I figured out years ago to take the POS out and replace it with a stainless or darn high quality 4 way. I bent several of those freaking things trying to change either my flat or a stranded elderly persons. Also young drivers who, have no clue how to change a flat.

If you have teenage kids driving, by all means, teach them please, how to change a flat. But preferably with a freaking quality 4 way. most young ladies and young men for that matter arent strong enough to break loose a lug nut let alone bend the pitiful lug wrench in the vehicle if they can even get that far.

Sam Petty and I blew out a brand new high dollar tire on a Toyota Tacoma I had some years back. some village idiot let a T post stubbed out about 5" above ground. neither of us could see it due to the angle in which we were traveling. like, really upwards coming out of a creek crossing. Trying to change that flat, I bent the heyull outta of that lug wrench. we were able to get the tire changed and to the tire place that sold that heavy wall mud grip. then, post haste, we headed to Hamilton Tx to a hardware store and I bought a SS steel 4 way. Still have it today. My son ran over a piece of steel that dropped off of a meth head scrap iron doofus that failed to secure his cargo. blew out both right hand tires on a new truck. And of course, he bent the lug wrench. So, I loaded up with an extra and my floor jack and we got that resolved with two new tires and he continued on to the VA.

he was kinda screwed with two blown out tires and one spare. So, Pops to the rescue.

lesson being. one, always have a good 4 way onboard, then, especially if you have teen drivers. Teach them how to change a flat with a good jack and a quality 4 way. I aint driving by a teenager, male or female in this day and time and not helping them. I never have driven past an elderly person in need of help.

I am fairly certain that on this site, most of us are old school and have taught them what they need to know about changing a flat tire. but, those factory lug wrenches are not to be trusted. and most parents that arent in the great outdoors havent a clue themselves how to change a flat. or for that matter to look at the freaking fuel gauge.

I keep a tool bucket in all my vehicles with quality tools, especially a breaker bar/extension bar/and an impact socket of the right size for changing tires.

A bottle jack is a great tool to have also. Most of the "emergency" jacks are really, really sketchy. I've seen them fold up under load too may times to trust them at all.

It is amazing how many people have NO clue how to do anything with their vehicles. Including drive them well.

I carry a floor jack in the back of my pickup and 1/2" drive socket set.
A friend had the factory jack for his Malibu break when he was lifting the car.
I see lots of folks sitting along the road waiting for AAA to change a flat

Everything yall have said is my same experience. and to hec with a freaking POS donut spare. I order a universal rim and put a quality tire on it. I have a bottle jack in my truck, which is what we used to get it up off of the surface then the floor jack.

It amazes me how many able bodied men, have absolutely no clue how to change a dadgum tire. Now, I know plenty of lady folks, like real women, that can change a flat as good as we can. but most, they dont know which end is up or down. all they know how to do is get on that phone. the funny thing about today was my Son was trying to drop a pin on his location. I told him. you goober, i know what road you are on, if your going to the VA you are west of I69. I can find you. now, with that said, had it been one flat, as bad as he bent that POS lug wrench, he wasnt getting either tire off and calling a wrecker wasnt happening. I was only 38 minutes to his location. As much military training as he has as SpecOps dude, I had to chastise him just a bit for not having the correct equipment in that truck. But hey, I dont tote around two spare tires either.

I toss in the Dewalt impact wrench and socket before I go on any trips always have 4 ways in the tool box incase I forget and jacks.

Toyota jacks are good jacks, at least the ones that come in their four wheel drives, some of the other brands, not so much. I've seen a number of four wheel drive Fords that came with a single stage bottle jack, if your tire was completely flat, ie sitting on the rim, you couldn't get the jack under the axle. You would have to either drive the flat up on a rock or chunk, whatever you could find, or put the jack under somewhere else. If you put the jack somewhere else it didn't have enough extension to lift the rig up enough to put an inflated tire under it, you would have to jack it up as far as it would go, but some sort of blocking under it to hold it up, then reposition the jack (possibly on a block). Sometimes having to repeat the process in reverse to get the jack out from under it. Scissor jacks are all right if you are lifting a light car on concrete or pavement, they lift fast but don't have a lot of strength, and they are horrible on gravel or soft ground.

As far as lug wrenches, Toyota and some other brands are notorious for giving you short lug wrenches, which don't give you enough leverage to bend them. The 80's Toyotas came with a longer lug wrench, and I never had a problem with them, once you got up into the Tacomas, well it is luck of the draw, they come with different ones every year I think. Some are good but short, Even if not overtorqued by some gorilla (or tightened down until the impact gun stopped turning) you are probably going to have to stomp on the lug wrench to get enough torque to loosen the lugnuts. Then it just depends on whether you got a truck with a good but sawed off lug wrench or whether you got one of the years made out of cheap, soft steel, in which case you will end up with a U shaped lug wrench. On the side of the road, at night, in a rain/snow storm is not the time you want to find out whether your truck has a quality lug wrench or not.

When I bought my Dodge 3500 diesel (used) it came with a jack, but no jack handle or lug wrench. After I got a jack handle for the jack I realized why it probably didn't have one, those things are super flimsy! Also, I had to fabricate a tool to lower the spare tire with, it has a tube you need to slide a long extension (like 16-18") down to turn the tire down. Actually works well after I welded two extensions together so they wouldn't come apart inside the tube, but not a user friendly design if you end up on the side of the road without the proper tools.

I also always carry plugs and an air compressor that plugs into the cigarette lighter in every vehicle, including fourwheeler and the wife's car. I've shoved four or five plugs in a slice in the sidewall in your sons situation (two flats) and aired it up and drove out. Had to stop and add air after a couple hours, but it got me out and home to another tire. I've fixed plenty of flats over the years with plugs and as long as the hole is in the tread and isn't big enough to need over two plugs I have never had one leak for the rest of the life of the tire. But if you have an inch or two slice in the tire about the best you can hope for is for it to hold air to make it home.

Trailer tires are the bane of my existence, I've changed so many of them, and fixed so many flats on them, I couldn't even begin to give it a number. I run 10 plys on all my trucks and that greatly lowers the number of flat tires, but trailer tires, even the heavy duty ones don't seem to hold up. I've went to running car tires on my fourwheeler and snowmobile trailers, because I can't get any mileage out of tires made for trailers, and it doesn't seem to make any difference in the flat department.

I have a Milwaukee. 500 impact the big impact not the small ones.in both pickups with a floor jack in both pickups and impact sockets to fit most vehicles. I also carry a 20 lb sledge hammer in both pickups. Sometimes it hard to get them broke loose.

I HATE the slip.on lug nut covers that bulge and go.up.a size and a half when you need to take them off.

2019 F150 the lug wrench was smaller than the lug nuts go figure