Wheels come off truck to cause I-81 accident

wasnt this kind of stuff happening in washington state not to long ago

must be a rash of fualty parts lately

 

A dual wheel SET flew off??? You mean those tires aren't mounted individually? I, obviously, have a lot to learn.

 

most of the time the wheels mount idavidualy to the hub....useing the same studs but diffent size nuts you could say....the hub is mounted to the axle housing by a couple of bearings and a set of large, thin nuts and a type of lock warsher


bad part is if you lose a bearing, it will heat up and basicly melt the nuts, or just get loose enuf to vibrate the heck out of it and eventully having the hub come off....ive seen it alot of trailers that dont get the hub oil checked often (at least 2 at crst)

 

I took a load of starch to Tipton In this morning, north of Indianapolis. Coming back along I-65, I looked off into a field of harvested soybeans and saw a complete set of dual wheels, complete with brake drum, sitting in the field, about 100' foot from the road. I would assume that someone lost them and they came off a trailer. Luckily they went into the field, not into another vehicle. Sometimes they can heat up and come off, or the not retaining the ebaring in the hub can fail and let them go. I am sure that someone had some explainign to do when he arrived at his destination.

 

One year ago, I had a flat trailer tire fixed. The tire shop broke a wheel stud and had to pull the hub off. They neglected to apply the proper torque to the bearing lock nut. I was doing 70 mph, looked in the mirror and noticed a vibration coming from the same set of wheels. I pulled over and kicked the top of the tire and both wheels moved. When the mechanic got there he showed me that the bearing nut was held on by one thread. Now, when someone works on my truck I watch them like a hawk.

 

My guess is the tanker driver had at least some warning that something was about to break loose. That warning would have been most likely a sudden bad vibration as the bearing began to fail, if that was indeed the cause. If it was a lugnut/torque problem, that should have caused at least some vibration as well.

 

Sounds like to me you averted a disaster. Guys like you need to get some sort of award, in my opinion. Many a driver would have kept on driving until all hell broke loose.

 

I saw a guy "hammer" a lug nut on the steering tire last year. By this, I mean that the threads got crossed and rather than change it out he forced a new nut on the bolt. It didnt go all the way up against it. Will one lug nut like that cause a problem? Seems like it would.......


Another problem I ran into on my own truck is twice after having a tire changed out the lugs were so loose I could remove some by hand. I now go back over all my tires with the impact wrench at our shop.