Tire fell off - not good.

[Kimber]

Left the house Saturday morning, drove about 15 miles then feel a vibration and next thing I know I see one of my trailer tires fly off and roll into a field. This was on the passenger side, so it didn't hit anything/anyone.

After reviewing the wheel, it appears that 4 of the 5 lugs had come off, but one was still tight. It broke all of the lugs off. I pulled the hub and my wife went into the nearest town (couple miles) and tracked down a machine shop. The guy was very helpful and got us fixed up. Several hours later we were back on track. Hit the water a little late, but still got a few sets in.

How could 4 lugs come off? I checked all the other ones, and all were tight. Could someone have tried to take the wheels?

[Fiveflat]

Looks to me like they sheared off? wow!















Tige, just doesn't manufacture good studs these days

[bigdaddy_houseboater]

Looks like someone over-torqued them. Depending on who tightened them, you may want to take the trailer to get them all removed, replace the lug bolts and have them tightened again.
Crazy watching your tire pass you up huh?

[robert theisen]

I would take a look at the springs the h connector for the shackle looks flipped over.This may have caused a brake lockup and sheared them.

[jmitchell]

That's a lot of force to shear five lugs off like that. Were the lugs starting to rust through? I noticed a little rust on the trailer.

[AdaminMN]

At least you have tandem axels.

[The friend Ship]

This exact thing happened on our trailer last year (tandem axle saved us a fortune!). We were doing about 110 km/hr down the highway and once we got to an intersection, a man flagged me down to pull over. He explained that about a km or two back, one of the passenger wheels broke off and flew over a fence and ran through a field until it hit a patch of trees. Luckily the guy lived just down the road and helped us out. The tire on the trailer was shredded as one of the lugs popped the inner wall of the tire, and the one that flew off was just fine but the wheel was shredded all around the lug holes. We managed to borrow 2 wheels and tires off a spare trailer he had and rigged up some lugnuts from a local hardware shop. We still got to the lake that night for a couple sets. The next day i tracked down an axle shop that sold the complete hubs for about 35/40$, and a wheel for about 40$.

I havent trailered it far since then, but i would love to replace the other three hubs before we do a road trip and save the nightmare.

[brett22i]

WOW, you got pretty lucky. I had an experience similar to yours. On our way back from a motocross trip from Alabama the enclosed trailer we were towing had a complete hub failure. We felt a tug on the RV and saw sparks like it was the 4th of July coming from the trailer. As we pulled to the shoulder our tire rolled right past us and kept going for about a 1/4 mile. It was only a single axle so it was a very expensive flatbed tow.
Since then I constantly check lugs and hub temps.

[chpthril]

Post up a pic of the lug holes in the wheel, this will tell us something.

[mls6722]

I have a DHM trailer - can someone tell me if the suspension is out of whack? Forward is to the left.

[Kimber]

Yes, very glad it is tandem axle. I couldn't drive much on it though, b/c the fender well was rubbing on the remaining tire. I limped slowly about 1/4 mile to a neighborhood entrance where I had plenty of room to operate.

Glad it wasn't the driver side b/c that tire could have drilled an oncoming car. No rust on the lug bolts, all looked good.

Don't have pictures of the wheel, but I can pull it off and take some. 4 of the holes have some wear, but one looks perfectly fine. How could 4 lugnuts come loose, that's what I keep asking myself.

mls6722 - your trailer looks like something is off - I would think they should both be up or both be down. But I don't know.

[bkstroop]

I've got an 06 DHM and both of my springs are attached at the top of the pivoting bracket arms. When looking at it from the side it forms a U.

[AdaminMN]

Take a peek at this for the spring related question...
http://www.tigeowners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11201

[Joeprunc]

Definitely think they were over torqued. American Tire co did the same to my truck a while ago. I lost 7 studs in a matter of 2 months after they put my new tires on. I ended up replacing all of my trucks wheel studs.

Once the studs yield its just a matter of time before they let go. If they were torqued over 90% of yield it was probably just a matter of hitting a few hard bumps. Once one goes then the other's have to carry the rest of the load making easier for a second, third, and fourth to fail.

[robert theisen]

I have a DHM trailer - can someone tell me if the suspension is out of whack? Forward is to the left.

When i went to visit Dom and Kevin and Tony at Fortes they were working on a trailer like that.When backing up with the brakes on it will flip the spring shackle.Dom can probable tell you how to fix it.