Lost wheel

[Hoopy Frood]

Thanks for your thoughts. I’m hoping some members will also respond & indicate if they have & use torque wrenches. Also, what are your thoughts on Harbor Freight torque wrenches?

I have 3 HF torque wrenches: a 1/4" drive, a 3/8" drive, and a 1/2" drive. I'm satisfied with them. And I do use them to torque the lugnuts.

[Easycamper]

Thanks to the OP for sharing. This can happen to anyone. One person sharing a real life mistake is worth 1000 self-proclaimed experts talking about why it would never happen to them.

[jkwilson]

Saw a post on FB yesterday that reminded me of this thread. Someone bought a used trailer and took it to a dealer for $1600 worth of brake repairs. Lugs all sheared off one wheel on the way home and struck another car traveling the opposite direction. Fortunately no injuries, but a nightmare scenario.

No way to know, but the likely cause was improperly torqued lugs.

[jmbopp]

I used to work in a tire shop. Losing a wheel was a "wheel-off" and it was grounds for immediate firing.

[Bungy]

I replaced the brakes and repacked my wheel bearings this weekend. My son and and I took the trailer out this morning to see how everything works. The brakes work nicely. However, while driving down the road I noticed one of my tires had come off and sped away into a ditch. Apparently I had forgotten to torque down the lug nuts on one wheel. Other than losing 5 lug nuts (I found one) I don't think anything was damaged. I got the wheel back on (borrowing lug nuts from other wheels) and drove home. I ordered a lug nut set from Amazon.

So, but sure to check all your lugs after installing your wheels.

As Kenny Rogers said: 🎶 You picked a fine time to leave me loose wheel 🎶

[Big Blue]

A good rule of thumb.... Install the fastener, immediately torque it.... learned this at "Eastern Airline" 4 decades ago.... saves a lot of grief....

[Jerrybsd]

Ok I don’t feel like a dufus for torquing all the wheels before traveling! I’ve had guys stop and ask, what happened flat tire ? Nope just making sure the lug nuts are tight! I always find 1-2 loose lug nuts!

[rjnava]

Thanks for sharing your experience. A good reminder for folks that are more accustom to maintenance from a personal automotive perspective.

Around 30 years ago my wife took our car for brakes to S---s. (You know, that place that had the huge paper catalog for 100 years and has just about gone out of business now.) When I got home my wife said the car was not running right.

Sure 'nough, all the lug nuts were loose! I tightened them up and my wife took the car back the next day. They wound up replacing most of the lugs on the drum brakes, and gave us our money back. Never trusted them again and took the car elsewhere to be checked out.

Even so-called professionals can and do screw up.

[lorend]

I drive semi's for a living and one day at work one of the other drivers was doing a post trip inspection and ask me if I noticed anything. Well, it was real apparent that he had three axles and only two tires on one side of the 48 ft trailer. We joked that someone stole it while he was driving on a 5 lane interstate. The only people who had worked on the wheel were doing it for a living. No idea what the cause was. As for a torque wrench I never owned one until I purchased an rv and now I use it before every trip. Better safe than sorry and it is really quick to do.

[Dragfam1127]

I replaced the brakes and repacked my wheel bearings this weekend. My son and and I took the trailer out this morning to see how everything works. The brakes work nicely. However, while driving down the road I noticed one of my tires had come off and sped away into a ditch. Apparently I had forgotten to torque down the lug nuts on one wheel. Other than losing 5 lug nuts (I found one) I don't think anything was damaged. I got the wheel back on (borrowing lug nuts from other wheels) and drove home. I ordered a lug nut set from Amazon.

So, but sure to check all your lugs after installing your wheels.

My rule of thumb is don’t install any bolt or nut finger tight unless you torque immediately. It’s very easy to forget. Glad all turned out good. Cheap lesson. Mine are always expensive. Lol!