Wheel Disaster

[PaulCalvin]

We were travelling down a stretch of highway in a blinding rain storm 3 weeks ago. After driving 2 hours I pulled into a service station to get directions and someone told my wife a wheel was missing, the rear passenger side one.
And not only the wheel but the hub as well. Brand new goodyear endurance tire, aluminum rim, hub assembly, brakes etcc. Gone and yet the castle nut remains. My first thot was that The wheel nuts werent sufficiently tightened as the new tires had been just installed. But then another reflection owner told me the same thing happened to him the previous week. But he caught his early as he seen the wheel coast by his truck.
He said the outer bearing failed, caused the overheating and split the hub.
This is certainly not a good situation for safety concerns on the highway. Wheels flying off at will.
The only driving issue I remember was hitting an unusually bad overpass with a thud about 75 km back down the road. Whether this had anything to do with the issue I dont know. They have since paved over a number of bad overpasses to smooth them out.
My wheel bearings have been repacked twice in the last three years. Unless the grease failed.
I have so far been in contact with Lippert. Altho out of warranty (past 3 years) they are willing to supply a new axle.
I will see what my insurance company will do.

[Keebler]

Wow; scary stuff. So sorry this happened. Fortunate no one was injured; at least as far as we know. God (and whoever was behind you) knows where that tire and debris went.

[SGT ROC]

Scary stuff indeed! I bent the stub axle once a couple of years ago because of something I did that was STUPID. This was on our 2013 travel Trailer. That's another story. I bent the stub, along with damage to the spring hanger, and broke the wheel on that side. I put on the spare (after surveying the damage) and was able to drive the 250 remaining miles to the campground. I had a buddy who was towing keeping an eye on things beside me, and his daughter was in a car following me to also keep an eye on things. The end of the story was, that stub held up all the way there, and the 30 miles 4 days later to a collision repair shop. They replaced the spring hanger, straightened the stub as best they could, put new bearings in as the originals were shot and a new spare tire. I drove all the way from Myrtle Beach to North central PA, 50 miles from NY, with no issues. To have your axle fail is Very scary, considering mine was bent backwards and then forward to fix. I ended up getting the whole axle replaced.