This thread could be BITOG 20 YEAR at least top 50 material. Let's see where it goes. Not so much that the POS broke but at least 1 person thinks there was some level of PM on the truck.
Wheel came off during towing, how did that happen?
- Thread starter pacem
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I posted pics of the other rear wheel. Everything is there. I didn't look on the front set.
I am not going to look again. They are on the premises and getting really paranoid. I told him I am taking pics for a mechanic. So they laid off a bit, but still. If he shows it it to me, I will see if the other lug nuts are tight. He said he wants to take the diff cover off and show me it's seized.
He thinks the loose lugs nuts version is hogwash.
What do you mean by PM, preventative maintenance?
You are completely right about this.
There is a long list of things wrong with it.
An exhaust leak coming from God knows where. Maybe rust or maybe in the engine bay area.
AC doesn't work. I had to cruise with windows open and noise.
Battery self-discharges. A leak.
The brakes seemed weak, the manual brake was not working.
Rust all over, rust holes. It's a literal rustbucket.
That's just the tip of the iceberg I can note as a non-professional type user.
A "real" mechanic can probably triple the list.
Normally I would not think that an diff can lose all the fluid out of it but with this thing, that would not surprise me, or some such event.
I not totally stupid, I have towed up to 12,000 lbs with a F250 HD and a fully floating axle/460 so I am not totally naive about towing and stuff like that.
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the axle theory, could it be it just wore out and just happened to coincide with me using it? It does have north of 200K. Probably original judging by the rest of it.
I was running empty at the time of the accident and had been for at least 100 miles. More like 120.
You know, correlation is not causation type thing.
There are no finances at stake here, just ego. He maintains his version, I do mine. Nobody is suing anybody. We don't have the grounds for it.
I was running empty at the time of the accident and had been for at least 100 miles. More like 120.
You know, correlation is not causation type thing.
There are no finances at stake here, just ego. He maintains his version, I do mine. Nobody is suing anybody. We don't have the grounds for it.
Nick1994
$100 site donor 2024
So he says you overloaded it. Can you estimate how much the load weighed? And what the truck's towing capacity is?
Even if the internals of the axle was exploded, that could not explain how a wheel would fly off.
Even if the internals of the axle was exploded, that could not explain how a wheel would fly off.
I loaded the 6x12' a bit and I really wish I had taken the pics but for some reason didn't. I could not imagine this thing going South that bad.
Best I can tell, picture a 6x12 Uhaul enclosed trailer loaded to maybe 1/4.
It seems to be a light duty 1500 RAM, not a 1500HD unless I am missing something.
The towing piece went fine, it's the return trip that disintegrated. I totally get this:
Even if the internals of the axle was exploded, that could not explain how a wheel would fly off.
Best I can tell, picture a 6x12 Uhaul enclosed trailer loaded to maybe 1/4.
It seems to be a light duty 1500 RAM, not a 1500HD unless I am missing something.
The towing piece went fine, it's the return trip that disintegrated. I totally get this:
Even if the internals of the axle was exploded, that could not explain how a wheel would fly off.
I have seen quite a few wheels shear off on vehicles out on the rez. Anything that had lugnuts on were broke clean off at or near the hub.
Maybe 17 or 18 years ago a buddy and I were cruising the back roads in his 74 d150 or whatever the two wheel drive dodge half ton at the time was called. Going at or near 80km/h when we noticed a weird vibration that got a bit worse and worse. Almost like a flat tire. Turns out some Yahoo had loosened the lug nuts and the wheel was beginning to flop around. It left very definitive marks and damage to the lungs, as one would think.
Now for over loading. I have put way more weight on and behind my 2011 ram 1500, way, way more than what was on that truck. Never an issue. I think I honestly hit the lugs maybe twice a year. I do use some anti seize and torque by feel when rotating the tires. I do a retorque a couple hundred km after. Never an issue on several vehicles I have touched.
Either somebody messed with the truck or you are dealing with a substantial POS.
Maybe 17 or 18 years ago a buddy and I were cruising the back roads in his 74 d150 or whatever the two wheel drive dodge half ton at the time was called. Going at or near 80km/h when we noticed a weird vibration that got a bit worse and worse. Almost like a flat tire. Turns out some Yahoo had loosened the lug nuts and the wheel was beginning to flop around. It left very definitive marks and damage to the lungs, as one would think.
Now for over loading. I have put way more weight on and behind my 2011 ram 1500, way, way more than what was on that truck. Never an issue. I think I honestly hit the lugs maybe twice a year. I do use some anti seize and torque by feel when rotating the tires. I do a retorque a couple hundred km after. Never an issue on several vehicles I have touched.
Either somebody messed with the truck or you are dealing with a substantial POS.
Yes, it would be a one in a billion chance that both the axle or diff failed and the wheel flew off it's mount because of loose lug nuts at basically the same time. If lug nuts are properly tightened, an axle could break all day long and the wheel isn't going to fly off the lug studs. The whole wheel/mount assy and part of the axle might fly off, but that didn't happen in your case. Take some close-ups of those lug stud threads because they look chewed up, which means the wheel holes were beating the threads to death when the wheel was loose and ready to come off. Maybe the impact of the bare hub hitting the ground damaged the axle or differential ... that's more likely than the other way around.
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yea, that’s about it. Only one lug or the rest would show signs of stripping or smeared aluminum from the wallowing.
Ya gotta check them that round things once in a while , make sure there’s still 4 of them Under there someplace movin around. Last time I saw that sort of thing one of our worker bees said he’d been having happy times with some guys wife........ I always suspected he’d been a tad tipsy when he rotated the tires and simply forgotten to tighten them. Calling Inspector Cluseau...........
Exactly. I doubt anyone does by the way.
There is no such thing as a "wore out axle" so there is no "theory"- what you need to do ( based on an earlier post about him being the LL) is cut your losses and run.
Let him show you both pieces of this allegedly "broke" axle. (I would like to see that)
You mentioned he is wanting to take the diff cover off and show you "it seized"- what is he alleging "seized" in the pumpkin?
This is starting to sound very suspicious.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
The wheel is going to be on an angle when there isn't a wheel on the other side, as the axle is solid. There's nothing in any of the pictures that you've posted that would indicate anything with the axle broke. He's also on crack if he thinks that you overloaded the truck with some wood, the diffs in pickup trucks are capable of handling weight well beyond the capacity of the vehicle.
I don't see anything to indicate a broken axle or even a seized one. I think your friend is full of it. At this point you will probably never know what happened. I also don't believe he checked the torque on the lug nuts because there is no way that all of those would come off in those many miles if properly torqued. He is just trying to blame you since this happened while you had the truck.
I’m still left wondering where the left rear rotor went. Never seen a rotor come off like that. The rust on the parking brake shoes, along with the scrapes on them and lack of visible brake pads in the caliper, suggest that the rotor hasn’t been there in a while.
I’m starting to like the “no rotor installed” theory, in which case, the owner could have torqued the lug nuts, and the wheel would still have been loose.
To call the owner a mechanic, however, if he thought this heap was road-worthy after putting it on a lift, is an insult to actual mechanics.
I’m starting to like the “no rotor installed” theory, in which case, the owner could have torqued the lug nuts, and the wheel would still have been loose.
To call the owner a mechanic, however, if he thought this heap was road-worthy after putting it on a lift, is an insult to actual mechanics.
Well, you are right.
My first takeaway from this episode is to be thankful you weren't part of one of the near-daily "fatal crash on I-95 between Richmond and DC" news stories.
The detail about the owner being your landlord explains a lot. You say you aren't on the hook financially, but you seem to be under constant stress and suspicion over the incident. The guy can't seem to let it go for some reason. I hope you're in a position to find a new place to live soon.
The detail about the owner being your landlord explains a lot. You say you aren't on the hook financially, but you seem to be under constant stress and suspicion over the incident. The guy can't seem to let it go for some reason. I hope you're in a position to find a new place to live soon.
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https://mustangforums.com/forum/5-0l-general-discussion/368307-i-m-done-with-this-car.html
enough said...
Spend some time in China and you see stuff like this every time you get on the highway. Random wheels by the side of the road is a very popular thing there, sheared off at the hub, mid-axle etc. While I'm glad to live in a state that does not require state inspections, when I see stuff like this I reconsider that position a bit.
As far as "what happened", this thread could have ended after the second post... One lug nut was holding the wheel on. It finally gave up. There is a ton of headroom built into the wheel to hub connection. Even 3 properly tensioned bolts would suffice (not saying I'd recommend it); but one corroded stud is not enough...
enough said...
Spend some time in China and you see stuff like this every time you get on the highway. Random wheels by the side of the road is a very popular thing there, sheared off at the hub, mid-axle etc. While I'm glad to live in a state that does not require state inspections, when I see stuff like this I reconsider that position a bit.
As far as "what happened", this thread could have ended after the second post... One lug nut was holding the wheel on. It finally gave up. There is a ton of headroom built into the wheel to hub connection. Even 3 properly tensioned bolts would suffice (not saying I'd recommend it); but one corroded stud is not enough...
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