mingles
GOLD Star
I had an unnerving experience last night, one that could have potentially cost me the rig or worse in a serious accident.
For the last two days I had thought I felt a slight “flutter” in the truck on slight turns at speed. Running straight, smooth as silk, make a gentle turn, slight fluttering vibration that feels like running on the rough lugs of a mud tire. I have somewhat aggressive tread on the ST Maxx tires and had a bit of uneven cupping on one so I thought that was the source of the vibration. I knew in my gut something had changed and so earlier yesterday I rechecked all my tire pressures and they checked out. The flutter was still there, and my plan today was to rotate tires.
Well… last night I came off the interstate, made a slight turn to the right at the bottom of the ramp, and it felt like someone had instantly removed the rear sway bar or a control arm mid-turn. It was a spooky feeling
. Mentally running the list of possible causes, I pulled into the next parking lot thinking that maybe one of my control arm bolts had let loose. I get out and immediately see the LR wheel center cap is missing and the locking lug nut is gone. Shining a flashlight closer, the stud is actually sheared off. The rest of the lug nuts on that wheel are backed off 7-8 turns and the wheel was within a few miles, or one sharp turn away from shearing the rest of the studs and separating from the vehicle. I had just come off of a 70mph interstate run, I had family members in the truck, and I suddenly realized how close we had been to potential disaster.
Why did this occur? About 4000 miles ago I inserted the spare tire/wheel into the tire rotation pattern in the LR position on the truck. As always, all lugs were tightened to spec using an impact wrench and a torque stick. Judging by the corrosion/pitting on the OEM rim, it has never been used prior to this. I think there was enough thickness of corrosion on the lug nut seats that, over the last month of use, the corrosion wore away enough to loosen the lug nuts. Because the locking lug nut was different from the other OEM ones, it backed off differently and was the first stud to shear. I had just checked tire pressure on that wheel 6 hours earlier, if I had thought to check lug nut tightness, the whole incident would have been averted.
All the other lug nuts on the truck were tight as they should be. I have read about several other instances about sudden shearing of wheel studs on the LC. In this instance, however, the gradual loosening of the lug nuts over several thousand miles could have resulted in a “sudden” shearing of wheel studs, but the root cause actually had nothing to do with the studs and was building up over time.
My takeaway on this… Catastrophic failures rarely occur suddenly with no prior warning. The indicators leading up to this were there, I just didn’t put the clues together in time. If your gut is telling you something isn’t right, your truck is trying to tell you something. LISTEN and figure out what is going on. You may save someone’s life averting a serious accident.
For the last two days I had thought I felt a slight “flutter” in the truck on slight turns at speed. Running straight, smooth as silk, make a gentle turn, slight fluttering vibration that feels like running on the rough lugs of a mud tire. I have somewhat aggressive tread on the ST Maxx tires and had a bit of uneven cupping on one so I thought that was the source of the vibration. I knew in my gut something had changed and so earlier yesterday I rechecked all my tire pressures and they checked out. The flutter was still there, and my plan today was to rotate tires.
Well… last night I came off the interstate, made a slight turn to the right at the bottom of the ramp, and it felt like someone had instantly removed the rear sway bar or a control arm mid-turn. It was a spooky feeling
. Mentally running the list of possible causes, I pulled into the next parking lot thinking that maybe one of my control arm bolts had let loose. I get out and immediately see the LR wheel center cap is missing and the locking lug nut is gone. Shining a flashlight closer, the stud is actually sheared off. The rest of the lug nuts on that wheel are backed off 7-8 turns and the wheel was within a few miles, or one sharp turn away from shearing the rest of the studs and separating from the vehicle. I had just come off of a 70mph interstate run, I had family members in the truck, and I suddenly realized how close we had been to potential disaster.Why did this occur? About 4000 miles ago I inserted the spare tire/wheel into the tire rotation pattern in the LR position on the truck. As always, all lugs were tightened to spec using an impact wrench and a torque stick. Judging by the corrosion/pitting on the OEM rim, it has never been used prior to this. I think there was enough thickness of corrosion on the lug nut seats that, over the last month of use, the corrosion wore away enough to loosen the lug nuts. Because the locking lug nut was different from the other OEM ones, it backed off differently and was the first stud to shear. I had just checked tire pressure on that wheel 6 hours earlier, if I had thought to check lug nut tightness, the whole incident would have been averted.
All the other lug nuts on the truck were tight as they should be. I have read about several other instances about sudden shearing of wheel studs on the LC. In this instance, however, the gradual loosening of the lug nuts over several thousand miles could have resulted in a “sudden” shearing of wheel studs, but the root cause actually had nothing to do with the studs and was building up over time.
My takeaway on this… Catastrophic failures rarely occur suddenly with no prior warning. The indicators leading up to this were there, I just didn’t put the clues together in time. If your gut is telling you something isn’t right, your truck is trying to tell you something. LISTEN and figure out what is going on. You may save someone’s life averting a serious accident.
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