Lost 2 drive tires 7 hrs after repair

New owner operators are more safe because they are cautious on everything. But wheels falling off 300 miles later is clearly the service dept. Fault.[/QUOTE]Apparently not, I know quite a few lowly company drivers that never drive more than 150-200 miles without a LCTC.

 

you should be able to call and haggle with owners and they will cover repairs. if the work order specified the re torque then it would be on him.

 

I lost a couple 10X20 tube type budd wheels after a tire rotation, about 500 miles from home on I-90, near La Crosse WI.
Was east bound with a load of lumber, just come to the bottom of the hill of the Mississippi Valley, started squeezing the throttle, felt a couple bumps, no power, touched the brake and two wheels passed me on the passenger side.
They bounced off the cliff side, rolled through the median, one flew over the highway and down the bank of the Mississippi River to the waters edge, the other flew up in the air and came down in the middle of the westbound lanes, bounced about 20 ft in the air, bounced a couple more times then did that wobbly plate thing until it came to rest on the middle of the highway.
There was a Ford Maverick in the westbound lane that thankfully was paying attention and came to a squealing stop about 20 ft from the wheel!

Tried dragging the wheel up the bank with a chain over my shoulder and after nearly blowing my own nuts out my pant legs I got hold of a local CB'er and had them call a tow truck to drag the wheel up the hill.
Had to wrestle the wheels onto the frame and chain them down, carried a 20 ton jack with me for such occasions, jacked up the axle and chained it to the frame then limped into La Crosse with the power divider engaged.

Called the tire company and during our conversation it was discovered that the tire mechanic was in a hurry and forgot to inform me that I should have stopped a few hundred miles back to recheck the wheel nuts, especially the inner nuts!
They paid for the new studs and shop time, but not the tow truck and downtime which turned out to be 3 days.
Happened on a Saturday, Sunday the repair shops were closed, and the left hand threaded studs which were in short supply didn't show up on the bus until Monday night when the shop was closed.

Keep an eye on your nuts and take care of them, both kinds.

 

Any physical possibility that properly torqued nuts can still get loose a few hours after installation and because of that re torquing is needed regardless?
I would contact the shop and see what they say about paying the repairs.

A flying loose wheel like that killed a pregnant women a year ago or so in Joliet, IL.
The op should have stopped to check the nuts at least by hand after an hour or two regardless. You can't trust the shops. Still, anything falling off a truck is on a person driving it. It does not matter a tiny bit, if this is an owner of the truck or not.

A part of a daily routine should be for a driver to also check if the hubs are not getting too hot after a longer stretch of a drive.

 

Yes Joe,You are correct.

But in the real world- That just doesn't happen, Even with Owner ops just starting out.

I can't fault them because they simply don't know any better because they assume the shop is going to do it "Right"

Now in this particular occurance, I've heard this happen many times...If a shop is relacing tires......The Tech could snug up wheels (What they do is screw on the nuts a few threads,Then hit em wityh the gun Just barely seating the Wheels,) Then go back once all nuts are on,Hitting em' hard with 700-1000 lbs torque

It happens sometimes to "Forget" accidentally about a set of wheels...So their just snug-Not tight, And the end result is this.

Yes,A Good Owner-operator checks their equipment- But I don't fault him here........

It's just way too much on a driver these days.....NOBODY in this industry wants to take responsibility for anything