I go the mounted spare route. If I'm light enough I'll just remove the whole thing and drive to a shop to get a new tire mounted on the rim than put it back on myself. If I'm too heavy to single out a tire than the mounted spare goes on and I get the flat replaced at a shop. For this I have a 20 ton bottle jack, 33mm (don't know if that's a standard size) deep socket, 6 inch extension, pneumatic wrench, gladhand airhose, a breaker bar, a 4ft pipe to go over the breaker bar if extra leverage is needed, and a torque wrench to tighten the lugs to 450lb. Also a 3ft crowbar to help leverage the tire onto the studs (the pipe also helps).
Does it mean that truck air compressors will be good to start the pressure once you have the tire on the rim? Hell, when I get home. I'll get the tools then I'll dismount a trailer tire and see for myself.. Maybe, carrying a spare already on the rim is the way to go.
I'll tell you all something. If I can change my spare on the road, instead of asking someone else, I'll feel more accomplished than running $4 per mile today.
Truck runs at 130psi, it's enough through a 50ft gladhand hose to get off bolts if you've torqued them to 450 yourself, but if there is a lot of corrosion and rust you might need to start them with a breaker bar. It can tighten them almost to 450, I'll still get 1/2 to a full bolt rotation with my torque wrench before it hits 450lb.
3/4 drive electric impact will smoke those wheel nuts off like F.A. My coworker's 1/2 drive cordless would probably do it too. Thing's probably got 700 ft-lbs of torque. These new cordless impacts are a far cry from what they were even 5 years ago.
I’m all good with letting some minimum wage clown destroy my aluminum wheels, polish the outsides while they are off, check hubs for play, zip a new set of shocks on, etc
