simply changing a tire

I need to get my road graded so that I can drag the back hull section from where it lays on the road side (If you are not familiar with why part of my boat would be laying on the side of the road, see blog entry about popping a wheelie).

Problem is I have one tire that is flat and 1 tire that is in such bad shape I cannot fathom how it even holds air. Time to change the tire.

I call up Les Schwab and find out that a new tire is going to cost me 510 dollars. One tire. New rubber all the way around my grader would be 3 thousand bucks. I think I'll scrounge around for what I can find. For starters, my neighbor has a tire he'll give me. It's a 14.9 x 24 instead of my 13 .00 x 24, but beggars can't be choosers as gramma used to say, so I'll use it as it's really only 2 inches bigger in cross section. The first number is a measurement of the circumference and the cross section of the tire and the second number refers to the diameter of the wheel rim.

I get the grader jacked up and on blocks, persuade the wheel nuts to loosen up and, with a big Kung Fu kick, get the wheel off the grader. But, watch out! This wheel is so heavy that if it tips over, I won't be able to get it back up. I carefully roll it away. Not sure how I'll get the wheel up into the pick up for the ride to the tire store.