run4her

On New Years day i went 4wheeling with some buddies. When i was Coming home i noticed a weird sound i got out and looked nothing wrong. I was driving down my road and them my 4runner starts to wobbel and then BAM!! i see my 35" stt and whel pass me! it goes flying down the road and i jam it into park and start running after it cause my house is on a hill and at the bottom of m road is the highwaythen a guard rail then the Snoke River! The tire hit our landscapin rocks doing about 55 and rocketed up into the arir bouncing into the busy highway nailed the guardrail near the top and slowly rolled to a stop on the side of the road. Needless to say i set a new landspeed record chasing my 350$ Wheel and tire down the hill. In the end nothing was harmed but 3 lugnuts, My centercap, my brake rotor protector and my pride. It was all due to a bad lugnut that the threads fell out of so i went and baught a new full set of lug nuts.

CJM

Try having all 8 lugs shear off a HD E350 in traffic and watch the rear wheel go down the road..not fun!

The studs are probably no good, get new ones and new lugs.

Gator

DUDE! That's gotta suck! I've never had anything like that happen to me, but you can bet I will be checking my lug nuts before I leave to go home this afternoon.

MMA_Alex

did that once on my exploder. its the strangest feeling when you look out the side window and see your tire passing you...

run4her

It was just ironic cause it had been over 600 miles since i had had my tires of and it just so happens to fall off AT MY HOUSE!!

mattches

Man that sucks. Hope you had beer when you got back from your sprint.

Good thing it didn't hit a car on the highway!

Sounds like you may need to invest in a TORQUE WRENCH! Threads are kinda hard to strip out, unless you have it galled on the stud or not torqued to 65-80lb. If you have some of the stock alloys, take care to line up the bolt pattern to the wheel before tightening.

bleakhorizon

been there done that lol good thing i was on a secondary road......had mag wheels and i used too long of mag nuts (your have been warned)

never found my drum lol, but the wheel was floatn out in a flooded field bout 150 yards down the road......never thought a 35" bogger could weight that much

run4her

Ya my drum was in my front yard.

EWAYota

Had my drivers side rear tire/wheel/axle shaft go bouncing by me on the freeway at when I was 17. That combo ended up about 50 yards from where I came to a stop. Jumped out to take a look at my truck and discovered that my gear oil/axle grease had caught on fire.

aviator

That reminds me I have to check the torque on that tire I changed a few weeks ago... Never has one fly off but I have found them loose on an old work truck once after getting the thing back from the mechanic!

Whitey13

WOW, glad no one got hurt. What kind of wheels do you have?

run4her

Just some black simulated beadlock incubus wheels

CJM

All I know is if you put them on with a tire iron you crank them on there good and it will be around or better than the correct torque. DOnt use the stock iron!

MMA_Alex

the correct torque is enough to be in the 'elastic' tensile mode for the bolts, without warping the rotors. getting above the spec'd torque isn't good either.


check for thread damage on the lug studs. Mine were damaged, and I actually had one strip out of the back of the rotor where it was pressed in while putting on a set of locking lugs later on, which required burning the locking lug off, and replacing the entire rotor, as the back was too rusted out to press in a new stud...oh and the abs sensor ring was broken too.

Mine scraped the bottom part of the rotor where it landed flat, as I had to stop from doing about 30 when the wheel fell off, but it was only slightly noticable while braking at low speeds (5-10mph)

I'll have to see if I have any pictures of my damage still around...

olharleyman

I Had It Happen To Me On Christmas Day A Few Years Ago With A 80 Grandma In My 1958 Vw Bug. We All Thought It Was Real Funny Till I Gased On It A Relized It Was My Wheel Passing Us And Had To Go 1/4 Mile Like That To Get Off The Bridge. My Friend In The Back Just Jumped Sides Of The Car To Try To Keep Us Somewhat Leveled Out To The End Of The Bridge.

paxil4x4

Are you sure your lug nuts are the right ones? I have seen a few wheels come off where the tire shop, or car owner used the wrong lugs

Whitey13

Was your experience similar to this?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kyMDNzhfwn0
Those silly rotary guys with their pranks...

run4her

lol ya but mine was a 35" STT goin toward the highway at about 55 mph.