and I bet you are the driver I always hear on the CB saying "that boy needs a good beatin'.. " Mikeeee
If it was as obvious as you say it would be illegal for a service truck (or anyone for that matter) to change a tire on the highway. As long as its safer is a totally subjective statement. Safer last time I checked was an opinion. One cop might agree with you and the next one might say that you are likely to blow the remaining tire and role your load over on top of the preverbal family of 4 on their way to the beach. Even cops that might agree with you may disagree with how far you can move it before stopping to have it changed. Some would probably tell you that you could only move as far as the first exit and then call road service to service it there in a gas station parking lot. Others might say its OK to move it to a truck stop. Some might say your pulling the bad tire off on the side of the highway is more dangerous than a service truck equipped with caution lights and plenty of warring triangles is changing the same tire. All I was saying is that you take a chance pulling a tire and keep on moving if over weight, it will all depend on if you get stopped and if you do by whom.
That will be quite enough of the insults in this thread, thank you very much. Make your points without being condescending. Carry on.
The point I'm getting at is it's not safe to operate a loaded truck with a flat tire, doesn't matter to a officer because he does not know if it happen a mile down the road or hundred miles. Is it safer to pull off the road at the next exit hell ya it is, is it legal NO. What I'm greeting at is don't give BAD advice to others.
Apparently it is "insulting" to ask you to read that little green book of regulations, so it is pointless to continue this debate. For anybody else who wants to know the truth, though, they can fast-forward straight to § 396.7(b) and read for themselves what I've been saying. I'm not going to keep arguing with you over it.
An example. Blew a trailer tire crossing a bridge into Wa. Yep the scales are right after the bridge. Anyway scale guy tries writing me a ticket for said tire. I says it just blew on the bridge sir. Ok get les schwab out here. The end.
So I guess the OP wanted to know if he needed to have a torque wrench for his lug nuts . My answer would be no you don't need to carry one with you in 33 years I have never had the need for one arise .
This is a little off topic but a good way to check the tightness of each lug nut. After torqueing use a little torque paint and paint each lug. We even went a little further and used these plastic rings we bought at a truck show for a $1 a piece. They have arrows on them and all you have to do is look down and make sure they are all installed the same way. Quick and clean. Besides, 9 times out of 10 the people fixing your flat do not know how to use a torque wrench from the start. That's way steps that require torqueing will say plus or minus 2 flbs.
I do... few extra sizes and sockets just case ya break one off. Small propane torch helps too in a jam. No good if ya get 1/2 the lugs off/on and the socket breaks in 1/2. Too bad they do not make blackhawk sockets any more.
