Lost wheel

[Lynn_5081854]

We recently experienced a wheel coming off our Eriba touring van, whilst travelling down to S Wales. We managed to retreive the wheel, and the wheel hub and nuts, which were all together in the road, and which were OK. We called the AA, and the serviceman asked if we had recently had the caravan serviced, or had had the tyre changed,and we told him that it had recently been serviced. He felt that the only explanation for this incident was that the wheel nuts had not been tightened properly following the service. Our service agemts have denied all responsibility, and are adamant that they always check that nuts have been tightened to 60 psi.They have said that if they had not tightened the whell nuts, we would only have been able to travel a few miles before we lost a wheel. Once the wheel had been replaced at the roadside, we were able to continue our journey, with no further problems, apart from having a small hole in the floor of our van caused by the impact of the wheel hub. Has anyone had a similar experience with losing a wheel, or indeed having to deal with a service agent who is unwilling to admit that they may have made an error???

 

[BigRoy]

Hi Lynn, you are best posting this in the technical section you will get a better response.

To try to answer your question, caravan wheels are notorious for coming off and the subject has been discussed on these forums many times with no concrete conclusion reached but as you say if the nuts are not correctly tightened this will cause the wheel to come adrift.

Could you also clarify where the bits and pieces where found? you say that they where all found together in the road including the wheel hub (I think you mean the break drum) this is very unusual for everything to fall off at the same time.

You also say that the dealer said that he tightened the nuts to 60PSI,this is a measurement of pressure (Pounds Per Square Inch) not torque which is the way the amount of force is measured when tightening nuts and bolts up, so you've either misheard him or if you haven't he really shouldn't be servicing caravans.

Roy.

 

[Icemaker]

Quite right roy psi is not the measurement to use for this, you should of course use a torque wrench and tighten the nuts to the torque recomended by the manufacturer. The dealer who Lynn used could have meant he used an air powered gun to tighten the nuts as a lot of these tools are rated at 50 - 100 psi air supply pressure but this has no relation to the mount of torque they apply to the nuts. it is always a wise move to check the nuts before each journey.

 

[rob_jax]

Lynn,

You may also want to post your message on one of the Eriba specific sites, such as http://groups.msn.com/EribaOwnersPhotoBoard

Robert (Triton 410)

 

[Gary_5039903]

I had a wheel come off a Peugeot 406 two weeks after it had been serviced (both front tyres replaced at the same time). The dealer denied all responsibility due to the time, but wheels don't fall off for no reason..........

 

[carl_5077229]

Hi Lynn

The fact off wheels comming of after removal is not uncommon due to the wheel not pulling up due to rust etc on the hub and rear of wheel and expantion rates of alloy wheels.

From previous experiance i would say that your service agent probly did do the wheel nuts up to spec but the wheel bedded in thus loosing the wheel nuts.

The main advice you should have been given is when any wheel is removed (car or caravan) these should be re torqued after 25 to 50 miles or 24 hrs and always check wheel nuts regually and on caravans check them each time you go out, this is a standard driver check for HGV drivers every day why should we be differant.

Blame is to easy to point to inacent people.

Regards Carl