Lost Trailer Wheel

[MN_LSV]

Driving home from the cabin tonight, got about 2 miles from home and thought we blew a tire. Have a dual trailer so limped it home. Got home and the entire front left trailer tire, rim and lug plate were gone. WTF!! Has this happened to anyone else??

Edited September 21, 2009 by MN_LSV

[WakingMeHappy]

OUCH! Man, that bites. I've had tires blow but never an entire wheel. When was the last time you checked the bearing grease?

[footnlongline]

Driving home from the cabin tonight, got about 2 miles from home and thought we blew a tire. Have a dual trailer so limped it home. Got home and the entire front left trailer tire, rim and lug plate were gone. WTF!! Has this happened to anyone else??

My first trailer was a single axle. I was coming home from vacation on the 4th of july, traveling about 80mph when I lost a wheel in the middle of nowhere.... I have a tandem now.

[MN_LSV]

OUCH! Man, that bites. I've had tires blow but never an entire wheel. When was the last time you checked the bearing grease?

Greased checked/filled about 2 weeks ago.

[skier92]

Unless there are signs that this was a heat issue, I'd pull the caps and make sure there's a cotter pin in each axle stub. If it was a heat issue, I'd pull each hub apart, clean and closely inspect bearings and races. Are you the original owner?

[JPSkier]

Never had it happen to me thankfully. My dad had a similar incident with his trailer a few weeks ago. Lug nuts were loose, wheel began to wobble and sheared off the lug bolts. Dad checks the trailer fairly regularly and the guy at Firestone who fixed it said there would be no reason for them to come loose. He suspected tampering. Friend of mine had the same thing happen a week later. Strange.

[asnowman]

My old man had that happen to both wheels on a single axle trailer, within a week.wheel shop said he probably over tightened them, and as the wheels were old they had just finally had enough.

Sad thing is he only goes about 10 miles a year with his trailer.

[txwakejunkie]

Had this happen with a goosneck flatbed trailer, with dual wheel tandem axles. Never even felt the wheel's come off, got to the job site and walked around to the other side of the trailer and they were gone along with the hub, and brakes. Very expensive fix!! spent the rest of the day praying that i wouldnt see on the news that some one had been hit and hurt or killed by a flying dual wheel and hub combo.

Edited September 21, 2009 by txwakejunkie

[Bobby Light]

Driving home from the cabin tonight, got about 2 miles from home and thought we blew a tire. Have a dual trailer so limped it home. Got home and the entire front left trailer tire, rim and lug plate were gone. WTF!! Has this happened to anyone else??

Dang that will ruin your day, never had it happen but I've heard of it happening more than you would think.

[MN_LSV]

Unless there are signs that this was a heat issue, I'd pull the caps and make sure there's a cotter pin in each axle stub. If it was a heat issue, I'd pull each hub apart, clean and closely inspect bearings and races. Are you the original owner?

Not the original owner. Came with the boat in spring of 2008. Previous owner had lift and only used it a few times a year, so I think they may have originally even got it used. Had the dealer inspect and fix it before we bought it. We try and watch it and maintain it very closely.

Only thing different about yesterday was that it was pulled for about 30 miles without the boat on it, between two cabins. Don't know if the potential for it to bounce when not weighted could have done something??

It may be time to bite the bullet and look into getting a new trailer....

[mcbean7]

Wow. Glad to hear you made it home safely. I guess I'll be checking my trailer tires/lug nuts tonight.

[The Hydro Foiling Plumber]

A friend of mine lost his wheel on the way to the lake house a few weeks ago. He had the tow truck driver put his boat in the water for him.

[Meyerbu]

Unless there are signs that this was a heat issue, I'd pull the caps and make sure there's a cotter pin in each axle stub. If it was a heat issue, I'd pull each hub apart, clean and closely inspect bearings and races. Are you the original owner?

Not the original owner. Came with the boat in spring of 2008. Previous owner had lift and only used it a few times a year, so I think they may have originally even got it used. Had the dealer inspect and fix it before we bought it. We try and watch it and maintain it very closely.

Only thing different about yesterday was that it was pulled for about 30 miles without the boat on it, between two cabins. Don't know if the potential for it to bounce when not weighted could have done something??

It may be time to bite the bullet and look into getting a new trailer....

Just save yourself alot of heartache and buy bearing kits for each wheel before you even break down and take the wheels off they are like $15 max and comes with everything you need, or you can buy new hubs for around $40-50 and feel much better about it not happening again. Thats what I did and I feel much better about towing long distances. But if you are going to take the hubs off at least replace the bearings, they are too cheap not to while you have the trailer down. Even if you got a new trailer you could still face the same problems. The trailer you have should be fine unless the axles are bent and if they were bent when you got the boat you would have already noticed before now.

[Michigan boarder]

Driving home from the cabin tonight, got about 2 miles from home and thought we blew a tire. Have a dual trailer so limped it home. Got home and the entire front left trailer tire, rim and lug plate were gone. WTF!! Has this happened to anyone else??

That is wild, I had one blow pulling my buddies 04VLX at 75mph, it wakes you up pretty quickly.

It sounds like you kept driving after the incident, did you stop and look at what happended right after the noise? If not, and it shredded and wedged itself, maybe it then sheared everything off.

[MN_LSV]

Driving home from the cabin tonight, got about 2 miles from home and thought we blew a tire. Have a dual trailer so limped it home. Got home and the entire front left trailer tire, rim and lug plate were gone. WTF!! Has this happened to anyone else??

That is wild, I had one blow pulling my buddies 04VLX at 75mph, it wakes you up pretty quickly.

It sounds like you kept driving after the incident, did you stop and look at what happended right after the noise? If not, and it shredded and wedged itself, maybe it then sheared everything off.

Maybe, but I think it sheared and then came off because we barely felt anything, and didn't hear anything in the truck, just caught a glipse of what we thought was tread in the mirror in the dark. Whatever happened, happened all at once with very little noise or vibration.

We were just before our exit when it happened, and someone pulled beside us and said we were missing a tire. We nodded and drove a few more blocks home thinking the tire had shredded.

[MN_LSV]

A friend of mine lost his wheel on the way to the lake house a few weeks ago. He had the tow truck driver put his boat in the water for him.

Ok, that makes me feel better, at least we didn't have to get a tow truck.... At least he got it in the water, could have a drink then worry about the trailer.

[68Slalom]

Driving home from the cabin tonight, got about 2 miles from home and thought we blew a tire. Have a dual trailer so limped it home. Got home and the entire front left trailer tire, rim and lug plate were gone. WTF!! Has this happened to anyone else??

WOW! can't remember what movie that was but at least it didn't pass you on the road and hit something.

[mellen_mpz]

I had one jettison from an enclosed trailer once. It was at night and was the biggest shower of sparks ever! My entire rear view mirror was filled with sparks!!!

[Baddog]

Driving home from the cabin tonight, got about 2 miles from home and thought we blew a tire. Have a dual trailer so limped it home. Got home and the entire front left trailer tire, rim and lug plate were gone. WTF!! Has this happened to anyone else??

That is wild, I had one blow pulling my buddies 04VLX at 75mph, it wakes you up pretty quickly.

It sounds like you kept driving after the incident, did you stop and look at what happended right after the noise? If not, and it shredded and wedged itself, maybe it then sheared everything off.

Maybe, but I think it sheared and then came off because we barely felt anything, and didn't hear anything in the truck, just caught a glipse of what we thought was tread in the mirror in the dark. Whatever happened, happened all at once with very little noise or vibration.

We were just before our exit when it happened, and someone pulled beside us and said we were missing a tire. We nodded and drove a few more blocks home thinking the tire had shredded.

Has your trailer guy been able to tell for certain why it happened?