Barney & Clyde by Gene Weingarten; Dan Weingarten & David Clark for December 27, 2024

What a lug!

Just ‘find’ a piece of rigid tubing to give yourself the mechanical advantage.

It’s a poor workman who blames his tools.

I’m with him. Auto mechanics should use torque wrenches to tighten lug nuts, not air wrenches.

There are cheap impact drivers that run off of the car battery that can loosen properly installed lug nuts.

Why does he need a tire?

It’s not until he’s caught loosening those lug nuts that he’ll hate the police and courts.

The thug with the lug, recognized by his mug, ends up all snug in the jug…

Extra credit for not calling the lug wrench a “tire iron”.

Lug nuts hold on the wheel, not the tire.

good point

When I got my first car, I had to change a tire. I had one of those big cross wrenches that came with the car and the nut would not come off. I put whatever weight I had on it and pulled as hard as I could and the bolt broke off. Afterwards, I was told you should hit it repeatedly to loosen it, not put all of the force into it at once.

Lesson learned: after that, I waited by the flat and looked helpless until someone came by to help me. :)

Position the wrench so you may stand on it and give a bit of a jump. Lugnuts will loosen. I have done this several times.

Seems like “borrowing” tires would be a challenging hobby for a little guy like that unless he has friends to help jack up the car and transport the booty…

That is not a lug wrench; that is a jack handle.

With a proper lug wrench, you can push up with one hand and down with the other, for greater torque (or, in extremis, jump on it……).