Grigg-- the lugs were left hand thread!
Couple quick stories:
One of the new tires was flat where the valve stem had rotted after 4 years of sitting on the tire tack.
I took the tire to the shop where I originally bought them to get it repaired. It is a split rim. Now I have changed many a split rim in my time and I just didn't have the energy to do it.
I left the tire and took my kids to the airport to for a trip to Disneyworld in Orlando. Later the afternoon, I went to the tire shop and nothing was done to the tire yet.
No problem, I'll come back later. Around four I went back the tire was busted apart but the guy who did it was on a service call and I could get the tire tomorrow.
Nevermind I said, just give me the tube and flap, I'll put it back together myself.
"what's a flap?" I gathered my stuff and left.
I then went to a BIG TRUCK tire shop, got a tube and flap and went home and fixed the tire.
The next day I took the bus to the same shop to bust loose the lug nuts. Grigg was right, they were left hand thread, all my work to remove them, I was just tightening them.
Anyhow, the bus had got budd wheels all around, painted yellow with silver lugs and detail.
I think it looks sharp! I also finally got all the Precious Moment's writing off of it.
I had painted one panel on the side of the bus and it looked really bad. My wife sanded it down and repainted it.
She is a better painter than I am! And she didn't have that glazed look in her eyes!
Instead, her hair was yellow!
As an aside, I took the front wheels off the bus and put them on the rear of my 53, I bet I gained 10 miles an hour going to the leaf dump!
Jim
