Van loses tire on Interstate.

[krsowles]

My wife and I were headed out downhill biking today after such a great day of yesterday. About three miles from the exit, the driver's side front tire decided it wanted to go faster, or somewhere else or who knows what but it didn't stay with the van. Got my whole days adrenaline in about 30 seconds! No one was hurt and after changing my shorts and collecting my thoughts, I told my wife I needed pictures! Below is a short photo trip thru my ordeal.

http://s1261.photobucket.com/albums/ii5 ... nterstate/

I ended up walking forever down the road to get my tire, jacked up the van and bolt the wheel and tire back on! The wheel and tire both need to be replaced but no mechanical damage. I drove it home! Never would have guessed it. I straightened the metal out as best I could real quick like in the drive this afternoon and will probably piece together smashed plastic trim for now. I will need to replace fender, door and plastic at some point. Didn't think it looked too bad for what it had just been through though! The damage was actually worse than I originally thought but I can open my door again. What the hey? Kelly

[justice]

wow, did it shear any of the studs? or did all of the lug nuts come loose at the same time?

[Kidhauler]

Bet that left a stain in the seat. Glad you are ok that could have gotten very ugly.

[krsowles]

All the studs were there. I even found 4 of the 5 lugnuts and reused them. I thought wheel and tire would have been more shredded as well. They are IMO not safe to to keep on but will move me around til I can replace. Is this lugnut loosening common? I haven't really heard of it but I had the wheels a month ago and torqued them properly when put back on. Did 60 miles Sat. with no issue. I'm really starting to wonder if kids were pranking. My buddy's trailer had it done to it a couple years ago about a mile down the road.

[ihatemybike]

Real common, no.

I have managed to loosen lug nuts this year with spirited driving on the Tail of the Dragon, but that's the only time I've managed to loosen them.

[okie1]

That made me go out and check all of my lug nuts, geeesh, that is terrible, glad no one got hurt.

[mdmead]

I feel your pain!

I lost the left rear tire off of my old Dodge Ramcharger one time. Luckily I was only doing about 20, in fact, had just turned on to a freeway onramp(!) When the tire came off, it lodged up under the snowmobile trailer I was towing, pitching one side of it up, and launching one of my snowmobiles up and over the other, and then it landed upside down on the side of the road. Ouch! Cruched left rear quarter on the Ramcharger when it hit the ground. A few people stopped, offering to call 911... I just grabbed my hi-lift, jacked up the sled trailer, pulled the tire out, jacked up the truck, and bolted it back on using a lug nut stolen from the other wheels. Rolled the sled over, fired it up, and loaded it back on the trailer. What sucked is I was only a mile from home, (heading there), and I knew something wasn't right. Weird shimmy... which I was sure was related to the tires on the trailer. (I'd stopped and checked them a couple of times on the way home... never thought about it being a truck problem. Doh!

[doyoulikeithere]

All the studs were there. I even found 4 of the 5 lugnuts and reused them. I thought wheel and tire would have been more shredded as well. They are IMO not safe to to keep on but will move me around til I can replace. Is this lugnut loosening common?

It happened once to a van that I later bought.
You can see the big nut on the bottom is all ground down flat where it skidded along.
The door fender and post were a little bit buggered up.

I'm amazed people dont hear or feel it.
I once had a front rim nuts come loose and I heard it and pulled over to do them up.
I always just figured i screwed up during the install, but........

[krsowles]

DYLIT, we definitely felt it. My wife and I were discussing the vibration we had not felt the day before. The vibration was slight and not overly alarming. I told her when we got out of the corner I was going to pull over and check it out. Just never got that far. I told my buddy who is a local cop about it and he said they really haven't had any vandalism complaints to speak of so I'm going with I screwed up when I rotated them. They were torqued but I did not check them a couple days later. Guess I'll live and learn! Kelly