WesBrooks Posted March 21, 2018 Author Share Posted March 21, 2018 2 hours ago, FridgeFreezer said: The linked article certainly gives pause for thought for everyone who's modded their vehicle and/or ever bodged something in a hurry - picture yourself standing in court defending your handiwork having killed someone's kid and ask yourself how confident you'd be arguing your side. This is where I'm coming from. I'm trying to make sure I understand the common failure modes of the axles/suspension/steering that can lead to a loss of control of the vehicle. I was focusing on the loss of a wheel here because it is now become a particularly interest of the governing bodies and I want to be sure I'm doing my best too ensure I've addressed the commonly known issues. Issues that are common with standard vehicles deserve care, attention, and a good maintenance plan. I think all of the issues raised to this point other than the spacers and incorrect wheel fitment are common with standard specification vehicles and so are not as much of a factor to consider when choosing modifications unless pushing to extremes. Judging the safety of your modifications are a difficult subject to grasp. In some cases I've got to say; "company 'Acme' haven't phorbid the use of 'accessory #32' on the road and having fitted it according to their guidance" and so I'm ok, but with a measure of common sense. After all I'm guessing the spacers aren't banned from use on the road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mo Murphy Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 Well, I have to say, that contrary to the nay sayers, I have had 30mm aluminium spacers on my 90 with Wolf steel wheels and 31'' tyres for about 5 years and toĀ date I have not experienced any loosening of wheel nuts, though I do know of it happening repeatedly to someone who used to lane on 35'' Simexs. God's hand perhaps š. I fitted them to improve the turning circle, to improve stability by widening the track and because with their longer studs I was able to get full thread depth engagement for the wheel nuts with the Wolf rims. If they had come loose at any time I would have been looking for a reason why and address that. Without finding out why, I would certainly have removed them. Mo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThreeSheds Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 21 minutes ago, Mo Murphy said: Well, I have to say, that contrary to the nay sayers.... Glad to hear that - I was beginning to think I should change my plans to fit spacers sometime in the future...Ā Hope you don't mind if I ask a couple of questions... Do you use threadlock? Do you regularly re-torque them? Ā Roger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mo Murphy Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 Morning Roger, I threadlocked the bolts into the spacers as a precaution but none of the wheel nuts are threadlocked. I use a good coating of copperslip on both faces of the spacer. I don't retorque them. I don't use a torque wrench either, I just use a standard Land Rover wheel brace. They are the length they are for a reason š Hope that helps Mo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwhacker Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 Hi. I've had two instances with wheel nuts coming looseĀ on separate occasions a rear and a front. Rear showed up as a knock and a wooble sorted by retightening of the wheel nuts.The front was a bit more disconcerting with a big wooble and crunching when i stopped the wheel was just hanging on by one and a half studs. Two completely knackered managed to sort out three good studs and limped home. On both occasions i had been off roading just prior to these cases. Either i had not tightened the nuts or they came loose off roading. I can recall an old wise hand in the club saying to always check your nuts after off roading. Has anyone else had this happen? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eightpot Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 I can't see why off-roading (lanes and off road play sites)Ā Ā would loosen wheel nuts.Ā Long corrugated dirt roads like in Oz and Africa are probably the most teeth chatteringly destructive things to drive - I think I've had one orĀ two wheels loosen over the years but that's covering thousands of miles. Ā Pretty much everything else has fell off but not lost a wheel yetĀ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 Mo - I'm sure decent spacers fitted properly to a well-maintained truck etc. etc. etc. are perfectly OK, but my take is that it adds several extra ways something can go wrong, and in most cases just buying a wheel with the correct offset looks like a much neater solution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landroversforever Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 3 minutes ago, FridgeFreezer said: Mo - I'm sure decent spacers fitted properly to a well-maintained truck etc. etc. etc. are perfectly OK, but my take is that it adds several extra ways something can go wrong, and in most cases just buying a wheel with the correct offset looks like a much neater solution. That's the crux of it I think. Plenty of people, particularly on the facebook pages, seem to think that everything is just fit and forget.Ā Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mo Murphy Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 I'm not saying you're wrong Fridge just that has not been my experience.Ā If I could buy genuine Wolf rims with another 30mm of offset within my budget then that would negate my need for spacers š Mo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynic-al Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 16 hours ago, Daan said: I had recently a wheel coming loose, which I had done up with a rattle gun. I just did it up until I heard it rattle. But the thread was contaminated , which caused the wheelĀ nut to seize on the thread, rather than on the wheel. Luckily, you get a warning, as you can hear there is a wheel loose. I now always doĀ up by hand to be sure. Ā Daan I had something similar on a machine, I went to fix it as they were complaining of it not running properly. It did indeed seem to be sticking, the lubrication was right so I fiddled a bit more, as I did aĀ 210 barĀ hydraulic cylinder split in half and fired off the back of the machine, restrained by the hydraulic hoses luckily, hot oil rained all over me and the surrounding machines which was rather unpleasant. When we investigated it turned out some of the fixing bolts had bottomed out when they built it so they seemed tight but actually weren't and overtime fatigued and failed. Something to remember when going from wheel to wheel or alloys to steels as the steels are usually thinner... or vice versa and theĀ thread being too short. Ā Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynic-al Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 On ā20ā/ā03ā/ā2018 at 8:15 AM, landroversforever said: It seems to be something that's changing, as a kid I never remember seeing any tyre fitter using a torque wrench, but in the 10 years I've been driving myself they've always used a torque wrench for the final torque. I would think either because such tools are getting cheaper or more likely insurance companies are putting pressure on the fitters. Problem is its a sliding slope as you then have to calibrate them to a gauge then calibrate the gauge externally then have training records for the staff and and and... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martyn668 Posted March 22, 2018 Share Posted March 22, 2018 Happens to Jeeps too. Here is a French friend of mine's Cherokee. Wheel came off at 60-ish on a single carriageway, overtook him, and went off down the oncoming carriageway. Fortunately it was a Sunday morning, and there was nothing coming the other way. He's a mechanic, and hadn't noticed any sort of warning. As you can see it took the half shaft out with it which flailed around and smashed his side window. Three door Cherokees are apparently a huge rarity in France, and it cost him a packet to get a new (second hand) one. Where the wheel came off there was no verge, so he had do do a 180 degree turn in three-wheel drive with the centre diff-lock engaged. Dug a gouge out of the road! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martyn668 Posted March 22, 2018 Share Posted March 22, 2018 This is him loading it onto a flat bed using a couple of blocks of wood as "skis". That's my landy parked in front. I'm holding the camera, and trying not to laugh too much. We Landy drivers get a lot of stick for unreliability, especially from the Toyota owners in France - not so much from the Jeep owners to be fair, so it was nice to see a non-Landy in trouble. It could have been serious, but it wasn't, so at least I got a laugh out of it. We hadn't even started the day's off roading - he was about 3 miles from the meeting point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paintman Posted March 22, 2018 Share Posted March 22, 2018 (edited) Many years ago a friend & I were on a dual carriageway just outside London when we were overtaken by a wheel. Followed shortly after by a Ford Capri on 3 wheels. O/S/R was the one that had passed us. The outer drum was still attached to the wheel & the end of the shaft had a lovely crystalline fracture. IIRC the car was less than a month old. Be interesting to see what the examination gives as the actual cause of the Disco wheel loss. Edited March 22, 2018 by paintman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cackshifter Posted March 22, 2018 Share Posted March 22, 2018 Another thing to consider is the alloy wheels usually locate on a spigot; the nuts are there for clamping purposes only. Steels by contrast use nuts with conical seats to locate on the studs. The conical seats on the alloy nuts are for the times you want to use a steel spare. Not all spacers have the locating spigotĀ so, if not, would only be suitable for steel wheels. The best ones I have seen were made by Kenson (I think QT also sold them) - steelĀ and with a spigot. Incorrect combinations (eg spigot wheel on non-spigot hub) tend to result in wheel loosening.Ā Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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