Test Equipment Anonymous

Just seen this, what an lucky driver, hit twice (watch till the end) and yet apparently they walked away this.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1639460487166586881

Holy shit! And then to add insult to injury, the damned thing chased after him and hit him again! Looks like the truck's spindle must have broken - I'm pretty sure I saw the brake rotor reflecting for a split second near the very end, so hub and all separated. The guy who hit it is lucky to not have been killed, and the guy who recorded it is lucky he was nice and pulled over to let the faster car pass. Frightening to think how fast things can go tango-uniform on the freeway at speed!

-Pat

I give that a sphincter rating of... hmmm... a solid 8.5.

mnem

I've had a wheel come off a Land Rover while driving. Fortunately it just buried itself in a hedge.

All 5 nuts holding the wheel on were missing. I called a rescue service, we confirmed no significant damage had been done to the Land Rover. We took one nut off each other wheel and proceeded home.

We couldn't figure out how all 5 nuts could come off, but

• I had driven 30 miles for a walk in the forest (Fenland, naturally!). Car behaved normally, but Landies are designed to be driven across ploughed fields!
• it had been parked in a forest car park for a couple of hours
• the wheel fell off within a kilometer of driving away from the car park

Our best guess is that someone was halfway through nicking the large and expensive tyres.

That certainly sounds like a very plausible possibility. Lucky no major damage was done.

-Pat

Cubdriver wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01, 2023 11:32 pm Holy shit! And then to add insult to injury, the damned thing chased after him and hit him again! Looks like the truck's spindle must have broken - I'm pretty sure I saw the brake rotor reflecting for a split second near the very end, so hub and all separated. The guy who hit it is lucky to not have been killed, and the guy who recorded it is lucky he was nice and pulled over to let the faster car pass. Frightening to think how fast things can go tango-uniform on the freeway at speed!

-Pat

It appeared to me that the truck had fitted wheel spacers to widen his track, if so, I reckon that the increased leverage on the wheel studs caused them to shear off. They used to be very popular once upon a time.

Specmaster wrote: ↑Sun Apr 02, 2023 8:53 am

Cubdriver wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01, 2023 11:32 pm Holy shit! And then to add insult to injury, the damned thing chased after him and hit him again! Looks like the truck's spindle must have broken - I'm pretty sure I saw the brake rotor reflecting for a split second near the very end, so hub and all separated. The guy who hit it is lucky to not have been killed, and the guy who recorded it is lucky he was nice and pulled over to let the faster car pass. Frightening to think how fast things can go tango-uniform on the freeway at speed!

-Pat

It appeared to me that the truck had fitted wheel spacers to widen his track, if so, I reckon that the increased leverage on the wheel studs caused them to shear off. They used to be very popular once upon a time.

That kind of thing was popular with lowered Civics in the US in the 90s, too - lower them, fit crazy wide tires and jack the camber all up. Used to call them 'Urban Steamrollers' on a car forum I was on.

-Pat

Specmaster wrote: ↑Sun Apr 02, 2023 8:53 am

Cubdriver wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01, 2023 11:32 pm Holy shit! And then to add insult to injury, the damned thing chased after him and hit him again! Looks like the truck's spindle must have broken - I'm pretty sure I saw the brake rotor reflecting for a split second near the very end, so hub and all separated. The guy who hit it is lucky to not have been killed, and the guy who recorded it is lucky he was nice and pulled over to let the faster car pass. Frightening to think how fast things can go tango-uniform on the freeway at speed!

-Pat

It appeared to me that the truck had fitted wheel spacers to widen his track, if so, I reckon that the increased leverage on the wheel studs caused them to shear off. They used to be very popular once upon a time.

Are you kidding? You have no idea how many of those plates I de-installed and chewed out politely explained what a safety hazard they are to a owner as a mechanic.

Fucking things always crack out cuz a) they're made of cast aluminum and 2) the people who want them are invariably morons who don't even know what a torque wrench is; from then on it's just a matter of time before something stupid like that happens.

When they let go, the spacers blow apart like a cheap plastic serving tray and the lug-nuts will still be present on the rotor/drum/axle; I used to keep a couple Polaroids of ones I had to fix in my toolbox as a "visual aid" while "explaining" the failure mode to customers.

mnem

mnementh wrote: ↑Sun Apr 02, 2023 2:54 pm

Specmaster wrote: ↑Sun Apr 02, 2023 8:53 am

Cubdriver wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01, 2023 11:32 pm Holy shit! And then to add insult to injury, the damned thing chased after him and hit him again! Looks like the truck's spindle must have broken - I'm pretty sure I saw the brake rotor reflecting for a split second near the very end, so hub and all separated. The guy who hit it is lucky to not have been killed, and the guy who recorded it is lucky he was nice and pulled over to let the faster car pass. Frightening to think how fast things can go tango-uniform on the freeway at speed!

-Pat

It appeared to me that the truck had fitted wheel spacers to widen his track, if so, I reckon that the increased leverage on the wheel studs caused them to shear off. They used to be very popular once upon a time.

Are you kidding? You have no idea how many of those plates I de-installed and chewed out politely explained what a safety hazard they are to a owner as a mechanic.

Fucking things always crack out cuz a) they're made of cast aluminum and 2) the people who want them are invariably morons who don't even know what a torque wrench is; from then on it's just a matter of time before something stupid like that happens.

When they let go, the spacers blow apart like a cheap plastic serving tray and the lug-nuts will still be present on the rotor/drum/axle; I used to keep a couple Polaroids of ones I had to fix in my toolbox as a "visual aid" while "explaining" the failure mode to customers.

mnem

Maybe this video might explain what the truck installer did wrong?
https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... zjv5nHehVY

Those are offset shims. You use extended wheel lugs with those, and they're almost as strong as the original hub/wheel. Shims make very little difference in the wheel geometry, as they're not usually available in more than like 10-15mm or so width.


I'm talking aboot the spacers used to adapt common wheels to oddball bolt patterns; like passenger vehicles modded with huge truck rims and uber-low-profile tires for the "dub" look. Those, the spacer actually carries the weight of the vehicle, and they often add 20-50mm/side to the track of the vehicle. Those alter the geometry enough to really fuck up the leverage between the wheel and the springs, altering idle ride height and giving every whack against the wheel from curb strikes, potholes, etc much-amplified impact to damage tie-rod ends, ball-joints, even bend the shit out of A-arms, etc.

On top of that, then the morons often deliberately fuck up the camber as AVGresponding shows above... which also fucks up the caster and makes them not steer worth a fuck, so not only looking stoopit as a bag of hammers, but also making the vehicle a safety hazard for the driver and anyone in the immediate vicinity.

A quick search online don't show any of the cast spacers I'm thinking of, only bits that look like machined billet, possibly forged... so it may be that they've stopped making them due to liability. That would be effing awresome.

mnem
Never been a shortage of automotive dumbassery...

Way back, when "I were but a stripling lad", I had a 1936 Chev sedan with the standard narrow, but very large diameter (17") wheels.

In my first job, once a year, we had "stock take" on a Saturday, & most of us brought our cars to work.

Overlooking the CBD in Perth is a large park called King's Park, reached (in those days) by a steep climb up "Mount Street".
We had discovered a good parking lot just near the park, so, on this particular Saturday, up the hill I went in my bright red '36.

At the top of the street was a statue of Queen Victoria, which we had to turn around to reach the parking spot.
Just as I made the turn, there was a BANG! the LH rear of the car contacted the road, & I saw the wheel rolling back towards the edge of the hill I'd just "scaled".
Luckily, there was a small rise just before the down gradient started, so it hesitated, then fell on its side.

Just as I was getting out of the car & checking what had happened, a "ragtop" Morris Minor surmounted the rise.
If the wheel hadn't stopped, he would probably have met it as it plummeted down the hill.

It turned out that the wheel must have come off sometime in the past (maybe during WW2), & it had been repaired by welding the seat the nuts fit into back into place.
Unfortunately, they had done a crappy job of it.

Thank Ifni for favors small and large, ehhh...?

mnem
*toddles off to play with his WowStick*

vk6zgo wrote: ↑Mon Apr 03, 2023 10:58 am Way back, when "I were but a stripling lad", I had a 1936 Chev sedan with the standard narrow, but very large diameter (17") wheels.

In my first job, once a year, we had "stock take" on a Saturday, & most of us brought our cars to work.

Overlooking the CBD in Perth is a large park called King's Park, reached (in those days) by a steep climb up "Mount Street".
We had discovered a good parking lot just near the park, so, on this particular Saturday, up the hill I went in my bright red '36.

At the top of the street was a statue of Queen Victoria, which we had to turn around to reach the parking spot.
Just as I made the turn, there was a BANG! the LH rear of the car contacted the road, & I saw the wheel rolling back towards the edge of the hill I'd just "scaled".
Luckily, there was a small rise just before the down gradient started, so it hesitated, then fell on its side.

Just as I was getting out of the car & checking what had happened, a "ragtop" Morris Minor surmounted the rise.
If the wheel hadn't stopped, he would probably have met it as it plummeted down the hill.

It turned out that the wheel must have come off sometime in the past (maybe during WW2), & it had been repaired by welding the seat the nuts fit into back into place.
Unfortunately, they had done a crappy job of it.

Ah Kings Park Perth, been there and it does command a good view due to its elevation......certainly wouldn't wanna meet a wayward wheel on the way up there !