I just wanted to post a reminder to everyone who has tires and wheels installed if they don't do it themselves.

I got my new ProComp wheels and Duratrac tires installed on Tuesday afternoon. A buddy of mine is the manager of the tire shop so I was shooting the crap with everyone in the shop while the tires were going on.

Well to make a long story short, a mile and a half down the road while going through an intersection in my town, I heard a clunk and felt my left rear drop. I immediately hit the brakes not caring if anyone was behnd me. (thankfully there was not) I jumped out to find all 5 lug nuts gone and my wheel was ever so gently stuffed in my fender.

Well the couple rotations my wheel took tore up the inside of my new rim. My Duratrac is fine and there was no damage to my truck. I imediately called my buddy who at first thought I was busting my balls to get his mechanic down here and put my spare on.

Once back at the shop, the mechanic assured me that he torqued all the lugs. Thank you for playing, but you don't lose 5 lug in 1.5 miles if they were torqued correctly. I ordered a new rim (at the expense of the shop) and it's on it's way.

Thankfully I didn't have my kiddos or take the other route home which would have been the highway!

 

Hahaha! I thought I was the only one who'd ever lost a wheel...

Around 2 years ago when I was driving my 1971 VW bug. The blue beast as everyone called her. Thing looked great, just didn't go very fast. Okay not fast at all.. Anyways, it was at 7pm and my bro and I had just gotten off the freeway and were on our way home when suddenly we hear a huge bang. We turn around and see a light show worth of sparks flying out the back, and we look up to see the front left tire rolling off in the headlights. "what the hell?" was the only thing that was said during the event.I immediately steer the skidding car to the side of the road. I guess we didnt tighten up the lugs from the repairs/adjustments from the day prior, but all I could think about was FINDING THE WHEEL with my flashlight....

It rolled down about 2 blocks and was hiding in a bush.

Glad you're getting yours fixed and nothing too terrible happened.

 

WOW.. sorry to hear to that. glad it turned out ok.

 

holy crap, glad your ok. That could've been bad going around a curve.

 

Sure says a lot about doing things yourself. Like you mentioned you have to watch everyone like a hawk anymore. I think it is a sign of the times.

 

Heck i was more worried about a monster tire flying down the sidewalk and taking someone out!

 

Funny story, but some years back I was driving my 71 Dodge Demon home from High School. There was a guy that had a 71 Skylark that though he was the shiznit. I remember seeing his car on the rack at K-Mart the day before. He pulled up to me at the light, I could only laugh (seeing he thought that the 340 6 pack could be eaten alive by his Buick 350). So I laid into the brake and mashed the gas letting out a roar a screech and a cloud of smoke, he did the same the only funny thing was I heard a bang and watched a tire go flying into the intersection in between the 2 cars. (Still on the rim I might add). All I could to was , , , and into the sunset. Glad you're ok because if you were on the highway, besides serious damage, you could've injured yourself or someone else.

 

Did you make a through check of your brake rotors, brake disc, lockers, etc?

Sorry, but I would take the Jeep to another shop or Jeep dealer for a careful inspection.

Tread Lightly and safe

 

I had something similar happen to me with my XJ. The shop next to my store swapped some wheels and tires for me (went from 31's to a used set of Eagle wheels with 33" tires). I walked over and started driving the Jeep up to a nearby gas station. All off the sudden I hear this horrible clunking from the rear. I make a quick turn into the closest parking lot and walk out to discover than the right rear wheel is barely sitting on the studs with no lug nuts in sight.

The shop gave me every excuse imaginable but the truth is that they forgot to put them on. They truly were idiots and it reinforced the lesson about never trusting someone else's work.

 

I have trouble believing that you lose five lug nuts in 1.5 miles even if they were hand tightened. Are you certain they even installed them? If they did, maybe they just turned them on a thread or two, then never returned with the impact wrench to run them down (I hate that they use an impact wrench, but what can you do about it?).