Bad wheel service day

[Seren]

While at Grand Junction, discovered a broken spring on my Heartland, which caused undue wear on tires on the passenger side. Bought four new G114 at a tire shop then went to another store to get a new spring. The shop took off all four tires so they could realign the axle, which was slightly misaligned because of the broken spring.
After leaving Grand Junction the same day we drove to Rifle Gap SP for a few days, then on Friday left to go to Vernal, UT. About 10 miles west on Meeker, CO when I glanced at my side mirror, I saw a tire following us down the road - my back, driver-side tire had come off. After pulling over, I retrieved my tire, then assessed the damage, tire fender nearly broken off, and 3 studs broken off. Called my roadside service, but because of my location it would take 2-3 hours for service. So I put the tire back on, and tighten 4 lug nuts that I took off from the other tires (the 5th lug nut I could not put on since the stud was stripped), then slowly drove back to Meeker. The auto and truck repair said that they will not be able to see me until mid-week, so will be at Meeker for a week.
Question, should the spring shop be responsible and pay for the repair? I called them and they said I should have rechecked the lug nuts, but if the lug were put on at the proper tension should they have come loose after about 100 miles?


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[BouseBill]

Re: Bad tire day.

Sorry to hear of your problems and in answer to your question, yes it's entirely possible for the lug nuts to have come loose in 100 miles, after tire work I may check mine several times a day when we're on the road.

 

[danemayer]

Re: Bad tire day.

Lug nuts need to be tightened per the manual, but should not have been that loose.

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[fastcarsspeed]

Re: Bad tire day.

Yeah very odd. Technically they say to torque the lugnuts after 100 miles on rv's when they have been taken off. Given that I just replaced all 6 of our tires and I used my torque wrench to make sure they were correct. We then traveled 300 miles and when I stopped in between I check and they were not loose at all. I also checked again when we got to our campground and not loose. I don't think you are going to win the battle but that is sad that they did not tighten them up properly. Why I don't trust many shops with my stuff. Good luck.

 

[Seren]

Re: Bad tire day.

Thanks for the input everyone. Wound up needing a new hub in addition to studs and lug nuts it came out to be $500.. On our next trip to Leadville I stopped twice and the lug nuts on the new hub were all very slightly loose, less than a quarter turn.


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[tireman9]

Re: Bad tire day.

Maybe the post title should have been "Bad wheel service day" as the failure had nothing to do with a bad tire.

 

[alexb2000]

Re: Bad tire day.

I have never in had a tire lug come loose over time, just doesn't happen unless they are not property seated when initially torqued, they were not torqued at all, or there is some other issue like corrosion.

Torquing several times a day, everyday..... Wow.

Case in point, I know a BIG tire shop that doesn't even own a torque wrench, torque sticks, etc. They torque every wheel to the spec of two to three Ug-Ah's from the impact gun. They never seem to have a complaint and to their point the only time in my life a tire has come off was after Discount Tire torqued my tire twice (according to them) and I made it half a block.

 

[danemayer]

Re: Bad tire day.

My experience is that when a wheel is changed, after the lug nuts are tightened, if you recheck them after 5 or 10 miles, you'll find that several will have seated more fully and need to be re-tightened a bit. Checking them at two stops in the first 50 miles does the job. If you check them a third time you'll find they're tight.

I know a lot of people don't bother doing this, and most get away with it. We're all free to roll the dice if we like.

 

[Gary521]

Re: Bad tire day.

I have never in had a tire lug come loose over time, just doesn't happen unless they are not property seated when initially torqued, they were not torqued at all, or there is some other issue like corrosion.

Torquing several times a day, everyday..... Wow.

Case in point, I know a BIG tire shop that doesn't even own a torque wrench, torque sticks, etc. They torque every wheel to the spec of two to three Ug-Ah's from the impact gun. They never seem to have a complaint and to their point the only time in my life a tire has come off was after Discount Tire torqued my tire twice (according to them) and I made it half a block.

The problem with putting lug nuts on with an air gun is that, Yes, they will not come off, but if you have to change them on the road -forget it.

 

[alexb2000]

Re: Bad tire day.

The problem with putting lug nuts on with an air gun is that, Yes, they will not come off, but if you have to change them on the road -forget it.

I hear you, that's why I bring my Milwaukee 18V impact everywhere. I don't want to change an 8 lug tire (even if it is properly torqued) with a hand wrench.