Missing oil hub cover

The mods are the Supreme rulers here ...dont screw with em and play by theyre rules or you won't be here .
Anyone thats been here long will attest to that and we've seen many who couldn't control themselves get zapped .

 

Ya'll know how I react to the tards that do dumb things on here .. I've be warned way more than once to regin it in
But I'am gonna kinda defend @Brianjr323 on this .. was it a mistake ? Maybe .. Hell maybe it got damaged but stayed in the hud and finally left the scene yesterday .. maybe who knows but I tend to belive he probably did do his pretrip and it might have been there untill this morning I mean really it probably wouldn't of run for 2 or 3 days like he says with the.plug missing
Reguardless he caugh a break before something went totaly wrong
If you look at the begining of this thread he was only looking for help
But then maybe its just me today & you guys are right IDK

 

Sorry to yank your chain, it isn't something small when you see the impact of what could happen, and you as a professional need to mitigate it from happening.

Here is the result of an experienced driver who had his oil leak out of the hub on the steer when he hit some debris on the road that was kicked over into his lane by another truck passing him.

He stopped as soon as he could, he inspected the truck. He found that the left fender and little mudflap were broken, found that the side wall and the wheel had a deep scrape in it, he checked the hub and found no oil leaking.

The cops investigating the accident concluded that the plastic hub cover was cracked, when he was hitting rough sections of the road, the cracks expanded just enough to let the oil leak out. As the day progressed, the heat from the low oil caused fatigue of the plastic, and a section of the hub cover was lost, draining all the oil out. The hub got so hot that the bearings failed, which caused the wheel to come off at 70mph and fly into traffic lanes in the same direction. This should have not happened, the wheel, hub, and everything else should have been caught by the fender and bumper but it flew off.

Three cars were involved, one car was totaled out when the tire went across the hood and caused the driver to lose control, hitting the barrier, the other was hit in the rear by the tire which then bounced off of it and into a car that was behind the one that lost control, this car hit the tire head on and did extensive damage to the car, the insurance company considered it totaled and paid for it at market value (thank god it wasn't a Tesla).

So the money breakdown is as follows - this is not an all-inclusive list.
Truck related.
First tow charge - $9700
Second tow charge - $2100
New Spindle installed with repairs to the axle - $2700
New tie rod ends and other steering components - $300
New bearings and hub - $1100
Brake parts - $640
New wheel and tire - $1400
Insurance payout for the repairs to the truck minus the $6500 deductible - $11,440
NOTE - they did not cover the hood or other damage, I took care of that out of spare parts from a truck we stripped a while back so the cost was just transportation to the repair shop which was nothing because I had trucks headed that way.

Then we have the downtime - 14 days of downtime for everything, the trailer loss included the distressed load costs to move the load to its final destination;
Downtime loss for the truck - $39,000
Downtime loss for the trailer - $21,000
Downtime loss for the driver - $8900

Travel time and housing for the driver - $1300

Then we have the insurance costs for the accident;
Insurance payout to the two vehicles that were totaled - $98,000
Insurance payout for the damaged car - $12,900
Insurance payout for additional damages and medical - $65,000 (inflated and still being fought by them)

AND of course, the ubiquitous legal issues we hoped wouldn't but did thanks to the liberal tort laws in the state it happened in.
Legal representation fees - $29,540

Total costs for all of it, ~$283,680

While this is an extreme example, it is more common than you can ever imagine because of problems that are missed or that are ignored.

EDIT - two things I didn't add to this, one was the investigation costs and the other was compensation for the use of city services - primarily fire services, I have yet to see a bill for these and will expect that to be just under $10k

 

Still, please have the shop check it.

Even if you got another cap and refilled the oil, no telling how much grit and water got in there. Bearings and spindles don't like that stuff.

 

Exactly what I was thinking. Any amount of sand or grit inside the spindle and it’s not going to end well. Maybe not today or tomorrow but eventually it’ll ruin the OP’s day.

Personally I’d have it torn down and looked at. Otherwise it would be a constant worry on my mind.

 

It's dangerous because it allows the lubricating oil to leak out. Once that oil is gone you will permanency damage that wheel if not have it fail and leave the trailer. That wheel then becomes a deadly missile pointed somewhere. You need to create something, even cardboard to seal the cap and stop every hour and put more oil inside.

 

Hub oil, it's for sale on the shelf at most truck stops.

 

exactly correct just for peace of mind