I've done it. Felt the graunch move from wheel to knuckle. Vibrations through dense steel. It doesn't end in your palms, it travels from there into the small of your back and the pit of your stomach.

Having spent the better part of a year installing tires at the Pep Boys in Fredericksburg, Va., I thought I knew a thing or two about how a tire is mounted to a rim. It was my first job after ...