[Tejas Ingle]

Originally Posted by avisidhu

Just to add, remember a post by Sam where he asked Jenny if she had ever encountered a punctured car in her entire life in Germany, and the answer was, No

Originally Posted by k_nitin_r

In my decade-long automotive experience in the UAE, I've never had a flat tyre. I've never even had to look at the spare tyre or toolkit either, which remains hidden below the trunk carpet (or at least I think it's in there).

These places must be a drivers heaven! I must have changed tyres more than a hundred times!! That includes the tyres I have changed for many other people. In fact, I am so much practiced at this, I can do it in 5-7 min flat!

[k_nitin_r]

Originally Posted by Tejas Ingle

These places must be a drivers heaven!

Our Indian roads that lead to the country-side are no less fun. Playing dodge-the-pothole was quite an experience when I got off NH7 and entered the country side. With no traffic at all and make-shift, damaged, or non-existent roads, there's semi-off-roading experience to be had. There are roads that are made of stones dumped on a mud strip and the car tends to slip over them and go all over the road. When you drive through the seemingly impossible potholes in a sedan without grazing the car belly, you would know what the feeling is like... approaching the pothole from all kinds of angles and hearing the occasional bumps and scratches as you scrape over the humps amidst the pot holes. Finally, having a flat tyre (hasn't happened to me yet in the country side) in the middle of it all and figuring out how to use a jack and fit on another tyre is the icing on top.

The parts that are terrible in our road conditions are the two-way roads, unmarked speed breakers esp. on highways, and buses and trucks that hog the road. Imagine a bus going at 20 kmph and another bus overtaking it at 22 kmph but the other bus slows down because of oncoming traffic and as soon as the road is cleared, it attempts another overtaking except this time at 21 kmph. All you can do is wobble along in 2nd gear with a yawn.

[RGK]

The jack looks weird. I think it would not have placed rightly on the tiles. May be placed near the grooves (joints between the cement tiles). Due to the curve design, it might have slipped.

Normally for vehicles having a big boot, one can buy the hydraulic jack (comes around 1500/-). It is easy to lift and tension less.
Better to have the spare tyre under the running board to avoid major damages.

These problems do occur when the driver is in a hurry ( eg: puncture happened in a crowded road). So it is better to be patient. Luckily Merc was placed in a spacious location and on a better floor. It seems either the driver or the puncture boy did not place the jack at the right spot.

Many times I have changed my M800 tyre within 5 min provided my boot did not have any luggage.

[opendro]

I didn't read fully. But people seem to suggest, wood plank, check surface, blah blah. Think this way. If you have got only a stick to lift the car and there is a monster to do the initial lift so that you can insert the stick. It does not matter if the stick is of L shape or snake shape. How would you mount the stick?

In a normal flat surface, you would make the ground contact right below the car under body contact. If you didn't do this, a twist force on the stick could dislocate the stick completely.

If the ground was not flat, it is tricky. We need to keep the ground contact such that the stick (the line between the two ends) would be perpendicular to surface of contact area, however uneven or small it is. At the same time, it also has to be perpendicular to the contact point on the car underbody surface or there should be a place where that contact would be firm, such as a groove.

I think it is fault on Merc to assume that its customers are intelligent. If they had given the regular jack, which would stand stable before the tip of the jack is engaged onto the underbody of the car, there is little chance that even the dumbest user will make a mistake not to mount force along the jack perpendicular to the contact surface.

There is a case where Merc jack is of better design than the regular ones
In the above case where the ground is not even, it would be much easier with a merc jack to find a point of ground contact with the required principles explained above. It is like a three legged table might be more stable in uneven surface than a four legged table. Not a perfect comparison, but I suppose you get what I meant.

[Swanand Inamdar]

Originally Posted by Tejas Ingle

In fact, I am so much practiced at this, I can do it in 5-7 min flat!

Case in point being, any Pune BHPians who encounter a flat tyre need to call Tejas to get the job done effectively and in no time at all .

No, on a serious note- Tejas, did you happen to mention this to the people in MBIL? What was their reaction/outcome of that?

[Tejas Ingle]

Originally Posted by opendro

There is a case where Merc jack is of better design than the regular ones
In the above case where the ground is not even, it would be much easier with a merc jack to find a point of ground contact with the required principles explained above. It is like a three legged table might be more stable in uneven surface than a four legged table. Not a perfect comparison, but I suppose you get what I meant.

Originally Posted by Swanand Inamdar

Case in point being, any Pune BHPians who encounter a flat tyre need to call Tejas to get the job done effectively and in no time at all .

No, on a serious note- Tejas, did you happen to mention this to the people in MBIL? What was their reaction/outcome of that?

Hahahaha.. that would be great. Please feel free to call me. Getting my hands dirty is like an addiction to me.
I will be getting up this issue but I haven't come in contact with the right people yet. I will post it here when I get any response.

[TRAUMASURG]

If one follows the owner's manual,these types of accidents can be avoided...Mercedes benz jacks are made for their cars and they are time tested especially the one which came with their flagship automobile.
I beleive it is user error causing the damage.

[HotChillyPepper]

Originally Posted by TRAUMASURG

I beleive it is user error causing the damage.

In my opinion, a manufacturer like Merc having 125+ years of experience cannot expect its users to do the right thing always. They should make sure a user cannot go wrong with such an equipment used less than 10 times of a car's lifetime. The point is, when a user of an S-class using a jack, he/she must be mentally frustrated and you cannot expect him/her to do the right things.
-HCP