holy ****ing ****

[Paul Pless]

[dutchpp]

Honey, I'm a bit later today

[LeeG]

somebody didn’t put the wheel on right. About 20 yrs ago on the freeway I saw a wheel come out of no where bounce about 30’ in the air and come down right on the drivers side of the roof of the car that had just passed me killing the driver..

[Ted Hoppe]

KIA souls do get closer to heaven.

What a testament to KIA for building a cage that protected the driver.

[Figment]

That's not installation error. There wasn't a wobble or a swerve like you would get with loose or missing lugs, it just parted from the hub in an instant.

My money is on a failed wheel spacer. I'll withhold the rant on those things, I don't imagine anyone in this crowd needs persuading.

[bluedog225]

The tire had one more FU at the end.

[Nicholas Carey]

That's not installation error. There wasn't a wobble or a swerve like you would get with loose or missing lugs, it just parted from the hub in an instant.

My money is on a failed wheel spacer. I'll withhold the rant on those things, I don't imagine anyone in this crowd needs persuading.

When I was a kid, we were driving north on I-75 through Dayton, Ohio. Southbound tractor-trailer lost its front wheel, which jumped the Jersey barrier and was bouncing down the road at us.

I saw it bounce over the car in front of us. Hit us head on and dead center. Ripped the engine off its bed and moved it and the transmission aft by about a foot. That saved a life , just monor injuries. If that had a been off to either side, somebody would have been killed.

Worked out that the axle spindle had failed due to bearing failure from lack of maintenance (important to grease them bearings, guys!), so it wasn't just tire and wheel, it was tire, wheel, brake drum, closing velocity something like 120+ mph.

[AndanteEd]

That's not installation error. There wasn't a wobble or a swerve like you would get with loose or missing lugs, it just parted from the hub in an instant.

My money is on a failed wheel spacer. I'll withhold the rant on those things, I don't imagine anyone in this crowd needs persuading.

Yup, my money on the same thing...

Many years ago when I was a student I'd bought an extremely cheap car that had wide wheels and wheel spacers. At the time I couldn't afford to change back to normal sized wheels and as a result ended up having to retrieve wheels from hedgerows or fields on several occasions. Removing the brake drums, hammering out the sheared off studs and refitting new ones on the roadside was all part of the process, often with a side-trip to a nearby scrapyard to find some more wheel studs.

A bit of a digression, however, in my experience when spacers go they don't tend to wobble first, they just go.

[Jimmy W]

I once saw a wheel from a semi bounce over the center barrier from southbound to northbound I-75 in Marietta, Georgia. Luckily, it didn't hit anyone.

[Jimmy W]

In high school, I had a 1960 Dodge station wagon, twice I had wheels break where center stayed bolted to brake drum, but rim of wheel with tire broke off.

[Osborne Russell]

Seems there must be regulation but regulation cannot overcome institutional racism so we should give up regulation of trucks.

[LeeG]

That's not installation error. There wasn't a wobble or a swerve like you would get with loose or missing lugs, it just parted from the hub in an instant.

My money is on a failed wheel spacer. I'll withhold the rant on those things, I don't imagine anyone in this crowd needs persuading.

Those looked like spaced wheels.

[Osborne Russell]

^ check yer meds

Sounds crazy don't it

[AlanMc]

the wife totaled her camry when she hit a tire rolling down the interstate. she called after she hit it complaining about it. i asked her a few questions, she confirms she did indeed hit a tire and 60 mph WITH the rim as it was rolling. she insited the car was "fine"... "did you stop and look at it?"... nope. then she says "well now the temperature light is on"... NO SH!T, GET OFF THE ROAD i say. the whole front end was trashed and the radiator was blown. she was just going to keep on driving b/c she didn't see any damage from inside the car.....

[CWSmith]

Years back I was driving I-95 south and something happened in front of me. I could not tell what. A minivan with a mother and children flipped into the air (although not as high as in this post), and slid into the guardrail on its side. I pulled over along with others. The driver got out and she was enraged, yelling about the other driver while her kids were still inside. I'm told that's not an unusual response, but at the time it did seem like a misguided priority.

[WszystekPoTrochu]

the whole front end was trashed and the radiator was blown. she was just going to keep on driving b/c she didn't see any damage from inside the car.....

Last time I had an oops-moment you could barely see any damage from the outside. I still punctured two out of three radiators...

[skuthorp]

My brother and I lost a back wheel on a mountain road in an ancient (even then) Morris Minor. Car stayed on the road but it took us hours to find the wheel. As the wheel overtook the car Alex said, "Hey, someone's lost a wheel…………."

[Jim Mahan]

When my older brother was in high school autoshop he put a front wheel back on after some procedure, and tightened the lug nuts with the pneumatic tool. He didn't have enough experience to realize it, but someone had turned off the compressor, and the nuts were driven on with just the residual pressure in the air hose, so they were like finger tight. The wheel came off as he was coming home, doing about forty on a two lane highway. It bounced over oncoming traffic and landed in orchard without hurting anyone or doing any damage, but his Herald was messed up where it scraped on the asphalt.

Once, on the freeway, in the evening commute from the city, in my Fiat spider, with the top down of course, doing the limit bumper to bumper in the fast lane, a hubcap came off a car a few cars ahead of me. I saw it get air like a frisbee, in an arc with my name on it. I swerved as much as I could without trading paint with anyone else, and swerved back, too quickly, all reflexively, and managed to take the hubcap on the fender just in front of the door. If I hadn't swerved it would've come through the glass in front of my face. I hate it when that happens.

[Steve McMahon]

It’s dangerous out there. 20+ years ago I was rolling down a divided highway in my Toyota 1 ton with a full load of electric motors aboard. I noticed a puff of smoke from the back of a transport truck in the oncoming lane. Didn’t think much of it. A few moments later I saw what looked like a garbage bag drifting across the median, back and forth, then up onto my side of the divided highway. I jinked left, then right, then left again to avoid it. In my review I see the truck has pulled over and the driver hopping out. I stopped and walked back. The “garbage bag” I thought I saw was a set of dual trailer wheels that I missed by a few feet coming at me with a closing speed of about 200kph. The truck driver and I tried to roll them out of the median but they were too heavy. He commented that that was the second time that had happened to him that month and he had just had the wheel bearings changed in both instances. I suggested he find a new repair shop.

[JayInOz]

Here a woman with kids in the car met an oncoming semi on the highway. As they passed, a brake drum on the truck exploded. I was in the shop when the car came in for repairs- the huge chunk of steel hit the front of the car just above the radiator and chopped a track about three feet long and three inches wide to where it was sticking up just in front of the windscreen. JayInOz

[robm]

A friend of mine hit a large beer cooler that came off a pickup truck in front of him. No big deal? He was on his Ducati. This was on the Second Narrows Bridge in Vancouver, in evening rush hour, so nowhere to go even if he had the time to react. Lucky the guy behind stopped, and made sure no one ran over him. Being young looking, on a big bike, and a good bit darker than normal for this part of the world, he pulled the institutional racism card both from the cops and at the ER. Helmet destroyed, and they didn't even give him any Xrays! Sent home with abrasions patched up and a serious head-ache, and two buggered knees that will probably destroy his career as high-steel ironworker. These injuries didn't get any better. Two days later, he and his sister, the very white, very used-to-getting-cooperation police officer, went back to the hospital and got him some proper attention. (He and his sister are different colours because he was adopted when his family was living far away.)

[gypsie]

Amazing Centripetal (?) force that kept the wheel upright!

[michigangeorge]

These pickups with oversized wheels/tires on spacers are very popular with the cedar savages up here. Often seen on older, rusted out p-o-s trucks driven by ignorant low-lifes who cannot afford to install quality parts. I recently noticed one truck with the entire wheel/tire protruding outside the fenders. There oughta be a law! But then, these boys all own AR-15's so what the heck ------

[AlanMc]

Way back in the 1900s, in the dawn of double-triple clamp forks and disc brakes and dedicated downhill bikes, I was racing my bike on one of the modern-style downhill courses which included several large (30-40 feet wide) gap jumps. On some of the courses we used to jump the gaps formed by switchbacks, but this was a designed jump with a large takeoff and landing ramp.

During my qualifying run, I launched off the final gap ramp and as the fork extended out (I always favored fast rebound damping, and still do), the casting on the bottom of the sliders holding the thru-axle in place just stopped being attached.

As I watched my front wheel, axle, and brake disc land and roll away, I pretty much thought the title of this thread to myself a few times. Then I landed with no front wheel and did about 57 cartwheels while having a yard sale.

It wasn’t the last downhill race I participated in, but it made me a little hesitant to jump big gaps at speed on rocky trails…

A few years later, a friend of mine died on a racecourse when he sketched a landing and hit a large rock at speed.

jesus rob. how are you still alive?!?!

[JimD]

A few months ago watched a wheel fly off a boat trailer as it was being towed down a busy street through town, very close to a school. The wheel came off at about 40 mph, and rolled for at least a hundred yards. Lost sight of it but I think it jumped the sidewalk with quite a few pedestrians. Could have easily killed someone. The trailer had two sets of wheels so it kept rolling along. Don't think the driver even knew it happened.

[Jimmy W]

I knew a guy who's sister was killed when one of those truck mounted forklifts detached from the truck in front of her. I don't like being behind those and car carriers.

[Paul Pless]

I don't like being behind those and car carriers.

log trucks are the ones i avoid if possible

[WszystekPoTrochu]

log trucks are the ones i avoid if possible

we all do after that one movie with teenagers for target audience

[McMike]

That's not installation error. There wasn't a wobble or a swerve like you would get with loose or missing lugs, it just parted from the hub in an instant.

My money is on a failed wheel spacer. I'll withhold the rant on those things, I don't imagine anyone in this crowd needs persuading.

Bingo, the owner of that truck should have to work the rest of his lift to compensate the driver of the KIA.

[JayInOz]

log trucks are the ones i avoid if possible

A young school teacher was killed here a few years back when a roll of paper weighing several tons rolled off the back of the truck she was stopped behind and crushed her car.
I was just heading through one of the outer western suburbs of Sydney years ago on my way home after a weekend in the big smoke, when I spied a friend and riding buddy coming the other way. We stopped our old WLA Harleys at the side of the road for a yarn and a little piece of crap car came roaring down the hill backfiring each time the driver down shifted. The wheels on the rear of the car were several inches taller than those on the front. As he got close to us one of the rear wheels came off, hit the gutter and got airborne and took out the entire big window in the front of a pharmacy- which thankfully was closed. Hell of a mess- glass and medicines and cosmetics and stuff all over the footpath. This was back in the days before photo licences. Driver got out and came over to us and said Hey guys I forgot to bring my wallet with me and the cops will be here soon- could one of you lend me a licence to show the cops please? We laughed and laughed JayInOz

[Canoeyawl]

Fuel trucks are the ones I avoid...