Ethyl THE TOOL TRUCK 1955 C600 went across town to a customer 30 miles from where I store her. Not unusual for a Friday. I service the El Cajon area every other Friday. The Truck is stored in Clairemont here in San Diego for any of you who know San Diego. I was meeting Jeff Kangus of Reliable Spring so he could assess my spring needs at 9 am at my first stop. I made sure I was in El Cajon at 7 am. Before I went to that first stop I stopped by Home Depot for some cut off wheels for my grinder. I was getting prepared to remove as much of the offending tire rubbing I Beam Bar positioned above the rear duals as needed. That I Beam is one of 12 evenly spaced support beams for the 18 foot box mounted on the truck that serves as my tool store. I was lazy AND wanted to insure I would actually be out of the house on time for Jeff. Lately leaving the house seems to be a challenge...its like there is a bunge cable attached pulling me back in there... so I planned to buy breakfast out..I dont usually do fast food ,but did yesterday. Pulling off of the 2nd Street off Ramp in El Cajon where the Carls Jr resturant is, the dreaded tire rubbing noise was as nasty as it gets. I ate breakfast and decided to take a look under the truck because I had now decided to cut that offensive support bar today and was determining if I could get away with doing that with the wheels still in place. I looked at the wheel...I found one lug nut missing. I found two with space between the nut and the wheel ready to exit. It looked like two were still tight. I only had a block to go so I decided not to do anything but finger tighten the two ready to exit nuts and then drive to my first stop. I had a month ago messed with all the wheels when I added the two new transformed widow maker to modern 22.5 that are now on my front axle. My buddy Lyman, the retired SD City Fire Dept mechanic, had helped me torque all these wheels....475 foot lbs....for the inner budd stud and 450 for the outer nuts.....I had a few days later hit all the hex nuts with my one inch breaker bar and tire jack handle set up so I dont get why they were loose ...Where can I get 5 new LEFT HAND THREAD BUDD INNER NUTS AND OUTER NUTS AND 5 NEW RIGHT HANDED BUDD INNER NUTS AND OUTER NUTS? the truck is across town and didnt think to measure anything yesterday....does anyone know the sizes and possible part numbers to get these? my local guy says he doesn have them and will have to order them...I went online and I can have them sent so they are here by Tuesday....I think what is there will hold me until then...I took a nut off of the parts truck to replace that one missing one... Ill be watching like a hawk.
I went in to talk to the Collision Center manager and asked if I could use a parking space and an electrical outlet to cut the support bar. He allowed me to do that. Jeff called to say he would be late. He arrived at 9:45 by that time I had the rear wheels off of the left rear and was getting set up to use the grinder. We talked and he measured and took pictures he was there for about 45 minutes. I then started to cut out a section of that Ibeam....I did not finish putting the tires back on until 3pm..It always takes me forever to do stuff...other guys would have had that done in a couple of hours max...me all day
..today I am pretty sore from climbing in and out under that box...I also ran the grinder wheel across the top of the knuckle of my left index finger. I had gloves on so its a nice flesh cut not quite as deep as the bone but....nice red color on the lug nuts now....it could have been a lot worse.Its only sore and....I was traveling Interstate 8 going freeway speeds to get to El Cajon with loose lug nuts yesterday morning. And Yes I did make sure all the other nuts were tight...One of the boys I do business with there is everybit of 350 lbs he hit those nuts with that bar set up...I forgot to mention that I DID ALSO make sure the wheel lug holes were not damaged...they are fine.

Grind off underway of Tire rubbing Brace

 

It looks like you dodged several bullets all in the same day! Thank God!

Why do you need new lugs? Are the threads messed up?

 

 

You may have seen these around. Lots of fleets use them, and now you know why.

Wheel-Check, loose wheel-nut indicator, made in North America

As for buying inner and outer lug nuts, any class 8 truck dealer will have them. I bought mine at a Peterbilt shop, and they are very inexpensive.

 

thank you Bob...

 

Kevin, I will NOW make it a daily thing to look at those wheels...I look often but obviously was NOT everyday...

 

Those gizmos make a walk-around pretty easy.

 

A simple witness mark with a bright, highly visible paint will be easy to spot during the walkaround. I have used bright red fingernail polish. On Blue, I did not have fingernail polish when it came time to mark the nuts so I used a black marking pen against an argent lug nut. Still easy to see. All black marks point out. Any lug nut on a steel wheel that has been running loose very long will have a 'telltale' rust streak extending out from the lug and nut. Another mid trip inspection required on any heavily loaded truck is to feel the hubs for excessive temperatures. (Don't do this after long hard brake usage) Did I mention that I am not a big fan of full wheel covers on any vehicle.
And as Kevin mentioned, a pre drive walk around is important as is a mid trip inspection.

 

Thank you Ray. Using a paint marks will be what I will do. I even STOCK White paint sticks in the tool store....and have used fingernail polish to mark other things over the years....so the paint mark thing is a great idea...
I have so many emotions regarding this episode....The prevailing emotion and thought is GRATEFUL that nothing bad happened....but I also feel bewildered as to it actually happening...And also embarrassed. I DO look at my stuff a lot....I guess Ill look a few times a day now...as a mandatory thing.
I look at tires and wheels much more than most people....My first real job after high school was as a tire store manager. I did that for 9 years for a large independent chain here in San Diego from 1977-1986 and owned my own store for 4 years after that so my eye goes to tires a lot still...its kinda weird but that's what happens....I feel its my duty to get your attention when Im parked at a light next to you and I see bad tire wear etc...my wife finally is resigned that Im going to do that....I leave notes on cars when I see low air etc...today the cars warn you themselves with this regarding tpms etc but I still point out the alignment wear etc..I also have a "glass ***" and a tuned ear...my friends used to think I was the kiss of death...I would point out noises or vibrations and the area they were coming from... low and behold a few weeks later etc a bad axle bearing or the like would appear ...I went on to being a dealership service manager where I rode with many customers to pinpoint noises and other irregularities...I was the original "Chassis Ears" for noise and wind leak detection for the places I worked....I dont have a radio in ETHYL. I LISTEN to the engine and other components...I have a very nice Factory radio I found but my dash is so clean and unmolested that Im still not sure about cutting that 3 inch hole in it to install the art deco radio dial...Plus Im not sure I want to add the 100 lbs that old radio and its speaker etc weighs lol....In fact I believe that sound systems in vehicles ARE the root cause of many expensive repairs that consumers endure...People don't notice the brakes grinding or that groan of the alternator etc because they dont know what the vehicle sounds like when its good and don't notice the change in feel or sound when things are failing because they never turn down the radio....or they never open the windows to just listen to the vehicle....My 4 kids all had 10 year old Toyota Celicas as their first cars. All four were bought from my service customers at the Toyota Dealership were I was a service advisor. These customers had blown it by not noticing noises etc until the cost of repairs were more than the car was then worth....I only chose the cream of this crop... clean garaged California cars....I would spend a year getting that car ready for my child's 16th birthday. Since I didnt have to pay the dealership labor etc I could afford to do that...Once they had the car I would disable the radio. A new driver doesnt need any distractions and I wanted my kids to know how the car sounds...my kids hated that but that was ONE of the things required to drive one of MY cars. Once they were going a few months I would let them play the radio...but then occasionally out of the blue I would disable it again..."Daaaaad did you disable the radio---again?" lol...Today my two middle boys own a house and commercial window construction business here in San Diego...they have a dozen trucks....they don't allow the radio to play in those trucks...All their employees know that any noise or anything that can be considered just driving it until it can't be driven---vehicle abuse... will be a problem for their employ.... I really appreciate the pointers you have mentioned..