My recent experience with a blowout on the right rear tire

Since I acquired my 2012 Prius v new in that year, I've been contemplating on how to handle a tire blowout on that car.

My first purchase was a full sized spar, in that on a freeway trip, I did not want to trust the donut spare that came with the car.

Over the years, I carried a Harbor Freight aluminum flat top 1-1/2 ton racing jack. The original was bulky and weighed 23 pounds. Unfortunately, while Toyota provided a strap and instructions on how to hold down the full sized spare on top of the rear compartment platform, there was no way to tie down the Harbor Freight jack to keep it from flying in case of an accident.

I had developed and made various versions of pinch weld adapters for the flat top jack over the past 12 plus years with good success.

I was always concerned with the clearance under the pinch weld jacking point with a completely flat tire. That was the reason for the Harbor Freight low clearance racing jack.

After all my three Harbor Freight racing jacks fail due to leakage of stuck internal valves, I acquired really cheap Walmart Hyper Tough two ton trolley jacks with the first being only less than $30. To my amazement, they weighed at least 5 pounds less than the lightest Harbor Freight aluminum jack with the latest version now available weighing 33 pounds plus. To defray rising cost, apparently, Harbor Freight has converted a lot of parts to steel.

I have developed and made various versions of pinch weld adapters for the flat top jack over the past 12 plus years with good success.

I was always concerned with the clearance under the pinch weld jacking point with a completely flat tire. That was the reason for the Harbor Freight low clearance racing jack.

After all my three Harbor Freight racing jacks fail due to leakage or stuck internal valves, I acquired really cheap Walmart Hyper Tough two ton trolley jacks with the first being only less than $30. To my amazement, they weighed at least 5 pounds less than the lightest Harbor Freight aluminum jack with the latest version now available weighing 33 pounds plus. To defray rising costs, apparently, Harbor Freight has converted a lot of parts to steel.

To my surprise, the Walmart Hyper Tough jack is amazingly easy to carry in one hand with the top handle and stores well completely and safely under the hinged panel of the cargo area foam insert.

My only concern was that the lowered height of the jack was over four inches and might not fit under the pinch weld with a flat tire and the stupid little cut swivet top of the jack.

On that account I carried a low rise ramp and made a flat top adapter for tTo my surprise, the Walmart Hyper Tough jack is amazingly easy to carry in one hand with the top handle and stores well completely and safely under the hinged panel of the cargo area foam insert.

My only concern was that the lowered height of the jack was over four inches and might not fit under the pinch weld with a flat tire and the stupid little cut swivet top of the jack.

On that account I carried a low rise ramp and made a flat top adapter for the jack.

Monday before last, I visited the local Lowe's and when I left the parking lot, I heard a flapping noise as I drove off. As I went to the parking lot of the Home Depot across the street, I looked at all the tires and found the right rear tire to be totally flat.

Using the Ryobi inflator, I could not get the pressure to go above 5.5 pounds. That told me that the tire needed to be changed.

I was happy when I found that the flat top converted Walmart jack had over an inch of clearance under the pinch weld with the car lowered by the flat tire. Having more than enough clearance, I slid the pinch weld adapter under the flat top of the jack, jacked up the car and changed the tire.

I no longer need to carry the low rise ramp.

I have uploaded photos of the flat top converted jack and the pinch weld adapter as I used it.