Scary wheel failure

[Rod in Forfar]

In the CTC parking lot in Smiths Falls today I saw a wheel hop off a horse trailer and follow the truck along over the speed bump before it stopped at the entrance to bay 2. The driver didn't believe me when I told him he'd lost a wheel, but he sent his wife back to check.

As he passed I had noticed the lug nuts were still in place; on the lost wheel five holes had worn through the expensive-looking alloy, but the decorative hub was still in place. I guess the short turn off the street combined with a heavy load and axle scrub to complete the destruction.

The female passenger took a look at the dead wheel and expressed great alarm, worried in retrospect about her load of horses.

I commented that she might consider a steel replacement.

The new, expensive truck-and-trailer rig shouldn't have dropped a wheel. Scary.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I would say a good 1/2 of the 75 trailers I maintain have aluminum wheels. I torque everything to spec and never had a single failure.

Chris

 

[Thomas]

I was told years back even new or install double check w/in 500 miles on trailer..sometimes tech forget to double check even on new tractors w/fel etc.

 

[Rod in Forfar]

I have to emphasize that the lug nuts did not come off. They pulled through the wheel, leaving holes. The nuts stayed and the rest of the wheel took a tour through the Canadian Tire parking lot.

A former student of mine is now a paraplegic after having an errant wheel come through his windshield. This is serious stuff.

 

[2458n]

A ouick walk around your equipment to check for lights ,air pressure,license plates and other things should include looking for rust and dust on rims. Steel rims will eat through the studs if lugnuts nuts are loose. Rust and dust [powdered aluminum] usually means something needs attention. Trailer tires do not transmit as much "feel" back to the driver and should be inspected carefully.

 

[flyingcow]

Seems like a good look at rims, and looking for hairline cracks would have worked. BUT occasionally, stuff happens. drive big rigs, lost only one set of tires, rims and all.(20yrs of driving) Some may pile on, and say there is no excuse, but.....

BTW, only go 100 miles and retorque lug nuts. A calibrated torque wrench is a must, along with clean surfaces. My nuts have to be in the 400lb range:laughing:


Let the games begin!

 

[Diamondpilot]

BTW, only go 100 miles and retorque lug nuts. A calibrated torque wrench is a must, along with clean surfaces. My nuts have to be in the 400lb range:laughing:


Let the games begin!

Yep, I bet they were over torqued at some time.

I had a flat on the drivers rear of my brand new 1999 S-10 blazer when it was 4 months old. Actually had a kitchen fork in it. Anyway I could not get the lug nuts off. I had to walk a mile to a farm house, before cell phone days, and ask to use the phone. I called my dad and he told me what a dumb *^$%^$ I was but he was on his way to help with some tools. The farmer offered to give me a ride back to my truck and on the way he stopped to pick up a 7' long piece of pipe at his barn.

Well we got there and my dad showed up with a 3/4 drive socket set. We put the pipe over the wrench and actually lifted the tire off the gound without the lug nuts budging. My dad said just drive it to the dealer on the flat. It was a Sunday. I did and they had to replace every stud and all 4 wheels on it. They said they had to burn a few lug nuts off they were so tight.

Chris

 

[Skyco]

Interesting about the fork...I had a dinner fork stuck in the sidewall near the tread once...astounded me how it did that..tire was flat in 30 seconds, happened on trash pickup day just as I turned into my driveway. Apparently it came off the trash truck.
I used to joke- when you come to a fork in the road- what do you do?
You run over it:laughing:

Back about 86 I was coming home on Christmas Eve in a company Ford Van and had a flat. Could not get the lugnuts off even jumping on the wrench, and I'm not a little guy. Pondered the situation a few minutes, realizing I'd have a tough time getting road side help on Christmas Eve, so I drove the last 3 or 4 miles to the house on the flat. That tire was smoking when I turned in my drive

 

[PILOON]

Had a semi lose a wheel going the opposite direction on a divided highway.
The wheel followed the semi for a while, gently veer, cross the median, become airborne and bounce over the hood of my car barely missing my windshield.

My pants were close to being stained.

Everything happening so fast, you don't know if to brake, accelerate veer left or right or what.
You just pray, grit your teeth and hang on.

I figured that I earned the right to claim that wheel, heaved it into my trunk and promptly sold it at the next truck stop.
Heavy bas****d!

 

[slowzuki]

The alloys I've seen come off are from loose lug nuts then the holes beat themselves larger from driving with it loose.

I don't like hubcaps!

 

[dodge man]

I work with someone that got hit by a set of duals that came off a semi. If the car hadn't been brand new, it would have been totalled. It destroyed the front end, then skipped over the roof of the car.

 

[Raspy]

My nuts have to be in the 400lb range:laughing:


I thought we were talking about wheels? :laughing:

 

[rd_macgregor]

A few years ago, when I was tightening the lug nuts up after changing over to snow tires on my Subaru Forester, I managed to shear off two lugs! I was not using a pneumatic tool, just the regular L-shaped tire iron that comes with the car.
I'm not a particularly muscular brute, and I've changed lots of tires by hand before without this ever happening, so I presume that these were defective lugs.

BOB

 

[Diamondpilot]

So many people over tighten lug nuts. I have 3 vehicles and 3 trailers. All the trailers call for 120 FT LBS and the Titan calls for 100 FT LBS while the SuperDutys call for something like 150 FT LBS. If you use a torque wrench like I do you will soon realize how little this is. I can not tell you how many over tightened lugs I have seen. This leads to brake rotor damage and wheel damage.

I would guess the average guy with just the little tool that comes in the car can put about 200 FT LBS with relative ease.

Chris

 

[crazyal]

My father told me a story about having a funny rattling noise from his car, think it was a ford. He could never find it so he brought it to a shop and they put it up on the lift and couldn't find it. It slowly got worse but just ot use to the noise.

When it came time for new tires and they pulled the hubcap off the wheels (it had those hubcaps that only covered the lug nuts but left part of the steel wheel exposed) they 3 of the five lug nuts fall on the ground from both front wheels.

Best they could figure is that the last time the wheels were removed the mechanic put two nuts on the hold the wheel on than then finger tightened the last three but never finished them off before putting the hubcap on. Because the noise wasn't specific to one tire or side of the car nobody thought about lug nuts. My father figured he put 30,000 miles on those tires.

I like the Toyota style of lug nuts for Aluminum wheels, the kind that has a flat washer over the cone shape that's also used for steel wheels. If they loosen up Aluminum is just too soft and will wear quickly.

 

[Newblue]

We had a local officer killed by a set of duals that came off of a semi.

http://www.officer.com/web/online/Officer-Down-News/Indiana-Officer-Killed-by-Tractor-Trailer-Tires/2$38321

 

[MoKelly]

This isn't on a car or trailer, but my wife once had the right rear wheel on her ZTR mower fall off while she was mowing. The lug nuts stayed on the mower but the wheel fell off. The wheel holes just got too large ... I guess due to the fact the klug nuts were too tight or too loose.

The mower had about 250 hours (approx. 2 years).

I had never took the wheels off nor had I checked the tightness of the lug nuts.

She wasn't hurt ... just startled.

MoKelly

 

[czechsonofagun]

We got a vette back to the shop to replace rear quarter panel. It was a custom built 66 with Z1? engine and total cost with upholstery 270K! The guy who done the upholstery didn't tight nuts on that wheel and it came off.

 

[LBrown59]

My father told me a story about having a funny rattling noise from his car, think it was a ford. He could never find it so he brought it to a shop and they put it up on the lift and couldn't find it. It slowly got worse but just got use to the noise.

When it came time for new tires and they pulled the hubcap off the wheels (it had those hubcaps that only covered the lug nuts but left part of the steel wheel exposed) they 3 of the five lug nuts fall on the ground from both front wheels.
Best they could figure is that the last time the wheels were removed the mechanic put two nuts on the hold the wheel on than then finger tightened the last three but never finished them off before putting the hubcap on. Because the noise wasn't specific to one tire or side of the car nobody thought about lug nuts. My father figured he put 30,000 miles on those tires.

I like the Toyota style of lug nuts for Aluminum wheels, the kind that has a flat washer over the cone shape that's also used for steel wheels. If they loosen up Aluminum is just too soft and will wear quickly.

When I was a teen driver we would put a marble in 1 or 2 of the hub caps just to hear it rattle when going slow.

 

[dstig1]

So many people over tighten lug nuts. I have 3 vehicles and 3 trailers. while the SuperDutys call for something like 150 FT LBS. If you use a torque wrench like I do you will soon realize how little this is.

Chris

165 ft-lbs actually. I think they upped the spec after SD's were out a couple years. And I think it is a ton of torque. My large 1/2" torque wrench (25-250 ft lbs) requires quite some pressure to click out on these. I don't weigh enough, so I need to leverage against the ground or truck to make that click sometimes. I love when I run across the occasional 200+ ft-lb crankshaft nut:confused2: