Near tragic event!!

[Likes_to_tow]

I'm not new at this. I have pulled boat trailers since I was 17 and Rv's for the past 16 years. I've owned 3 fifth wheels. My maintenance procedures are second to none in my opinion......up until last Sunday! I'm thorough on wheel bearing maintenance, tire pressure and brake adjustment. Never had a problem! Last Sunday after arriving at my campsite 90 miles from home I got all set up and plugged in. When I started up the steps to enter the camper my eyes were drawn to the most unbelievable site I have ever seen. I stood there looking at it for probably a full minute and could not believe what I saw.
My complete wheel was missing on the front axle!!!!!!!!!! Most of my 90 mile journey was Interstate and I did not notice anything different in towing nor did I hear any noise or vibration. All of the lug bolts were sheared off even with the surface on the drum, the dust cap was missing and obviously the axle was sagging down on that side.

Last August 2019 I performed my yearly maintenance in preparation for a trip West. All wheels removed one at a time, new grease seals, clean bearings and repack, clean and inspect brake shoes & adjust and check tire pressure. We drove 4500 miles through Colorado and New Mexico. In October we had a trip into southern Ky and late October we went to the Smoky Mts. Then this year 2020 in May we went to North Carolina/Virginia and lastly in July we went to the mountains of West Virginia. I'm thinking all these trips were near 5000 miles + of trailer towing. Flawless enjoyable towing and travel. Since we canceled our long range travel this year due to the out of control violence in our nation I had not done any maintenance in 2020 and the season is coming to an end for us until the we feel more secure traveling.

My advice to anyone pulling a trailer is this. Follow instructions on the torque specs on the lug nuts. I've never used a torque wrench on wheels and simply relied on tightening them really good. The only thing I can think of is this particular wheel was not tight and the many miles of travel just allowed them to loosen up, vibrating and shaking, then shearing off the studs. I also thought of the possibility of someone loosening the lug nuts. I hate to think of anyone doing this but in today's world it's hard to comprehend what we see going on everywhere. Had I failed to tighten the lug nuts in August 2019 how did I travel 5000+ miles with no problem?? I suppose it would take that long to begin to loosen up the nuts?? If this had been on a passenger vehicle you would feel the vibration or noise and stop to check it out. On a trailer you hear or feel nothing !!! I checked the other three wheels on my return yesterday using a torque wrench and all were between 90-110 pounds. I took one day to remove the brake drum and take it to a local tire shop where new studs were pressed into the wheel and put the spare on for my trip home. I did not come back on three wheels!!

One last observation. Last year I put 4 new Goodyear Endurance tires on and removed the China Bomb Westlakes. I truly believe that the single Endurance carrying the entire load for how ever many miles after this happened enabled me to arrive safely. The Westlake or any China bomb would have blown under the increased load it was temporarily carrying. The wheel could have come off in the first part of my 90 mile trip or toward the end, I have no idea.

CHECK LUG NUT TORQUE AS PART OF YOUR MAINTENANCE !! Even if you do not do any maintenance on your axles you can at least put a lug wrench on your wheels and check for tightness. Do it often. My procedure now will be after removing a wheel I will tighten to proper specs with a torque wrench......then check again after driving a few miles.

[cummins2014]

fj12ryder wrote:
Just a FWIW, but some lug wrenches are not designed to be used to loosen nuts and bolts, even though they are ratchets. Especially the cheapo wrenches. Be sure to check that your particular torque wrench can be used in a counterclockwise direction. Not all of them can.

Plus they actually have to be recalibrated at some point to insure accuracy . We were required to recalibrate , don’t remember now if it was every six months or year . Not sure how important it has to be for wheel torquing , or how far out of calibration they can get . I’ve never personally had my torque wrenches checked for calibration.

[fj12ryder]

Just a FWIW, but some lug wrenches are not designed to be used to loosen nuts and bolts, even though they are ratchets. Especially the cheapo wrenches. Be sure to check that your particular torque wrench can be used in a counterclockwise direction. Not all of them can.

[fj12ryder]

Walaby wrote:

12th Man Fan wrote:
For those of you who think a TPMS will tell you if a wheel comes of, I think you are mistaken. I am not positive but I don't think they will alarm if this happens.

Mine will tell me when a sensor has lost signal. Im pretty sure if a tire went flying it would be out of range and lose the signal.

Mike

It strictly depends on the make and model of TPMS. The TST system has about an hour lag time between losing contact with the sensor and notifying you of an issue. Other makes have differing times.

[goducks10]

Lippert?

[time2roll]

JKJavelin wrote:
You will get many opinions here, but I think the studs sheared from over tightening or, more probable, defective studs. You might want to replace all of the studs, and for sure, replace the other tire from that side. The remaining tire took the whole load from that side and may be compromised. I'm glad you avoided other damage.
JK

+1 on this.

Yes I have always used a torque wrench set to 105 and the oem studs would seem to stretch as the nut was tightened. It was like the steel was soft and as they were tightened it took more turn than expected before I would get a click.

Fast forward 10 years and I put disk brakes on my trailer. The lugs tighten much different and seem stronger where they snug right up and the wrench clicks firmly. Previously it would be an extra 1/4 turn where it should have been tight but had a soft finish.

I feel lucky to have never lost a wheel with the original AL-KO hardware.

[Walaby]

12th Man Fan wrote:
For those of you who think a TPMS will tell you if a wheel comes of, I think you are mistaken. I am not positive but I don't think they will alarm if this happens.

Mine will tell me when a sensor has lost signal. Im pretty sure if a tire went flying it would be out of range and lose the signal.

Mike

[Lightning55]

You'll probably never know the cause for sure, but I think most likely fatigued wheel studs from over tightening was the bottom line cause. I'd be worried about all the other wheels having stretched studs.

[RCMAN46]

BobsYourUncle wrote:

12th Man Fan wrote:
For those of you who think a TPMS will tell you if a wheel comes of, I think you are mistaken. I am not positive but I don't think they will alarm if this happens.

I have the TST 507 and I can disconnect from the RV and drive away and the monitor will keep displaying the last reading of when it was connected. This makes me believe you could lose the whole RV and not know it.

I don't own a TPMS, but I would think you would be alerted when the unit detects the loss of signal from one wheel.
Because you are still operating, driving down the road, a signal loss should be part of the overall function.

With the TST 507 it will be about one hour before you will get a signal loss alarm. This has been documented many times on this forum over the last 5 years or so.

[BobsYourUncle]

12th Man Fan wrote:
For those of you who think a TPMS will tell you if a wheel comes of, I think you are mistaken. I am not positive but I don't think they will alarm if this happens.

I have the TST 507 and I can disconnect from the RV and drive away and the monitor will keep displaying the last reading of when it was connected. This makes me believe you could lose the whole RV and not know it.

I don't own a TPMS, but I would think you would be alerted when the unit detects the loss of signal from one wheel.
Because you are still operating, driving down the road, a signal loss should be part of the overall function.

[Likes_to_tow]

Still wrestling with this event and analyzing the potential problem. All of this for the benefit of anyone who reads this post and will communicate it to others who tow trailers.....any kind of trailer including boats and utility. Many good comments have been made which have given me things to consider.

About the lug nuts being over-tightened. I'm doubting this and here's why. I took my torque wrench and set it in loosen mode at 100 lbs then increased it to the point at which in the loosen mode it would click when loosening the nuts. None began to loosen at more than 120 lbs. Most between 100 AND 110. In my opinion none were overly tight to cause seperation of the stud. I would think that would be well over that amount, maybe 150+? ? Last summer when doing annual maintenance I just apparently did not tighten this particular wheel enough and through the thousands of miles in the past year it worked loose due to brake drums getting hot in the Rockies and the fact this trailer has aluminum rims. I think steel brake drums and aluminum wheels would expand and contact at different rates. Now combine that with the fact I never checked lug nuts after the initial first 50 miles nor at any time since. They worked loose and continued to work loose until just recently the wheel apparently was vibrating on the drum!! When they let go they all sheared off even with the drum. Metal fatigue right at that point.

So beware of proper lug nut maintenance along with your brakes, bearing seals and grease. Tighten lug nuts good and check again after a few miles of travel when you have removed a tire. Use a torque wrench set at manufacturers recommendation. I was so fortunate to not have had a bad accident running on one tire without my being aware of it. Thankfully the tire was on the curb side and rolled away without striking a person or property.

[12th_Man_Fan]

For those of you who think a TPMS will tell you if a wheel comes of, I think you are mistaken. I am not positive but I don't think they will alarm if this happens.

I have the TST 507 and I can disconnect from the RV and drive away and the monitor will keep displaying the last reading of when it was connected. This makes me believe you could lose the whole RV and not know it.

[Lynnmor]

Likes to tow wrote:
The Dexter chart I COPIED from the Internet said to torque first to 60lbs then do it all again to get them at 90 to 120lbs. That's a 30 lb variance and looks like to me this makes it not overly critical. Just get them tight. I'm doing 90 from here on. However I believe the most important part of torquing wheel lug nuts to to do it again after a few miles and then check it regularly like you would tire pressure. Like one poster mentioned, the heating and cooling of brake drums may make this more critical.

When I'm doing an engine overhaul I always go exactly as the manual says and that is a specific torque setting.......not a big variation. Rod bearings and cylinder head bolts have a specific recommendation. Apparently wheels do not.

Read page 73 & 74. Dexter manual

Steel, aluminum and aluminum with inserts all may be different, so go by the wheel manufacturers specifications.

[Likes_to_tow]

valhalla360 wrote:

Likes to tow wrote:
I don't believe I was running at speed when the wheel came off. I may have been in a tight turn in an intersection or turning onto a different road. The plastic dressing around the wheel well was totally undamaged. Had the tire came off at highway speed I think it would have damaged it in some way.

Decades ago, my Dad lost a wheel going down I-75...how did he notice...it went rolling by on a downhill. Luckly no one hurt.

No damage to the skirting. We figure when it came off, it was rolling at the same speed as the trailer. As long as it got clear before it took a bounce, make sense that there would be no damage.

If you were on an uphill, you likely would have pulled away from it.

TPMS are good but I also check the tires in the mirrors every few minutes (especially after a hard bump). I will admit, I don't put a torque wrench on them every travel day but I do a walk around and check the pressure and at stops, I feel the hubs for heat.

I'm with some of the others wondering how you didn't notice until you went inside? Backing into a site, I watch the tires to plot my turning line...then of course when I go to chock the wheels, I think I would notice.

My 5th wheel has the auto leveling feature and the control for it is on the driver side (left) of the trailer. When backing in I was looking mostly on that side of the trailer due to the angle of the campsite plus the driver side has better visability. After exiting the truck I raised the door on the left side (driver) and plugged into AC, then pushed the up button on the control to raise the king pin just off the hitch, pulled the lever, pulled forward enough to allow the auto level feature to have clearance. When it was all finished I then walked around to the curb side (righ) of the trailer to enter. The door is just in front of the front axle. I looked down and was in total shock for a period of time! The cammpsite is totally level, did not need to chock tires.

[valhalla360]

Likes to tow wrote:
I don't believe I was running at speed when the wheel came off. I may have been in a tight turn in an intersection or turning onto a different road. The plastic dressing around the wheel well was totally undamaged. Had the tire came off at highway speed I think it would have damaged it in some way.

Decades ago, my Dad lost a wheel going down I-75...how did he notice...it went rolling by on a downhill. Luckly no one hurt.

No damage to the skirting. We figure when it came off, it was rolling at the same speed as the trailer. As long as it got clear before it took a bounce, make sense that there would be no damage.

If you were on an uphill, you likely would have pulled away from it.

TPMS are good but I also check the tires in the mirrors every few minutes (especially after a hard bump). I will admit, I don't put a torque wrench on them every travel day but I do a walk around and check the pressure and at stops, I feel the hubs for heat.

I'm with some of the others wondering how you didn't notice until you went inside? Backing into a site, I watch the tires to plot my turning line...then of course when I go to chock the wheels, I think I would notice.