I am not handicapped with a Micky mouse jack, wrench, and worthless space saver spare or having to fight the stupid spare rack in nice conditions or really bad. While your at it a big long shank screwdriver for hubcap removal and atleast a 3lb hammer, these newer rigs sure have wheels that stick to drums and disc hubs. Flashlight/ worklight check. Mb

A big hammer, more force on a star wrench, and to drive the stuck wheel off brake drum.

If it's a obvious older person or woman with kids I'll stop..i pulled up to help an old guy with 2 flats on his trailer once. I was just firing up my compressor and rolling out my air hose&impact wrench when 2 16 year olds pulled up. They asked if they could help. I handed them the air tools and told them to have at it. Me and the old guy just watched. Rare thing these days

You are your Own out there . Be like Bob.
Be prepared.

Have and always will.

I am not so far gone that i can not change my own flats.

It is just what was hammered into me growing up..HELP YOURSELF

I was passing thru a four way intersection a couple weeks back and this big ass Blue Jay was standing in front of his F-150 with the hood open. Houses in this area start in the millions and end in the millions. Busy, busy intersection and it was a bit of a mess watching everyone having to navigate around this poor bastard.

After laughing and making my turn I thought 'Nobody around here is gonna help that Kimbo Slice lookin' bastard.' This made me flush with guilt due to my kids also being criminals. So I finished my beer, and made my way back toward the intersection.

I asked him if he wanted some help getting his rig out of the intersection and he was thrilled. I parked my truck and walked back and told him to steer and I'd give it the heeve-ho. A quick conversation about where to aim the truck took place as I did a bit of traffic directing and we agreed on the ideal spot. The guy couldn't get it into gear so I went to the back of the truck and pushed for a second and told him to try again. The trans was stuck in that no-mans-land portion that we have all experienced but it came loose after that.

We got him off the road and the only thing that could have made him happier would be a Thanksgiving turkey from Popeyes.

I asked him he had help coming and he assured me that he did.

We shook hands.

End of story.

Swapped one out on the van last night, as a matter of fact. Had to call the red head to look up where the f'n spare was, and how to let it down (hint, the crank mechanism is between the front seats, through the middle of the console). You might be an engineer, if......

Don't see too many stranded cars on main roads these days, but you sure do in the back country. These "P" rated tires don't seem to be any more resistant to rock punctures when you put them on fancy AWD SUV's....

Liar!

I've changed a number of flats for women. Can't recall any old men that needed help but I guess if you looked like Joe Biden I might stop and help.

Conditions dictate however. If I have my kids with me I'm going to drive on by.

If you're on the side of I-95 during rush hour, start prayin'.

When my daughter got her first car I taught her how to change a tire on it. She loosened the lugnuts and jacked it up. Got the spare out and put it on tightened the lugnuts, lowered it to the ground and finished tightening the lugnuts. Then I looked it over and told her she did a good job. Fast forward to her college days and she and her friends were out in her fiends car and had a flat and no cell service. Her friends did not know what to do so she taught them how to change a tire and got them home safe. I made sure she would never be a damsel in distress and get taken advantage of and she has thanked me several times for doing that.

Kimbo Slice!... may he rest in peace.

I've stopped for women and old men, but always thought is this the time I'll be accused of something I didn't do, is this the time I'll be robbed or killed. So I approach things cautiously. 2 years ago I had a border patrolmen stop and help my buddy and I change a tire at night. He ran his overheads so people would slow down. But, it isn't expected.

You certainly are.

LOL

Mag Bob, I'm pretty set to deal with it and it didn't take me long to get it done. I carry a 1foot square piece of 1/4 inch thick steel plate in my truck that I bolt my jack to. It gives the jack much more stability and keeps it from pushing down in the mud. Like I said, I really didn't need any help. I'd have just thanked them for stopping.

I guess what kind of surprised me was I was on a well traveled county road with many Farm service trucks passing, all carrying an air compressor, as well as young guys traveling up and down the road in their tricked out trucks and not one asked if I needed help. Where I was pulled over was 100 yards from a stop sign at a crossroad, so they had to slow down anyway. Closest gas station was probably 10 miles. I'd have stopped for someone else with a flat there. I guess the new age people figured I had a cell phone, if I needed help I could call someone. Or maybe I just don't look like I need help...I'd like to think that was it.

All you boomers telling us young guys we don’t know how to change a tire we’ve all decided to just keep on driving.

In exchange we won’t ask for your help when our smartphone is acting up.

Beginning of last month I stopped for the DOT cleaning out a ditch by a guy with a sign. While I'm sitting there there's a guy (late 20's early 30's I'd say) about 70 yards ahead of the sign guy pulled off the road. For five minutes I watched him standing on his lug wrench trying to get the lugs loose on his tire. When the sign guy told me I could go I motioned that I was pulling up behind the guy with the flat.

I got out and told him I had an electronic impact wrench in my truck, he was thrilled lol. Took all of about a minute to get his lugs loosened. Got the last one off and said there, you're good to go. He said thank you so much.

I always have my drill and impact wrench in the back seat of the truck along with sockets during the summer. I really don't worry about flats though, I can change them but I also have AAA should I not want to deal with it.

You make geno appear to be succinct.

There's a reason I hate telling stories.

I am not really into helping people. Nothing good ever comes of it.

I carry a can of sealant, and a 12 volt compressor.

OK, I've never even been close to South Florida so forgive my ignorance. What is a Blue Jay and a Kimbo Slice?

You're a good man Charlie Golf Buddy.

Kimbo Slice is a famed internet prize fighter.

Blue Jays are loud and obnoxious song birds that become meaner, and bolder when their numbers increase or you approach their living area.

Thanks for the enlightenment I'll keep an eye out for a Blue Jay big enough to drive an F150. Must be quite a sight. I can imagine how one would have trouble with street side engine repair. Just getting the hood open must have been a major accomplishment!

When I see a situation, it all depends. Mostly, I'm looking at the potential for both crime and hazard. It's always good to at least ask "do you have help on the way" at a minimum, at least offer to call in town for assistance.

If there's a road hazard, I'll definitely try to help push off the road, again, based on whether I smell risk.

But there's been too many setup incidents to be completely good-neighborly any more. And it's also a point that one should be prepared for your own breakdown or road problem. In Montana, help might not even come by for hours, even on some pavement.

I bet the guys at the tire shop love cleaning up that mess.
Get a plug kit and skip the green goo.

Tireject is supposed to be good. I also have a compact air compressor. I throw the jack away and replace with a floor mount. 90.00 dollars at harbor freights. I let the guys at tire shop know if I have used a liquid in the tire.

Last week I had to go east the tires on my 2016 f-150 are the original Goodyears with 59k+ miles on them. They were getting pretty close to replacement time just at the safety bars. Lasted along time wear wise but have never been really worth a damn traction wise. Well sure enough first snow storm of the season hits on the way back to Rapid City at Chamberlain SD. Had too slow down and use the the 4wd at times but made it home ok. Tired tires on the interstate is one thing but plumb dumb out deer hunting so I went and got a set of Hercules Ironman All Terrain tires 50 k load range E tires $630.48 mounted and balanced installed. So far so good. All the Toyos and Falkens I looked at they want 800-900 bucks a set. Those goodyears had been rotated regular but that right rear still took a hammering to get off the hub. Wanted new ones for the hunting season now it's done. Mb

"
But there's been too many setup incidents to be completely good-neighborly any more."

Is that for real? People are faking that they are broken down, and then they rob the Good Samariatin?

In the last few years I’ve stopped and helped 3 people.

First had ran out of gas, I carry 10 gallons with me in the truck. We caught him on a rainy night walking along the road past fiel after field of cow pasture. He got in the truck and it smelled like a forest fire. We drove back to his truck and I put in 5 gallons, he offered us a bag of weed for saving his butt. I politely said no and he went on home.

Second, was deer season 2013. I was headed home from a very cold and wet week of hunting. As I rounded a turn I saw an older lady in the road and a guy under a truck trying to change a tire. I first drove by but then stopped and backed up. I got out and went to help. The man had to drag his wife out of the road. I got out a 2X8 I carry in the truck and we get it jacked up and the tire changed. Tire we used was as bad as the one that was flat. I followed them home to make sure they got there. Ended up following them to a million dollar home of an retired heart doctor. His wife had alzheimer’s so he had to try and watch her as he changed the tire, she wouldn’t stay in the truck. He thanked me, offered to pay, even hunt his 800 acre farm. I went away making a new friend.

Third was a mother of 2. She was scared to death. I changed the tire and played with the kids.

hell ya I'll stop

I've stop to help women, can only think of one old guy I help and that was because he didn't have spare so i drove him and the tire to the next town to get it fixed, then back to his car.

In rural Nevada and Idaho You Have to drive down a 2 track 300 yards to take a leak or some young guys will stop to see if you are OK. It may be my hat.



mike r

On the big highway I’m too scared of getting run over by some dipstick on their cell phone or rolling a doobie to stop and help. Or it turns into a circle jerk and 15 people will stop to watch.

Any other time I’ll stop and help.

tikka,

your neighbor girl is all growed up!

If I have a flat I will drive to a place that can change it.. It ruins the tire and rim but I don't give a fugg.

I just changed over 4 summer tires on rims for mounted winter(studded aggressive tread) tires on my F250. The steel wheels are fuggin heavy too! Nobody came to help me!

I guess Randy Weaver could tell you a thing or two about that.

When I was driving the 18 wheeler I tried twice to help with flat tires. Now, it is not safe for a Big Rig to just pull over on the shoulder of an interstate so these both happened at DOT scales where you have to pull in and stop anyway.

The first time, I was leaving the scale, this was about 11 am on a sunny day. Three black ladies standing there on the shoulder of I 85. I pulled over there on the scale exit ramp and went to talk to them.
Yes, they had a flat but they didn't have a spare. They had put in a call and someone was bringing a spare. They were very friendly, maybe a little surprised that a White Boy would offer to help.

The second time was at 10 pm. Pitch black dark. I pulled into the scale, I could see the car right there on the shoulder of the Interstate and could see someone at the wheel, I could see the flat tire.
I walked over in front of the car so I could be seen in the headlights. I walked up towards the driver's door, there was a black lady driving this car. She wouldn't look at me she stared straight ahead. She looked scared. She was fidgeting around in her purse.

And I said to myself, "Big Boy, you better get back to your truck this gal is about to shoot you." And I left.

after that last Yellowstone episode, I'm rethinking the changing of tires on the side of the road.

God knows I love threads like this.
Sometimes it's TMI, but more often just good-hearted stuff.

I learn something from you boys every day.

...and that blonde is a skank.

I'm like Dave Skinner on one of the above post. I look at the threat possibility before I stop. But around here in rural America people help people. I've changer tires for people, went for gas for them or taken them to get gas and boosted off cars for people. But around here you probably know the person and they know you. I'm a lot more cautious when I'm in a strange area.

I was living in a rural neighborhood in Baldwin County Georgia. Very nice houses on 1/2 acre lots on Lake Sinclair.
One night about midnight, I was asleep in bed. There was a knock on the door.

This was really weird I never had any visitors after dark, and especially not at midnight. I looked out the window and the guy on my front porch was a black guy.
That was really weird because I was in an all white neighborhood. This guy had on overalls he looked like a farmer.
I put on my pants, and slipped the Hi Standard .22 mag derringer into my pocket.

I figured if the deal was straight up he would not know I had a gun. If he had two buddies hiding in the bushes, the first guy who charged the door would get two shots in the chest. I figured, the other guys wouldn't know I was out of ammo and they would run off.

I opened the door and the guy, I must say, looked really scared. He said he was a farmer, he had been down to the auction in south Georgia and he had 12 hogs in his trailer. He had run out of gas on Highway 212 which was just 2 blocks away.
Well that sounded like a reasonable story. I stood there talking to him with my hand in my pocket, looking for some bad guys to charge out of the bushes, but none did.

He was asking for a ride to the gas station which was 5 miles away.
I told him I had a fresh gallon of 2 stroke gas for the chain saw. His farm was just 3 miles away. He said that 2 stroke gas was just fine!

I got the gas, we got into my pickup and drove over there, sure enough there in the dark was his pickup on the shoulder of 212, and in the trailer a dozen hogs.
A valuable cargo.
He put the gas in his tank and he was one very grateful guy. He tried to give me ten bucks but I wouldn't take it.

I was his guardian angel that night because he ran a big risk of getting shot by a homeowner in my neighborhood, and also, if he was gone very long he was going to get his hogs stolen.

I would have been scared too knocking on a door that late. Glad it worked out for everyone.

It's real. I have no idea of how prevalent, but it's real. I do know of one incident where some bad actors- bad family with an escaped convict-- stopped to 'help' a family at the side of the road, killed them all and used their car. So being vulnerable can go both ways.

When I see a car on the side of the road if it's just a woman I'll usually stop. With men I probably won't. I did one time between town and house. Two Millennial types with the hood up staring lost into the engine bay. This was rural wyoming and they were headed to salt lake and it was cold. They barely spoke english and they told me they had no AC. Finally I got out of them that they didn't have heat. Well they had lost all their radiator fluid. Sent them to oreilly's and told them to fill it up and buy extra because it was leaking somewhere and while there to check for an obvious and easy fix leak. Later I thought probably should have gone with them, they were probably too stupid to even fill it up. But thankfully the LADIES that work at our oreilly's are pretty knowledgeable and helpful.

I’ve stopped quite a few times to help, been lucky, haven’t had the joy of changing my own flat in a long time.

I stopped for an accident a few years ago. It was late, driving my son home from a basketball game. Guy went off the road a few hundred yards in front of me. Saw a big spray of snow in the air, thought he might have been hurt. Pulled over and he is way down in a ravine. He opens his car door and falls flat on his face in the snow. I call 911 and ask for a police officer and an ambulance. Go down the bank and try to help him. Turns out he's drunk. Help him up to the road and let him wait in the back seat of my SUV while we wait on the police to show up.

Then the fun starts. He says "take me home". I say "No, we will wait on the police". He repeats and repeats and whines like a little baby. I tell him to get out of the car and wait in the cold. He climbs back down the bank and gets in his car and tries to go. He only goes further downhill.

Needless to say, he did get cited for DUI and I had to go to court. Was a real pain but it did leave an impression on my son. He's now of age but never has had a drop of alcohol. Guess I owe that moron a thank you.

My girlfriend and I flew up from Atlanta to Bangor Maine at Christmas. We wanted to see Prince Edward Island. This is a tiny Province off the Atlantic coast. I had read a story about Ann of Green Gables and the story is set on Prince Edward Island.

We flew up to Bangor and rented a Taurus. As we drove that evening, a sure enough Yankee blizzard set in. Out there in the countryside of Maine, you couldn't even see the road, you just knew it was the elevated place, and there were road signs down the bank to the left and telephone poles down the bank to the right.

We had to drive about 4 hours through this blizzard. After about 2 hours, and the snow was a foot deep and snowing like hell, there ahead was a car in the ditch on the right.
I stopped on what seemed like the shoulder and went up to talk to the guys in the car. Turned out it was two couples from Boston. I said "We gotta get you out of this ditch."
In a few minutes, another car came by and I waved them to stop. I told the guy he needed to get out and help us push this car. He agreed.

About that time I saw the girlfriend waving frantically at me. This was a Georgia girl, born and raised in Atlanta. I went back to our Taurus, she was sitting there with the engine idling, the heater on High, and the AM radio on, and she said "I'm listening to the radio it is a Blizzard!! All high school basketball games for tonight cancelled! All church service cancelled for tomorrow!! Screw those Yankees for the Love of God get in the car and let's go before we die!!!!"
I must say the snow was 14 inches deep and climbing fast.

Ah, women, you know how they are. I told her to relax. I went back to the stranded Yankees and soon another car came by, I flagged them down. And that guy agreed to get out and help.

This was in 1990, nobody had cell phones, now for y'all Millennials this is hard to imagine, but, you could not call for help on your Iphone it hadn't been invented yet.
This was way back in another century when passers by would just help a stranger.

So I had one guy from the car in the ditch to drive that car, one guy from that car to push, and the two guys I had flagged down, and the four of us pushed him right out of the ditch.

Throughout the ordeal I tried to keep my Southern accent down I didn't want a Boston Yankee to be embarassed that he had been rescued by a Georgia boy. Biggest snow I ever had seen in Georgia was 2 inches.

Strong work.

Had one on a long bad dirt road (coffee pot for those who know) something blew through the cords, all 6 of them. Had to dig a hole since the Jack was a bit too short one truck stopped. since i had a trailer at the 30 mile marker and the spare was 17 years old and worn I spent good money to get a replacement in Glenwood. lucky the big o was already saving someone else and open late Saturday night. Naturally, no further trouble.

I will give the old Kia's credit for putting a real spare on a matching wheel. No donut or odd steel wheel.

Its been a while since I have stopped for anyone, now I an the old man