For All You Fans Of Oversize Tires

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Dean2

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If you look closely at the end of the video you can see the rotor is still attached to the wheel. Tells me the Bearing and Knuckle let go. Jacked up truck, over size tires, well outboard of stock, may even of had spacers etc. Often drivers can't tell bearing grind from wheel noise at highway speeds. Add to that, not checking stuff often or well enough and you get catastrophic failure.

Looks are one thing, but it puts way more than designed stress into a lot of parts that can fail.
 
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Dean2

Dean2

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There's post on this very forum by members with stock trucks that cant tell if wheel bearings are bad... lol...

Parts fail. end of story.
True enough, some of the questions I see on here are really hard to believe. Those kind should definitely leave their trucks stock.:Big Laugh:
 

ctwalton15

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idk bout you but what I see is it appears to be a 2500 silverado, and I could be wrong but one tell-tale sign is the mirrors, very possible its a 1500. But then again, I don't know how chevy did things in those year ranges but I know Ram 2500 or higher are typically much higher then 1500's. Very possible all he's had done is just put wheels and tires on it, doesn't necessarily mean the truck is jacked and doesn't look that tall in the video to me. Who knows, maybe a shop just did front end work and didn't tighten something or did something wrong. There are a lot of what iffs and I would say there isn't really enough context to blame jacked/lifted trucks.

One other thing I forgot to mention but got interrupted. Wheel hubs/knuckles let go on stock vehicles too. Its not just lifted trucks, now that does not mean they are exempt or it happens less to lifted vehicles. I'm just saying not enough to blame lifted trucks
 

jejb

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Lifted Ram 2500 lost the drivers front lower ball joint coming into our dirt bike camp last weekend. Some after market parts involved, I didn't pay a lot of attention. Kind of busy helping to put on a race. Not that old of a truck. Last I saw, they loaded it on a flatbed with a backhoe. For sure reinforces my plan to leave my truck unmolested.
 

JayLeonard

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I'm a retired design/product engineer and I worked almost 30 years at a company that designs and manufactures steering components (intermediate shafts) for many vehicles including the Dodge/Ram trucks (starting in 1994). Lifting and lowering change the dynamics of our systems and I'm sure the same it true for most other components. It can drastically shorten the life of those parts.
 
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I have toured around the world daring greatly driving cars. The one thing I've learned is modified cars, over-tuned cars, aftermarket parts almost always do one thing - break down or fail.

I have also seen many wheels come off cars. This is not as unusual as some may think it is and I bring case and point:

People will go to the cheapest place they can find for their vehicle maintenance. Think of all the Oil Horror Stories - wheel shops are no different. I've had Firestone make mistakes before, and I only go to one Firestone and take all my vehicles there.

Here's my 2 cents: That wheel was improperly tightened from recent service. I say this because the wheel rolled true when it came off. If the wheel was imbalanced or had parts or etc. still on it, it would have rolled off, and went right into the median, or even across all lanes of traffic. That wheel came off and went straight, basically. Moreover, that wasn't a factory size tire, but I never saw the rim. I think it was also an aftermarket rim, because of the tire's width.

There is no greater disservice to a vehicle then adding weight to its wheels. Tires and wheels can be the greatest upgrade or the worst. Weight is what makes the difference, and 1 pound extra will rob lots of performance. Wider tires will rob some fuel economy and high speed.

I don't modify or up-tune cars anymore, because it's more important for me to have a car that works as it should. I learned that 'proper' cars lack very little and it's the driver or his ego that needs work.
 

Travelin Ram

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It’s very unlikely that vehicle lost a wheel suddenly with no prior symptoms. It was almost certainly clunking, shaking or maybe even death wobble. Which BTW happens to stock vehicles.

Absolutely larger tires increase wear. A competent operator understands this and adjusts maintenance and operating habits.

Incompetent drivers will continue to drive beyond all warning signs and nothing written will change that.
 

bcbouy

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yup,if you rotate or swap your tires on a regular basis it's an easy catch if you're developing any issues.it feels like that's all i'm ever doing is swapping tires and greasing bearings.i just did one of my utility trailers bearings and getting set to swap the truck and the Tesla to summer tires.then it's on to the boat trailers and the yard equipment and orv's.it never farking ends
 

Daw14

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I have toured around the world daring greatly driving cars. The one thing I've learned is modified cars, over-tuned cars, aftermarket parts almost always do one thing - break down or fail.

I have also seen many wheels come off cars. This is not as unusual as some may think it is and I bring case and point:

People will go to the cheapest place they can find for their vehicle maintenance. Think of all the Oil Horror Stories - wheel shops are no different. I've had Firestone make mistakes before, and I only go to one Firestone and take all my vehicles there.

Here's my 2 cents: That wheel was improperly tightened from recent service. I say this because the wheel rolled true when it came off. If the wheel was imbalanced or had parts or etc. still on it, it would have rolled off, and went right into the median, or even across all lanes of traffic. That wheel came off and went straight, basically. Moreover, that wasn't a factory size tire, but I never saw the rim. I think it was also an aftermarket rim, because of the tire's width.

There is no greater disservice to a vehicle then adding weight to its wheels. Tires and wheels can be the greatest upgrade or the worst. Weight is what makes the difference, and 1 pound extra will rob lots of performance. Wider tires will rob some fuel economy and high speed.

I don't modify or up-tune cars anymore, because it's more important for me to have a car that works as it should. I learned that 'proper' cars lack very little and it's the driver or his ego that needs work.
I can clearly see a brake rotor attached to the wheel ,inertia is keeping it rolling upright .
 

68PowerWagon

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I have heard two separate events of Pep Boys in Knoxville TN not tightening the lug nuts & tires coming off on I-40 downtown. You can't trust any of these quickie to do anything right. Another Pep Boys here in Dayton OH didn't tighten the oil plug & the female driver ignored the horrific engine noise until it blew up. These guys got fired for not doing the fries right at McDonalds & you want them working on your $70,000 vehicle? As one poster said, there are a lot of what if's here. We don't know what the exact cause was, but when they played this on Fox News last night they stated, remarkably nobody was hurt from this wreck. Just WOW!
 

crazy jerry

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Absolutely larger tires increase wear. A competent operator understands this and adjusts maintenance and operating habits.

Incompetent drivers will continue to drive beyond all warning signs and nothing written will change that.

preach on brotha
 

Scottly

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You guys do know that the tire guy in a shop is the lowest paid, lowest skilled person there, right? As long as that is the case, these things will happen, sad to say.
 

IDSandman

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You guys do know that the tire guy in a shop is the lowest paid, lowest skilled person there, right? As long as that is the case, these things will happen, sad to say.
But the rotor was still attached to the wheel so the lug nuts were tight. Wheel bearing failure of some sort I’m guessing.
 

nlambert182

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My 2012 2500 had 50k miles when I bought it. Dealer put a 2" leveling kit on it so they could install aftermarket offset wheels (for tires to clear fender wells) and 35" tires. At 55k miles, I started noticing that it seemed to have some play in the front end. At 60ishk I started hearing a growling from the driverside. Wheel bearing was hosed up. I replaced the hub. Made it less than 2k more miles and the passenger side started doing the same. I swapped the wheels and tires, replaced the other bad hub, and rebuilt the entire front end. Carli adjustable track bar, new tie rod ends, steering stabilizer, sway bar end links, sway bar bushings, etc... The only thing I didn't replace was the steering box itself. Drove the truck to well over 100k miles with zero issues after that.

Bigger tires and offset wheels change the geometry enough that at least in my case, it put too much load on the top of the bearing instead of it being concentric and burned up the bearings. The added stress on the steering components wore those out as well.

I've seen quite a few Jeeps and other trucks around here that have had similar issues. It might not apply to all, but lifting one "can" potentially wear out items quicker.
 
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