Lost 2 drive tires 7 hrs after repair

I lost a set one time, asked the shop to fix an abs light, and they never told me they took the wheel off. That resulted in a tow, and rental truck, and new hub and studs.

ALMOST lost a second set. Months after anything was done to the tires / wheels. I strongly suspect that the tire monkeys at Les Schwab love torque, and were stretching the studs by over-torquing.

 

Im thinking they may have over torqued them with the gun and stretched the studs instead of properly torqueing them with a wrench. One by one they started to let loose on the road and gave you little warning. I've seen it happen but luckily the driver caught it with 2 still left on. At any rate you came out of this very well and glad they are paying for it. Could have ended so much worse.

 

I doubt that, I always over torque mine and between all the trucks we are talking several million miles.
What happens and it is seriously easy to do, is when you put both wheels up against the drum, and put the nuts on, they will not be laying flat against the drum or each other, if you tighten a nut it will bind them against the studs, and the 550 torque they call for will never straighten them back out, I doubt if 1000 pounds torque, you have to do it as you go, or they will be loose in a half a mile or so. It happens all the time, not like with the old bud wheels that you center one at a time.

 

I use True Balance centering pins that truly center the wheels and the brake drums to the studs, plus Counteract balancing beads for a nice smooth ride. If your brake drums are not centered and your wheels are not centered, they can make that wheel end bounce up in down, beating the daylights (or moonlight) out of it. Like rolling an egg at 60-70+ mph. Pay attention next time a trailer comes by you and you hear all kind of noise coming from the rear wheels. I can almost guarantee you that the brake drums are not centered and the tire technician just slapped the tires on there and tightened them down. Now that "rolling egg" with up to X amount of pounds on it will beat that wheel end apart if it goes unchecked for a very long time

 

The driver should always witness the torquing of the wheel lugnuts.

 

When they first came out with the hub piloted there was no such a thing as the tru balance pins. I argued with the wheel manufacturers about he balancing, but it was still several years before they came out. Thousands of trucks went over a million miles without them without the wheels ever loosening up, including a couple of mine

 

Yeah that's right! When I was younger I worked in a general store/tire repair shop in a small town, a guy there taught me how to tighten and properly check them

 

When they first came out, lots of tire shops wound up buying wheels because they used antisieze on them, just like the old buds. I still see wheels around that have had antisieze used.