Wheel came off

[dictum]

2003 RAM 1500, 200K miles:

Was driving on the interstate when I heard a bump and some noise and pulled over to discover this.
Truck bed had nothing in it, and I was towing an empty Uhaul trailer.
The wheel is nowhere to be found.

The last pic shows what the other rear wheel looks like.
The axle does not appear to be broken?

 

[rule18]

Wow, hope everyone's OK. So, all your lug nuts backed off? Seems a little suspicious...

 

[dictum]

I don't know if the lug nuts backed out or what. I am just reporting the facts.

 

[Snake15eyes1998]

You're lug nut studs look all messed up. They look like they have been cross threaded. One is completely broke. Glad you're ok and whoever was around you.

 

[pacofortacos]

Looks like someone either
A. forgot/didn't tighten the lug nuts tight enough and/or retorque after a few miles to confirm
B. Some fine person loosened the lug nuts when the truck was sitting without your knowledge.

Some kids/people seem to think loosening lug nuts is a funny thing to do - unfortunately it is not all that uncommon.
It could easily kill some one if the vehicle owner doesn't discover the loose lug nuts before they all depart.

Glad you and everyone else is ok - it could have been ugly.

 

[Neil E]

When's the last time you had your wheels taken off for rotation and balance? If it was recent, I would be calling the place that did it. Glad to hear everyone is ok (assuming your wheel didn't wind up hitting another vehicle).

 

[Anonymous007]

Man, that is scary


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dictum]

Not my vehicle
The owner said he tightened the lugs 400 miles ago.

 

[jawzs2]

My money is on lugs weren't tight, started to back out till they fell off, the last one standing broke as the wheel went off on it's own.

 

[Smokeybear01]

Glad you're okay. I'm also glad I didn't meet your wheel coming at me. Someone either didn't tighten those lugs or someone else loosened them and like mentioned previously, the last one holding broke off when the tire went wonky. So glad you're okay.

 

[dictum]

It's not my vehicle. I just borrowed for the trip. The owner is a part time auto repair person and I assumed all would be good.
He apparently neglected it as a beater in his fleet.

 

[kevkev]

I'm going to re-torque my wheels tomorrow.

 

[FullForceRam]

Not surprised that it's a "beater".. the amount of neglect and rust on that truck is extremely scary. You couldn't pay me to drive that truck. lol
Glad you're all ok though..

 

[Tripper]

Looking at the picture I would say FullForceRam is dead on. I wouldn't take anything I owned to the "part time auto repair person" after seeing the photos.

 

[jawzs2]

That rust isn't that unusual on a 2003 vehicle in Maryland, we like to use salt on our roads in the winter here on the east coast.

 

[Sandevino]

Let’s stop assuming and knocking the owner of the vehicle. Glad everyone’s ok and no one was hurt. Things can be replaced.

 

[tron67j]

If all lor 4 of 5 lug nuts were loosened by someone, it would wobble. And if they were loosened more than one stud would be broken. It looks like threads in 4 of the 5 studs are stripped, which would have been before driving.

The 5th stud is broken near where the lug nut would have been up against the hole of the rim. It appears, without the benefit of the rim to verify, that the 4 studs were already stripped but the lug nuts were probably "stuck" on and the 5th was the one that held the whole thing together. When the 5th finally had enough and/or enough of the others gave up, the result was catastrophic failure. Whoever put those tires on knew there was a problem. Yes, I have seen this before. Tire from a Honda going 40 miles an hour just missed my head. Car lost it soon after having tires replaced. Looked just like this, turned out 3 of 4 studs were stripped.

 

[Daw14]

What happened to the brake rotor ?

 

[FullForceRam]

It's neglect and poor maintenance of the vehicle, just glad nobody was hurt.

 

[BWL]

Doesn't look much different than mine did. Wheel wobbles for a little bit, wrecks the threads and ovals the holes in the rims and then snaps off. Looks like you were lucky and it came out fairly clean and didn't hit anybody. I've seen trucks quarters destroyed and a few internet videos of people hit by tires. I always retorque my wheels now. Not a lesson you want to learn twice. Really it's a lesson best never learned