Growing up in California, the only time a person changed his/her tires was for one of two reasons: one, you have a flat. Two, the treads are worn out.
But in Norway (and probably other places in the world that don't have year round sunshine), you change your tires regularly. Twice a year, actually. Once to put on winter tires, and once to take them off and replace them with summer tires. If you're like me and completely naive to this subject, you might ask "what's the difference?"
In short, winter tires are:
- Deeper in tread depth
- Softer
- Studded (in Bergen, you have to pay extra to have studded tires - approximately 1500 kroner...a little over 200 US dollars - for the environment, apparently. Bergen has a slight pollution problem and the studded tires create more problems, so I'm told).
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| Winter Tire! |
Today was the day we had to change our tires. We found a big open space that was perfectly flat. I was super helpful by documenting this delightful afternoon (I really did have fun, actually).
Stian did most of the work (big suprise!), but after watching him do one, I decided it wasn't that hard and that I would do one, too.
So here I am getting my hands dirty and changing a tire...(and this post is about as fun as watching water boil, right??):
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| Using the car jack... (all I could think of was the South Park song about San Diego "jackin' it, jackin' it, jackety jack!") ...and I thought it was super fun, obviously. |
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| Loosening the lug nuts with my cross wrench! (See what I've learned?!) |
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| Success! 1 down, 3 to go. |
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| Putting on the dirty winter tire. |
It took me twice as long as Stian to do this, so naturally I let him do the rest. While raising the car up with the jack, the jack broke, which meant we had to take a little trip to the hardware store and buy a new one before we could put the last tire on.
But the job is done and we're ready for the snow...
...sort of.
hahaha i love that you dedicated a post to this because last winter when andre changed his tires i was so confused of why you would need different tires for snow and ice. it was really a complicated issue for me to understand and i really didnt until you just explained it. although one time i was driving in oregon and accidentally began climbing mt. hood (i didnt know b/c it was soooo foggy) and it kept saying chains needed on tires...so i knew there was something special about tires and snow.
ReplyDeleteby the way, i have the same pannebånd except it is only red and white ;)
1. makes me wonder which is worse: a super-nanny state telling you to pay for stud (for p-pollution?) or a pair of jackasses running for the seat every four years.
ReplyDelete2. dat instagramming
3. glad to see you guys are having fun out there!
Yeah, can you imagine that, among all the other things you have to familiarize yourself with when moving to another country, you have to know about changing tires? It sounds unimportant, but it is. The constant switching of tires might be expensive, but it is necessary for safety.
ReplyDeleteYou’re one of the few people who looked genuinely happy while changing tires. :) That’s a lot of muscle work, and oftentimes, things can get downright dirty. I know because that’s what happened the first time I did it. :P I didn’t know then that it should be done on a flat space. :P Anyway, do you have another set of rims for it?
ReplyDeleteNice one, Alyssa! Judging by the pictures, I can say that you have skills in changing tires. :D What’s great is that you’re so willing to try it and you’re really enjoying what you’re doing. With that big smile on your face, it feels like this activity is just a piece of cake to you. Hehe!
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