I'm not saying this driver didn't do a proper pre-trip but.....

Normally, Wherever the work was done at, the company, or technician will complete a Re-Torque at no cost providing you still have the service records... But that's not everywhere. Some of the shop workers are getting kinda, lazy. It would also be more accurate if the tech had a 3/4 or 1" torque wrench vs the 1/2" torque wrench my previous employer had in their shop. Or you can pick one up at Harbor Freight at a decent price like I did.

 

Want to welcom you to check out the area around here. Pretty nice for the most part. As far as wally world goes... Would not even let them look at my vehicle, let alone work on it anymore. It's like a last resort for desperate job seekers. worked in a walmart shop for three days before I had enough. Too much politics involved. That and plus one of the lube guys forgot to put oil in a car and then proceded to drive it around to the customer. Then they decided to "Accidently" drive a customer car off the lift into my tire bay and on top of my customers car!!!!! Most of them don't even have DL's... That's why I quit!

 

A week ago on the QEW coming down the Skyway in Burlington, Ontario a tire came flying off a truck and went over the barrier killing a lady in her 40's.. She was just heading to work and next thing you know she is dead.. Just about 4 days or something before Christmas... They didn't find the truck right away nor did the truck driver even know he has lost his wheel.. It happened in the early morning around 5:30am I think.. Anyhow they put alerts out to the Border Crossings to watch for a truck with missing wheels.. I am not sure if they ended up finding him at the border or not but they found him.. He said he didn't even know he lost them... I don't know what happened with the investigation..

The only time I ever had a incident with tires is I drove from Toronto to Orangeville, Ontario (155km) with a flat tire.. I am not sure where the tire became flat.. I know the tire was fine on my pre-trip .. I drove to one of the yards and loaded up my yard-waste material.. Scaled out and left.. Everything was fine and I never heard a "bang".. Anyhow I got up there seen the tire was flat and called the tire company.. Sure enough when he removed the tire from the rim you could see how the tire was spinning around the rim freely during the trip... I didn't notice because it was the inside tire plus I had 15 other tires on the trailer (4 axle) so there really was no extra weight on that outside tire to really tell that one of the tires were blown on the axle....

Our company has changed our hubs to grease.. A couple guys have actually has tires come off (at low speeds)... I think one was due to lack of checking the oil in the hub and the other guy I am not sure if it was oil but I heard there was a mechanical error that he would was not responsible for.. Either the company has since changed to grease this way I guess reduces the chances of the hub not having lubrication if guys fail to check for oil... Only problem I can see with grease is if the hub gets extremely hot then the grease will become very thin and not effective in my eyes anyhow...

We also have wheel checks on all of our wheel nuts.... Little green ones with arrows all pointing at each other.. If the green arrow on one of the nuts is having the hub then you would have a loose nut.. This is a good visual check I think because it's easier to spot out a loose nut when you have a marker on the nut to indicate it's point in the wrong direction... We also have a policy that after the nuts have been reinstalled we must have the nuts retorque'd to specs after 100km of driving..

 

As long as it is not synthetic grease, there should be minimal issues as long as hub assy' is correct. Synthetic grease tends to dry out and loose it's lubricating properties before it's expected end of service life. Also, It's a pain to scrape out of hub's when services are not kept up with, and also makes the races a little more of a pain in the side to remove grease. The only "Pro:" with grease, (in my opinion) is it is safer than grease should a wheel seal let go, especially when the load is flammable hazmat. Less chances of a wheel fire. Other than that, I would prefer hub oil any day.

 

When I was working at Wabash we were using grease in roughly 65-70% of their standard dry van trailers. Could just be due to their customer base and what they want though.

 

Yeah, when a wheel bearing lights up, the smoke will be pretty obvious. You should be able to see the oil with a flashlight when the fill plug is removed. Never hurts to carry a little spare hub oil in the toolbox. Cheap insurance.

That picture was obviously wheel stud/lug nut failure. Could have been over-torquing or even enough loose lug nuts to unleash a can of worms and make everything come undone.

The only problem I see with the whole scenario is that set of duals should have been vibrating like a mofo before they actually detached from the trailer into the great wide open.

That's where it comes back on the driver. If you feel something that you haven't felt before, stop and investigate. Trucks will typically give some little indication that something is amiss before things explode (tires and pistons excepted). Funny smells, smoke, noise or a new vibration that wasn't there before.

I've never seen 10 wheels studs instantaneously fail. Could happen, but I don't know of it.

That's kind of scary. Did they find him with an iPod and a set of shades on at daybreak when he professed his ignorance?

Flats are kind of hard to feel unless they are running out funny. That's understandable.

That's a darn good idea right there. More fleets should utilize that.

 

I have never run local and even when running "regional" I am usually going somewhere well beyond the distance recommended for a re-torque. Having said that, I have never had a problem pulling into a tire shop and asking for a quick re-torque on one, or a few, wheels. I will try and pick a store that is part of the chain where the initial work was done (if applicable), but most competent shops don't mind as they know what the outcome could be.

 

Last year I had eight tires put on the back axle of my trailer. Drove three mile and picked up a load. Back to the scales and weighed 79700. Took of to deliver and 16 miles later crossed a fairly smooth railroad crossing. Driver behind me shouts on the CB that I had lost a wheel. Sure enough a wheel passed me by as I pulled over. The lugs had been tightened to the point of breaking. Called the tire place and had the for road service. When I requested for him to remove the other lugs and re-tighten them he was at a loss because his 1" impact with 125 psi would not budge them. He called for their wrecker to tow back to the shop. Found out the shop had 250 psi in their tank and someone had re-adjusted the regulator for full pressure. After several hours and a call from a lawyer the shop replaced all the lugs on both axles and four rims that had been damaged by the lug nuts. Check the torque on the lug nuts. Mine say 450- 500 lbs. If yours are over that you are stretching the studs and begging for failure.

 

I've heard of this the driver gets charged with negligent homocide.[/QUOTE]

I thought that could only happen in San Francisco.

 

Of course before I drive off for the night, I do a pre-trip. But when I return from my run, I DO a full post trip as well. Post trip inspections are required, but how many driver's actually do them?

I check inside the wheels for any signs of seal leaks. On a pre-trip, all might seem good. But after driving for a while, if you have bad seal, it will leak and spray all over the wheels.

The next day when I go into work, the pre-trip get's done, but now I do not check the wheel seals as nothing would have dripped out over night just sitting there.

I think sometimes, driver's take for granted that their truck and trailer are not going to give them any problems. Complacency will be the death of someone out there....literally.