My wheel fell off while driving! Major bummer
- Thread starter Sempertoy
- Start date
Revco
Adventurer
A few years ago a friend and I were getting his old Ford truck ready for a car show about 50 miles away. In the morning, we took the wheels off and had new tires mounted and balanced. Got back to the truck and he bolted them on, while I dialed in the carb/timing. Cooler and some chairs are tossed in the bed and off we go, about 5 miles from his house the truck shakes a few times and we both look over at eachother like "****** was that?", About 20 seconds later we're off into a 3-legged buttslide. The left rear wheel rolls right past us as he's trying to maintain control. The brake drum comes off, which leaves the shoes with nothing to grab onto and the wheel cylinder has no pressure, so the brake pedal is useless, but he's pumping as fast as he can anyway. We go into a slalom-like swerve back and forth, the backing plate acting like a ski, until I yell "jam it in gear mother*&^#!" When he does that, the truck slides a full 360-degrees, the rear pipe bumper scoops up a nice portion of grass and dirt from the median, and we finally come around to a stop when the passenger side taillight kisses the steel guardrail on the right side of the road. We had to wave traffic around, and the police showed up but they just laughed with us and hung out until the tow truck came. Tow truck guy was mad that he had to leave during his football game, so he charged my buddy $170 to haul the truck 5 miles. We hopped in my truck and went to the car show, and that night returned to his truck. Turns out, when he installed new wheel studs, he didn't seat them correctly, so when he torqued down the lug nuts, the studs pulled through while driving and loosened up. Ahhhh, I can still remember that ride like it was slow motion.
Sempertoy
Explorer
Just wanted to give an update. I took my LC to San Diego Trux and had them give er the ol once over. They took care of me, got my cruiser back in tip top form and had excellent customer service! I would recommend them to ANYONE in SoCal.
On a side note, my dad gets here tomorrow night, my brother arrives on Saturday and Monday kicks off our first ever Death Valley trip!! We will be there for 5 days and plan on seeing as much of the park as possible. Glad to have my cruiser ready for the trip!
On a side note, my dad gets here tomorrow night, my brother arrives on Saturday and Monday kicks off our first ever Death Valley trip!! We will be there for 5 days and plan on seeing as much of the park as possible. Glad to have my cruiser ready for the trip!
Cimarron13
New member
I had this same thing happen with my 04 Jeep Rubicon. Spacer sheared off the lugs causing my back wheel to come off causing me to flip twice. I was not injured. No spacers for me again. Not worth it. I now get proper spaced wheels.