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Tire came off at 45mph.

2K views 36 replies 24 participants last post by  ahewy 
#1 ·
Picking up my girl from work and I felt a slight drifting and thought nothing of it. We then felt a up and down thump thump thump, cause the hub was bouncing around the inside of the rim when it was about to come out. Right after, the Jeep felt like a lowrider. I slowed down still very confused at the moment, as I was pulling over we looked to our left and my 33" maxxis bighorn was hauling *** down the fast lane. oops. Somebody saw and picked up the run away tire and I got my Hi lift and threw on the spare. What a night.
 
#2 ·
That is seriously dangerous and I don't mean for you. I had a tire come off of another tahoe and hit me dead center of my wife's tahoe they were going the opposite direction on I-95 they were doing 70 and I was doing 70 so the impact was around 140 mph. The tire riped through my bumper, through my radiator, riped out and bent some of my frame, tore the motor mounts, busted the exhaust from flexing the motor backwards. The impact lifted the rear axle off the ground approx 5 ft. acording to the construction worker that was wittnes. In any less of a vehicle me and my family may not have walked away. All this because some stoner at a tire shop forgot to tighten the lug nuts a few miles back. So be thankfull you only screwed up a rim insted of many worse scenerios. Had someone got hurt or worse you would be liable because it was part of your vehicle that caused the damage ( people will sue for much less these days). So if I were you I would be happy with the outcome as much as it sucked it was the best possible scenerio in reality.
 
#4 ·
yeah I mean im not complaining, it couldve been way worse, as you stated above. It crossed 4 lanes with no damage to other cars, thankfully. The jeep is fine really, cracked the whole driver side rear fender and scraped the hub. Need a new rim though.
 
#5 ·
It is truly amazing how much damage they can do, the highway patrol said it happens 10- 12 times a month and that blew me away. Kinda freeks me out after my experiance as I also ride a motorcycle I just try to stay off of the highway as much as i can. On a bike you would never know it happend! Cool of the Guy to grab your tire though atleast that will save you some $.
 
#17 ·
yeah i was on i-5 here in cali heading to s.f when i saw a tj in the fast lane lose his spare off of his tire carrier and the f'ing 35 at tire came pretty damn close to hitting the car behind it. Of course that car swerved and i had to swerve big time on the bike to avoid becoming roadkill! So as a message to all jeepers including myself, just tighten those lugnuts occasionally, it wont take to much time to do and it will help you stay that much safer!:wave:
 
#9 ·
Wait a minute. You were going down the highway and your tire falls off the lugs. The brake disc rolled around on the inside of the rim and then the tire fell completly off. After this you came to a stop. Did your brake disc rub on the ground at all (was it front or rear that fell off/disc or drum brake)? Did that brake rub on the ground at all?
 
#11 ·
the axle shaft of my YJ slid out one time and tried to pass me. The rear tire actually hit the front fender before I saw it in my rearview mirror flipping around kicking up dust. You were lucky tho because I very little control and the brakes weren't stopping me. I just grinded to a halt. Luckily I was on a backroad with little traffic. I mean, what if I'd gone head-on into an oncoming car?
 
#14 ·
Maybe if I had lightning speed reflexes that couldve happened. Your driving your Jeep and feel a ever so slight sway due to a gust of wind, thats what it felt like. So as I stated before I thought it was nothing. As just about ALL of you would think. And also as I stated, the next thing that happened was the tire was completely loose and seconds before it was away from my Jeep the hub was bouncing around inside the rim. Nothing I could do then, tire was coming off whether you or I was driving. And the only noise we heard was the hub sliding on the ground. Thanks for your concern. I'de hate to drive with you on a long trip, pulling over everytime a gust of wind causes a slight drift of the Jeep.
 
#13 ·
Whenever I have anyone work on a vehical, I always walk around it before I drive off and check lugs, etc. Plus I'll check them again later. I do my own rotations as well, so I always recheck lugs.
 
#15 ·
I had an experience like that in 280ZX. I had noticed that the front end suddenly seemed a bit imprecise, wandering on turns--I stopped didn't see anything obvious, so I'd jack it up when I got home. On a back road the front suspension snapped off completely, the car went over the tire (almost flipped) and skidded to a stop on the frame. The tire didn't go far partly because I wasn't going all that fast and the suspension was still attached. Turns out that part of the lower control arm structure was held by two bolts, one apparently fatigued and the other one eventually ripped off.


As a side note, the cop asked if I had hit anything. Since I did not hit the guard rail or any other object, it was classified as a breakdown and not an accident.
 
#18 · (Edited)
OK, I'm missing something here. From the original post I thought that the tire came off the wheel and that the wheel was still mounted to the hub when he stopped. If that's the case, then please explain how keeping lug nuts tight will prevent that? I've had a tire nearly come off from a blowout on a radial tire; if I'd been going faster, it probably would have. I've also had my wheel/tire assembly pass me- Oh, Crap! Like Cosby says,"First you say it, then you do it!"


EDIT: Reread the post; I misread it. Probably because my experience in both of the situations I had were with no warning. One minute I'm driving along, fat,dumb, and happy, then WTF! Not a pleasant experience at any speed...
 
#21 ·
OK, I'm missing something here. From the original post I thought that the tire came off the wheel and that the wheel was still mounted to the hub when he stopped. If that's the case, then please explain how keeping lug nuts tight will prevent that? I've had a tire nearly come off from a blowout on a radial tire; if I'd been going faster, it probably would have. I've also had my wheel/tire assembly pass me- Oh, Crap! Like Cosby says,"First you say it, then you do it!"

EDIT: Reread the post; I misread it. Probably because my experience in both of the situations I had were with no warning. One minute I'm driving along, fat,dumb, and happy, then WTF! Not a pleasant experience at any speed...
please re-read the post! he said that the hub was bouncing or rolling around in the wheel and that he was able to bolt up the spare! and yes check your lug nuts occasionally! example once every couple weeks!
 
#20 ·
This happened to me on my first Jeep. I had just had a nail removed from my drivers rear tire and was driving back to the house. I started to feel a vibration and just figured it was the road, since in michigan the washboards are everywhere. Well it kept doing it on flat pavement, so as I was pulling into a subdivision to check it out, right when i made the right hand turn the wheel popped off and went rolling into the trees and the drum slammed the pavement.

Turns out the idiot at the tire shop tightened down the first lug all the way, so the wheel was not put on straight and flat...then he tightened down all the other lugs. So when he put it down on the lift and the weight of the car was put on it and was cockeyed, thus the wheel vibrating off..
 
#23 ·
x2. If you have a shop do your work, you expect it to be right (tho not always true). I doubt too many people would ask the mechanic, hey can I see your torque wrench? But I'm not saying the car owner doesn't have responsibilties
 
#24 · (Edited)
All I can think of is Ron White talking about the tire guy at Sears and his tire coming off.

He said he can't wait until they change the name of the Sears Tower to Ron White's Big Ole "blank blank" Building. "The tire fell off! The tire fell off! The tire fell "blank" off!" That guy is funny.



Anyway, glad it didn't cause anyone any major pain or suffering.
 
#30 ·
i had the same thing happen to me last night. was driving to my buddys house to put my new cross drilled rotors on and work on his firebird. i just put 2 inch spacers on last week. put them on, torqued them, drove a few miles down the road, came home, re torqued them. then last night i was driving down the road, was taking a right hand turn, felt a weird drift, all of a sudden the jeep dropped and i watched my rear driverside tire roll across the road, up a hill then down into a 20 foot ditch on the side of the road in the snow. the rear drum scraped about 25 feet down the road. i went down into the ditch, hauled my tire out, happened to have my tools on me because i was heading to do my brakes, so i pulled the lugs off the rim to get the spacer out, i think 3 lugs worked loose and 2 got stripped. the studs are all good. anyways got my tire back on without the spacer, drove to my buddys house and took all my spacer off. my brakes pull to the right now though....
 
#32 ·
Same EXACT experience here.

Unless your just forgot to tighten the lugs there is a reason this happens. I am guessing it was a rear tire? If so I'll be you have rear drum brakes? If you do check the drums to see if the holes that accept the lug bolts are ovaled out. In other words remove the tire, grab the drum and see if you can wiggle it left to right. It should not move at all. If the holes are ovaled out even a little bit it it will allow the drum to slide/rotate slightly when braking. This will slowly loosen the lugs no matter how often you tighten them.
 
#34 ·
i think my problem was caused by the spacers being aluminum and theres been a lot of changes in temp around here. i had no problems in the last 6 months prior to the spacers.
 
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