I have a punctured tire, what size tire iron do I need to fix it? If this is the quandary for which you are searching a solution, then you have come to the right place.
The parts and components of a vehicle wear off over time with continuous use. If
It is possible that during a ride, the tire on your vehicle gets punctured, and you have to change the punctured tire with the spare tire yourself.
You must own a few necessary tools for doing these minor repairs yourself. One such tool is a tire iron. It is a tool made of iron or steel which serves the specific purpose of removing the tire edges from the rims of the wheels. It is a metal tool with one end shaped like a socket wrench and one end flattened to shape a blade.
There are several different sizes of tire iron available in the market. You can choose 16 or 21 inches to tire iron for yourself, depending upon its use and how comfortable you feel while using it.
How To Choose a Tire Iron?
When it comes to buying a tire iron, choosing one with a long handle is the best way to go, as it allows you more room to hold the tire iron. Having a proper tire iron will offer better grip, and you can easily apply enough pressure to pry the tire away.
However, since most of the time, you will need a tire iron when you are on the road, a tire iron that fits in your car with other tools would be better.
Most tire irons for removing tires away from the rim come in a pack of two or three.
While removing the tires from the rim, one tire iron is used to pry some section of the tire and is left there to hold the tire out, and then another tire iron is used to pry some other section. This way, enough section of the tire is removed before removing the first tire iron and using it to remove the tire further. By following this process, you can easily remove the whole tire away from the wheel rim and reach the tube inside the tire to inspect for the puncture.
In the case of a tubeless tire, a tire iron will have no use. However, since its one end is shaped like a socket wrench, you can use it to remove motor nuts.
People sometimes call an L-shaped lug wrench a tire iron since its one end is shaped like a blade.
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What Size Socket For Tire Lugs?
A tire lug nut is a nut that is used to attach a wheel to a vehicle securely. If there is an issue with the vehicle tire, you need to open up these lug nuts to remove the wheel. You would need a socket wrench to open up the tire lug nuts.
The most common sizes for lug nuts are 23 mm, 21 mm, 19 mm, and 17 mm. You would need to buy an X-shaped socket wrench with all these four sizes, and it will handle almost all of your needs.
What Size Tire Iron Do I need?
It is essential to have the right size tire iron if you wish to change a punctured tire yourself in the middle of a drive. A 16 or 21 inches tire iron would be ideal for you. However, there are several other tire sizes also available in the market.
It would be better to try a few sizes out before getting one for yourself. Please choose a size that feels right in your hand, and you can grip it tightly.
Ever since the tubeless tires came into the market, tire iron has become less popular, and lug wrench has gained popularity.
An L-shaped lug wrench has a flattened side which you can use to pry off tires from the wheels. Most people confuse a lug wrench with one because of its similarity to a tire iron. However, both of them are different.
Frequently Asked Questions
#1. What size is a standard tire iron?
When choosing a tire iron for your vehicle, choosing a size that allows you to hold the tool while working with it is essential properly. A standard size tire is 16 or 21 inches. A good grip is necessary to safely use a tire iron while removing the tires from the wheel rim.
Since one of its ends is flattened, it can hurt you if the size is too small. Also, since you will be storing the tire iron in your vehicle, make sure that you don’t get a huge size as it won’t fit easily with the other tools.
#2. What size lug wrench should I get?
There are several different sizes of lug wrench available on the market. The most common sizes of lug nuts found on a vehicle are 23 mm, 21 mm, 19 mm, and 17 mm.
A four-way lug wrench or x shaped lug wrench having all these sizes would be ideal. It can handle most of your lug wrench uses.
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#3. Is tire iron the same as lug wrench?
Many people get confused between a tire iron and a lug wrench and call them by the wrong name. A lug wrench, as the name suggests, is used to tighten or loosen lugs on wheels. You can think of it as a socket wrench.
At the same time, a tire iron is a specific metal tool that serves just one purpose: prying the tire away from the wheel rim while repairing or replacing the tires.
What kind of wrench do I need to change a tire?
To change a tire, you would need a lug wrench. A lug wrench can have an L or X shape. The common shape of lug wrench that people have in their car is an L-shaped wrench having one end shaped like a socket wrench, and another flattened like a blade.
The socket wrench side is used to tighten or loosen the nuts, and the flattened end removes the tire from the wheel rim. Since one of its sides is used to pry away the tire, people mistakenly call it a tire iron sometimes.
The ideal wrench to use when changing a tire is a torque wrench, but since the lug wrenches don’t have a way to measure the force applied, they come cheap. Using the lug wrench means you will have to estimate how tight the nuts should be.
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A Few Final Words
There are several types and sizes of tire irons available in the market, but the most popular ones are either 16 inch or 21 inch. Keeping a tire iron with you is almost as important as carrying a jack or a spare tire because without it you will not be able to fix the puncture. Make sure that you assess the right size of tire iron for your car and wheels, and buy one as soon as possible!
Thank you for reading the article, we hope we were able to answer all your questions. If not, you can always write to us and we will get back to you with a suitable answer.
