Tacoma tires, jack crash, GOT gone

So I decided last night I wanted to get the Tacoma tire rotation that I had hoped to do over the weekend done, I hate leaving loose ends from the weekend dangling.  I decided I would make this a combination workout challenge and automotive maintenance hybrid video.  The goal was to rotate the tires using hand tools in less than 30 minutes.  Of course any challenge needs to be on video, else it didn’t really happen.

My hope in swapping the tires is to nail down the source of vibration I feel in the truck at higher speeds.  If the vibration is lesser after the swap I would assume the problem is wheel related, perhaps Tuffy did a shitty job balancing the new tires.  If the vibration is the same after rotation there is something else going on that I am more than likely just going to ignore.  I have no interest in spending any more money on Tacoma repairs in the near future.

Once I started loosening the lug nuts I immediately noticed that they didn’t seem they were on very tight at all.  They broke loose with my lug wrench much easier than I am accustomed to.  I would assume that the air wrench a garage uses to put the lugs back on would snug them up tighter.

The other thing I noticed was the lead weights that were used to balance the wheels looked all beat up and rusted.  The garage either reused my old weights or threw some used ones on they had laying around.  It’s a minor thing but it sort of bugged me that the $834 I paid Tuffy for tires did not include new lead wheel weights.

Swapping the tires went fine although there was a minor incident towards the end of the process.  I had the entire back end of the truck up in the air, supported with my smaller 2 1/2 ton floor jack.  I was using my heavy duty/taller 5 ton jack to jack the front end.  When I was dropping the jack from the driver side front position I twisted the handle a little too quickly, causing the truck to drop rapidly.  The rapid descent caused just enough sideways momentum to make the jack under the differential in the back to tip over and crash down.

Both of the back wheels were on the truck when it fell and I also had a jack stand under the driver side so it was fine.  Still, it was a bit unsettling to have the back of the truck come crashing down.

I missed my goal of 30 minutes for the entire job, instead clocking in at just over 37 minutes.  I was a sweaty mess by the end of it.

If you want to see the 16 minute video with lots of sped up footage look below.

If you just want to see the truck falling off the jack look here.

On the drive into work I didn’t go much over 50 so I couldn’t really tell if things feel much different or not.  I am wondering if the problem could be shock/strut related as well since the originals from the factory are still on the truck.  I smell another project in my future… (I’m already watching how to videos)

I watched the Game of Thrones finale last night.  Of course it couldn’t measure up to the incredible previous episode.  Instead the finale basically got you all primed and ready for season 4 which will be uncomfortably far away.