I hurt my lower back while removing lug nuts/replacing tire. Is there a better tool to use?

Yeah 19 mm fits. Dang cars.

You may have put the penny on top of the wear bars when the tread measured low. You should be able to feel the wear bars with your finger. Avoid them when you measure tread depth if thatā€™s the case.

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Funny. I only bring that up because growing up (late 80ā€™s), I worked at my dadā€™s shop. He would always use (and told me to always use) a 3/4" socket with the impact gun. I could never understand why the lug nuts kept getting jammed in the socket. Youā€™d have to pull the socket off the gun and bang it on the ground (on itā€™s side, not on the end) to get the lug nut to fall out. That could be 10 times when rotating tires. The slightly larger 3/4" socket caused the lug nuts to get cocked just enough. Once I realized everything else was metric on the car, I tried a 19mm. Worked like a charm. The lug nuts generally fell right out of the socket. I mentioned this to my dad, to which he said nothing and kept on using his 3/4" socket and banging it on the ground - for years. You can lead a horse to waterā€¦

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The wear bars are 2/32 of an inch and are considered by DOT to be unsafeā€¦ 4/32 is wear you start loosing your wet weather traction as well as I have seen a lot of tires get hard and not grip well when braking at 4/32ā€¦

You measure the lowest grove in the tread, you could have a tire with uneven treadwear pattern and showing 7/32 on one side and secondary rubber on the other, the lowest side will wear down to cords 1st as a rule of thumbā€¦ Once rubber has been worn off, it can NOT be added backā€¦

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Mine were at 5/32 and just got new tires. Reasoning was winter coming, just had a nail in one and donā€™t like a patched tire, and five years old. I only checked the center and looked pretty even, but 5/32 was just barely getting into the yellow. Figured why wait?

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BUTā€¦remember you have that pipe back there, because you ā€œmightā€ send multiple mechanics on wild goose chase about the ā€œrolling, banging soundsā€ in rear, when you turn corners sharply!

It werenā€™t the struts, springs, etc. It was the pipe (not exhaust, which is usually screwed down).

3/4 and 13/16 were common sizes for years and years, but as metric lugs became more common 19mm and 21mm were the required sizes. I have impact ā€œflip socketsā€ for 3/4 and 13/16 combo and 19 and 21 combo. I also have wheel lug sockets in 19.5mm, 21.5mm, and 22.5mm for those lug nuts that tend to swell.

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This is great to know. Thanks for sharing.

Anyone have any idea why my passenger side front tire is way more worn than my driver side front tire? Abeā€™s Lincoln head is fully viewable on almost every part of the passenger tire, but is well-covered on most of the tire on the driver side.

Both tires were installed at the same time.

Also why does the last line of tread appear unworn compared to the outer lines of tread closer to the street?

48 replies and nobody said this: I have two ā€œcrossā€ style lug wrenches (X). One in my car and one in my shop (garage). It doesnā€™t introduce side loads on the lug nuts like your standard one handled lug wrench. Using both hands the torque is about just right, no torque wrench needed.

Several people posted about 4-way tire wrenches. They are the same thing.

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Have you kept the air pressure even in them and the correct amount??
Have you kept the tires rotated about every 5,000 miles??
Have you kept up with checking the alignment and correcting it if out??

A picture is worth a lot, post some pictures of the tire treads where we can see the whole treadā€¦

Yeah, the 13/16 was even worse for getting lug nuts jammed. But, as a kid, I just did what I was told. Great point re: the 0.5mm oversize sockets.

Oh yah. I never heard them called that (Iā€™m 66). At any rate the way these are made makes it easy to remove and tighten without the side load that a one handled wrench imparts on the lug nut. And it gets it tight but not too tight.

Guess you are just too young!
Four way because each end has a different size to fit any common lug nut size including many tractors and lawn mowers.

May I have a lawn mower some day big enough to have wheel studs.

Remember that different parts of the country call tools the different things, some places call it a cross and other call it a 4 way, Iā€™m sure others have different names for itā€¦

Another common type, sometimes called a spider wrench , is made in the shape of a cross with different sized sockets on each of the four ends. Other names are four way wheel wrench , spanner , brace , or cross .

Lug wrench - Wikipedia.

I have one of these that I keep in the vehicle. It has taken off lugs that I could not get off with a cross lug wrench. the only thing I do not like is when you try to spin the lug off it does not always stay set in the indent in the middle of the bar.

Billy Club Universal Lug Wrench (powerbuilt.com)

I use the cross wrench term too but it was easy to see that the four way is the same thing.

Harbor Freight calls those a ā€œFour-way lug wrenchā€, it helps when a noun is used;

Four-way lug wrench

Four-way flashers

Four-way stop.

I just thought it was a spinner. Or a spanner spinner across the pond.