
Originally Posted by
Mick

Originally Posted by
Patriot76
In two weeks, 3,000 miles have been put on my butt crossing the midwest. 30 miles from Omaha a strange thing happened. Going 70 mph hauling a 30 ft. gooseneck loaded with a skid steer and all the attachments owned, a crack was heard. Looked back to see a wheel and tire from the trailer in turbo speed flying across the interstate. It seems the wheel broke all the lugs from the wheel assembly and decided to pursue it's own uncharted path. Limped into Omaha, unloaded skid steer and trailer and went to relax. I have no idea what happened, but since no one was hurt I am feeling much better now. If anyone knows what causes this, I would love to know. Otherwise it was a freak event in scrapping that will reveal itself someday.
I had that happen on a one ton dually with sander loaded with two tons of sand/salt that I'd just had new tires put on. About 20 miles later one of the duals on the driver side went across the road. Over $800 in repairs later....
Mechanic told me it was likely from not torquing the lugs and most likely had been too tight. The (national) shop got out of the warranty because I hadn't gone back within 20 miles to have the tires "re-torqued".
Over-torquing stretches the studs, weakens them and they can snap. Seen it a bunch of times. Also, the re-torquing thing is very very very important to get done. We have had a number of people come back with loose or missing lug nuts. Most are Furious with us. Well, every time that has happened, they had put on well over the 150km limit we tell them, (and also stamp on their invoice). we asked if they had returned for the re-torque. ".....No" Id say only 20% of our customers come back for the re torque. Most say they are "too busy" to take 2 minutes to have us re torque the nuts. A father was killed here recently when a tire came off a car and flew into his windshield, and another mother and daughter are lucky to be alive after a transport lost both rear wheels on one side and one hit the hood of their car, and absolutey crushed the front end. (We got dispatched to tow the car. It was a complete wreck) Im really dissapointed that most people think that the few mins it takes to get the re torque done is less important than someones life.
Now I know you barely even made it to the limit in your situation Mick, so im not saying you where in the wrong. Id say someone probably FORGOT to torque the lug nuts all together. We just had a cab come in after having a tranny replaced at another shop. LF wheel lug nuts where all finger tight. Imagine a tire coming off a cab on the highway with a family inside. Scary stuff.
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