For All You Fans Of Oversize Tires

Daw14 said:

I can clearly see a brake rotor attached to the wheel ,inertia is keeping it rolling upright .

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I saw this on Twitter when it first came out and I didn’t see it in high resolution as I did last night. Rotor is clearly there as you and other stated.

I recall when I was looking for a set of rims for my 06, I asked the tires shop if they knew what the offset/back spacing was for the rims I was looking to buy, I will never for get what I was told or the look on his face, the books states it will fit your truck so why would you need that information, needless to say I did not buy the rims from that tire shop...

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that adding wheel spacers or heavy offset wheels would increase the leverage and force on front end components

Wheel bearing probably came apart odds are it was making noise for awhile and was ignored

toddmakesamove said:

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.

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With all due respect where have you lived? I’m 60, been driving over 44 years, grew up in the boonies and now live in a metro area of over 2 million people. Also lived in Europe for two years and outside of Washington DC where traffic is just as bad as any big city in the world. I’ve seen two wheels come off vehicles in all that time. A few ball joints and tie rods that came apart too so I would call these occurrences unusual. In my experience it’s not something that just happens. As another poster stated the tire kept rolling upright and down the road from inertia. When I was a kid we took apart Camaros, Darts, Mustangs, Novas, Dusters and even a Gremlin, used aftermarket parts most of which were made in North America and nothing came apart. Maintenance is expensive and if you can’t or won’t do it yourself it gets even more expensive. People let problems go and bandaid repairs. In my humble opinion it’s less about the modification and more about the quality of the mod. We see it all the time. Some will put $4k into wheels and tires on a vehicle with original parts and 175,000 miles on the clock. Turbos and superchargers on high mileage engines that already have oil leaks. How many 1988 Civics have you seen with $10k sound systems? Lol as Forrest Gump said, stupid is what stupid does.

I had a front wheel bearing go out on me on my '94 GMC 1500 w/ 35"s while I was on the interstate. It gave me a hard tug so I immediately pulled over and discovered flames.

I learned a lot of lessons with that truck: things that older and wiser people tried to tell me but I wasn't ready to listen to at the time.

I've always been religious about torque specs on my lug nuts though.

I've seen a significant number of vehicle depart the road this winter due to inadequate tires and/or pressures for severe winter travel. Point being, running stock can have consequences as well. Same with factory rubber resulting in vehicle recovery requests from the trail. Keeping it stock isn't necessarily the fix.

We, as a society, want to proxy the consequences our own poor decisions onto others. Yet as soon as our 'rights' are restricted, we want to complain. At then end of the day, men need to take ownership of all aspects of our lives, including the risks and benefits of vehicle modifications. There are a lot of boys who shave out there who need a big dose of personal responsibility.

My 2 cents:

60+ years ago, our hot-rodding group knew that moving a wheel outboard with spacers or wrong offsets would prematurely wear out the bearings, often to failure. Most of us were careful to not do it. We were street racers and some were quite fast for the day.

Even the "best" tire shops (and others) can screw up. I had my spare tire leave my truck some years back after the local Costco shop had put it back up there when I bought new tires and saved the best for the spare. Luckily it happened when I was almost home and on a small private road so no damages. Coulda been really bad, right?

Now, no matter who works on my cars (mostly myself but not always), I check and recheck after leaving but before driving very far. My paranoia keeps me safe.

Dean2 said:

WATCH: Loose tire launches car into air

A dash cam caught a spectacular crash when a loose tire sent a car flying in L.A., and the driver escaped without major injuries.

toronto.ctvnews.ca

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 you 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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Yep. Incorrect offset does put un wanted stress on the bearings. Bigger tires on a HD are necessary for sand and silt but that does it.

JayLeonard said:

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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jejb said:

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.

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I doubt his bj was installed correctly. It should be a very snug fit . If the owner had knurled bj's prior to an installation of smooth bore units they will be loose. The 2" sidewall with 20's aren't practical on any truck. They have zero flex and potholes love those.

Anytime you jack a truck up and put bigger tires on it, you increase wear on parts not designed for the additional strain. That includes, but it not limited to, engine, transmission, rear end, u-joints, wheel bearings. For a 2500, most of that is negated by stroger parts to begine with, but it still plays hell with u-joints. 1500, you are going to feel the pain. And all of that does not even take into consideration the change to the speedometer. No big deal? Speed and engine rpm control transmission shifting, anti-lock brakes, lock up converter, etc.

Now, if you are willing to deal with it, carry on. As long as you understand it does not start and stop with the lift kit and big tires, it is just money. If you think that is where it starts and stops, well, a fool and his money are soon departed. Think of it as a learning experience.

Minimum after lift kit and tires : CV joint on rear driveshaft with solid heavy duty u-joints to make it last more than a year or a couple of hard launches. Spacers on transmission crossmember to try to lessen the angle between transmission and rear end a bit to help with the above. Ladder bars if you do not have a 4-link to keep the rear axil from walking forward and bending the u-bolts holding the axil to keep it from chewing up the tires against the wheel well and shoving the drive shaft into the output shaft of the transmission, destroying it...............gears, gears, gears. They will lesson the impact on the engine and transmission. A cool set of 35's will suck close to 50hp out of the engine. Gears.

body lifts are all good.

Also check your state laws. Some states require the bumper to be a certain number of inches from the road to keep from killing people in even a minor T-bone.

All that so you can be different. Just like everybody else.

rosco11 said:

Anytime you jack a truck up and put bigger tires on it, you increase wear on parts not designed for the additional strain. That includes, but it not limited to, engine, transmission, rear end, u-joints, wheel bearings. For a 2500, most of that is negated by stroger parts to begine with, but it still plays hell with u-joints. 1500, you are going to feel the pain. And all of that does not even take into consideration the change to the speedometer. No big deal? Speed and engine rpm control transmission shifting, anti-lock brakes, lock up converter, etc.

Now, if you are willing to deal with it, carry on. As long as you understand it does not start and stop with the lift kit and big tires, it is just money. If you think that is where it starts and stops, well, a fool and his money are soon departed. Think of it as a learning experience.

Minimum after lift kit and tires : CV joint on rear driveshaft with solid heavy duty u-joints to make it last more than a year or a couple of hard launches. Spacers on transmission crossmember to try to lessen the angle between transmission and rear end a bit to help with the above. Ladder bars if you do not have a 4-link to keep the rear axil from walking forward and bending the u-bolts holding the axil to keep it from chewing up the tires against the wheel well and shoving the drive shaft into the output shaft of the transmission, destroying it...............gears, gears, gears. They will lesson the impact on the engine and transmission. A cool set of 35's will suck close to 50hp out of the engine. Gears.

body lifts are all good.

Also check your state laws. Some states require the bumper to be a certain number of inches from the road to keep from killing people in even a minor T-bone.

All that so you can be different. Just like everybody else.

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That’s a great lecture and all if you want to approach it from the extreme. Even 1500’s are built for heavier tires as in E rated for those that tow. Various models come with different rim sizes that vary from 17-22 inch. The Rebel comes from Ram slightly lifted and Mopar sells a factory lift/level kit. There are several ways to recalibrate the speedo/transmission for various size tires also. Not every lifted truck out there has a 8 inch lift, I’d bet most are leveled or less than 3 inches. Now if you want to go after the quality of modifications, yeah that’s an issue. It’s not so much the modification, it’s how it’s done.

Bigger tires = more wear no doubt about it. Brakes transmission bearings all wear faster. The reason this forum is here is about trucks and what people do to modify them. I try not to pee on someone else’s parade. Running a 8 inch lift kit just so you can roll on dubs is not my thing.
But I am running larger tires (no lift) and I have modified my truck how and what you do is up to you but we all use the same road. I would hate to kill some one because of a mod I did to my truck

And if you live in the USA you will probably get your ass sued off

This is definitely a Chevy, and the problem with those trucks were the square wheel openings. So you had to raise your truck six inches to put 35” tires on it without rubbing, then put spacers to get it to turn correctly until they finally went to rack and pinion steering like the competition. Poor design. But if you do put oversized tires on ANY truck, you have to keep on top of the maintenance. Ball joints, wheel bearings, etc.

Atcer2018 said:

With all due respect where have you lived? I’m 60, been driving over 44 years, grew up in the boonies and now live in a metro area of over 2 million people. Also lived in Europe for two years and outside of Washington DC where traffic is just as bad as any big city in the world. I’ve seen two wheels come off vehicles in all that time. A few ball joints and tie rods that came apart too so I would call these occurrences unusual. In my experience it’s not something that just happens. As another poster stated the tire kept rolling upright and down the road from inertia. When I was a kid we took apart Camaros, Darts, Mustangs, Novas, Dusters and even a Gremlin, used aftermarket parts most of which were made in North America and nothing came apart. Maintenance is expensive and if you can’t or won’t do it yourself it gets even more expensive. People let problems go and bandaid repairs. In my humble opinion it’s less about the modification and more about the quality of the mod. We see it all the time. Some will put $4k into wheels and tires on a vehicle with original parts and 175,000 miles on the clock. Turbos and superchargers on high mileage engines that already have oil leaks. How many 1988 Civics have you seen with $10k sound systems? Lol as Forrest Gump said, stupid is what stupid does.

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I live in Georgia. We are second to LA's traffic. I have traveled the whole continental US, daringly. No traffic was or is ever as bad as Atlanta's or LA's. A 4 hour commute for 30 miles is the type of traffic I'm talking about. The average commute in my city is 1.5 hours each way for about 30 miles and that's a normal day. If you add wrecks or breakdowns, it will be over 2 hours. Imagine every week you're doing a part-time job and it's only your commute to work. I refuse to drive locally during traffic times - I never leave the house from 0700-1000 & 1700-1900 hrs.

How have I done such things and seen the road carnage that I have?

I am a "Gumballer." Gumball3000 is the name of the event. I have done 14.5 of them. I have also done numerous other car rallies, in the USA. I have done a few European Car Rallies. Furthermore, Gumball usually does a part of the rally in Europe and part in USA. Therefore, I have seen a large amount of aftermarket crap - even if it was the best - fail. I learned over-tuned cars can't make the long haul. Ever drove a car for 3000 miles wide open on normal streets? It's carnage. There'd be 100+ cars with some of the richest people in the world - egos were wild! Cars were wild-n-exotic and boy-oh-boy would those cars fail.

Locally, I hit the scene and have since 2k. Atlanta has "friendly contests" all the time. Atlanta has car clubs and groups that put these events on. This brings out the types of cars you spoke of - tuned Civics and other monstrosities. These guys have parts falling off sometimes. Ever catch air at 140+ from a bridge lip? It does wonders for lowered tight suspension cars with wheels too heavy and large.

I digress, I do not enjoy such activities anymore. I sold all my cars. I kept a prized Z06 I rolled off the showroom floor. I just don't have any desire to drive that way anymore and, I don't "effewe" money to deal with all the legal matters. The key to most of this is, cameras and phones weren't as available or as technologically advanced before 2010. It still took years for the public to start using cameras to catch people for lies or "YouTube Glory or Monetization." I still refer to this time as the "Wild Wild West" for car rallies and their enthusiasts.

So that's how I've seen many wheels roll off a car. I dared greatly over an extended period of time. Once again, I live in Atlanta where POS run the streets.

I now realize it was all personality disorder. When one hangs out with debaucherous individuals who thrive hedonistically, and have the money to back it up, lines & laws become challenges or obstacles. I am much happier without all the 'stuff,' disorders, chaos, or large income.

Modifying trucks seems to be a full fledged disease in this country. There are plenty of after market companies willing to take your hard earned money. In the quest to look cool and "go 4 wheelin" people spend amazing amounts of money often making their vehicles less dependable, more prone to wear, more top heavy and sometimes reducing power to the wheels.

Jeep owners are the worst, but a lot of them understand the modifications better than the average person.

If I really wanted to "build a rock crawler and run the Rubicon Trail" I would not start with a Ram pick up.

ppine said:

Jeep owners are the worst, but a lot of them understand the modifications better than the average person.

If I really wanted to "build a rock crawler and run the Rubicon Trail" I would not start with a Ram pick up.

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I resemble that remark. I've been lifting, locking and big tire my Jeeps for the last 30+ years. For my Trucks the most modification I do is 33-35" tires as the stock 32" tires are too small on these trucks IMO. I don't even like doing a leveling kit as I think it removes some of the hauling capability.

toddmakesamove said:

I live in Georgia. We are second to LA's traffic. I have traveled the whole continental US, daringly. No traffic was or is ever as bad as Atlanta's or LA's. A 4 hour commute for 30 miles is the type of traffic I'm talking about. The average commute in my city is 1.5 hours each way for about 30 miles and that's a normal day. If you add wrecks or breakdowns, it will be over 2 hours. Imagine every week you're doing a part-time job and it's only your commute to work. I refuse to drive locally during traffic times - I never leave the house from 0700-1000 & 1700-1900 hrs.

How have I done such things and seen the road carnage that I have?

I am a "Gumballer." Gumball3000 is the name of the event. I have done 14.5 of them. I have also done numerous other car rallies, in the USA. I have done a few European Car Rallies. Furthermore, Gumball usually does a part of the rally in Europe and part in USA. Therefore, I have seen a large amount of aftermarket crap - even if it was the best - fail. I learned over-tuned cars can't make the long haul. Ever drove a car for 3000 miles wide open on normal streets? It's carnage. There'd be 100+ cars with some of the richest people in the world - egos were wild! Cars were wild-n-exotic and boy-oh-boy would those cars fail.

Locally, I hit the scene and have since 2k. Atlanta has "friendly contests" all the time. Atlanta has car clubs and groups that put these events on. This brings out the types of cars you spoke of - tuned Civics and other monstrosities. These guys have parts falling off sometimes. Ever catch air at 140+ from a bridge lip? It does wonders for lowered tight suspension cars with wheels too heavy and large.

I digress, I do not enjoy such activities anymore. I sold all my cars. I kept a prized Z06 I rolled off the showroom floor. I just don't have any desire to drive that way anymore and, I don't "effewe" money to deal with all the legal matters. The key to most of this is, cameras and phones weren't as available or as technologically advanced before 2010. It still took years for the public to start using cameras to catch people for lies or "YouTube Glory or Monetization." I still refer to this time as the "Wild Wild West" for car rallies and their enthusiasts.

So that's how I've seen many wheels roll off a car. I dared greatly over an extended period of time. Once again, I live in Atlanta where POS run the streets.

I now realize it was all personality disorder. When one hangs out with debaucherous individuals who thrive hedonistically, and have the money to back it up, lines & laws become challenges or obstacles. I am much happier without all the 'stuff,' disorders, chaos, or large income.

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Entertaining as your explanation may be Atlanta is behind DC in every google search about cities with the worst traffic. That minor traffic glitch aside car rallies with exotic vehicles hardly constitute the norm on US roads. Not only have I never operated a vehicle at WOT for 3000 miles but neither have 99.99999% of US drivers. You may have seen wheels flying off on a greater scale than the average Joe but that’s not indicative of vehicular traffic in the real world. Just because wealthy people are too cheap to modify their vehicles correctly does not mean that thousands of us commoners can’t or don’t. It’s not the modification, it’s the quality of the modification.

@Atcer2018 LOL keep using Google drone. "Indicative of vehicular traffic in the real world" hahahahahahahahahaha. I was in the real world and those where real people. I never said wealthy persons modified their cars cheaply. You should look-up Gumball3000 up - there's Shieks, people with Diplomatic Immunity, Princes, Recording Artists, Stars, and regular Joe's.

Modified cars are for those who didn't buy the right vehicle to begin with or suck at driving. Enjoy your 3.6.

You should get out of large cities and DC is a sewer.