my 35 inch tire fell off while being towed @ 55

you know how alot of schools have a vocational school. Well i took my nearly completed project to them to do a tune up on the ol' 351 and to give me COMPLETELY new brakes. Pads, rotors, calipers, drums, shoot even new lines. Well they did all the work everything looked excellent, they through it on the alignment rack, camber and caster checked out perfectly, i was quite impressed by this considering i built the thing by myself in my 2 stall garage. I told them on wednesday i was bringing it home this weekend so they finished everything up and pushed it out of the garage to get towed. Well friday night i decided to pull it home, the school is only like 10 miles from my house. we drove up to the school at like 7 at night. i jumped in the truck and my brother started pulling me and i tested steering and brakes, they checked out awesomly. Starting pulling it down the road and i was so amazingly impressed, i mean this think has freezing cold bias ply 35s on it and the darn thing went perfectly straight with barely any shakes. i told my brother to step it up a little and we were cruising right along at 50-55 mph. Everything was going just fine, when all of a sudden my drivers side front end drops about a foot and a half and i get ripped over to the other lane. i was put my head out the window to see what happened and all i saw was sparks. Somthing suddenly caught my eye and it was my tire ripping past me. Well i slammed on the brakes and got it to the side of the road. one of my buddies that was following me ran about 100 yards down the road and grabbed my tire for me. I was fuming, i was so mad i was yelling obcenaties for about 5 minutes. I went to the driver side rear tire and pulled a lug off by hand, BY HAND!!! My rotor was just plain screwed. It has a huge flat spot. My explorer doesnt have a jack in it for some reason, but my buddies car did. WE jacked it up as high as it would go and we still needed about 5 more inches. After searching for a second jack we found one in the vehicle that was towing me. Though this one wasnt bigger i found a small chunk of 4x4 lumber in my truck. it was about 5 or 6" long. we used the two jacks to get the tire on and the studs were lose. we had to pull the tire back of tightin the lugs down so we could at least grab two studs. we tightend the lugs on all four tires. After all this we try to tow it again, but this time much slower, but the damn tire is locked up now because the rotor is so messed. well luckily we were about a mile from a buddies house so we dicided to tow it to his house. well we got about half way there, the locked up tire just squeling, smoke pouring, and all of a sudded a cop comes up over the hill. he slowed down looked at the parade of mishaps we consisted of and sped back up. im assuming he didnt want to right all the stuff up. Which is good, considering the fact that the plates on my rig expired nov 03 and i didnt have insurance on it. i finally got it to my buddies house and im about to leave right now to go pick it up, bring it home and replace everything that is broken....

 

[burgo]

I would hope that you are going to get some money from the school to pay for the damages? Maybe you won't get it all, but someone should have to answer to this. What happens to the next guy that has a tire fly off and there is a big rig in the other lane?

 

[351wExplorer]

what would have happened to me if a car was coming and i killed someone. that would have been worse then me dying. i mean no insurance on that, talk about geting screwd. i was plaing on going up there monday with all the parts and totally have some words with the head teacher... when i told my dad this he said he wants to handle it but he is in florida untill next weekend. i guess i will just buy new and have them pay me back... you know what the cool thing is about running axles out of a '79 bronco, i already priced pads and a rotor, with tax the total came out to 47.00, talk about sweet

 

[Doug]

Good luck fighting them. I know back home if you have a vocational school work on your vehicle they have you sign a waiver negating them of any problems. I've heard alot of stories about letting a bunch of 17 yr olds work on my stuff, I personally wouldn't ever do it, no matter how cheap it was.

 

[dman726749]

i am just wondering how you were being towed at 55mph???? it sounds like a tow strap was being used...i sure hope not

 

[Critical_Level2]

Good luck fighting them. I know back home if you have a vocational school work on your vehicle they have you sign a waiver negating them of any problems. I've heard alot of stories about letting a bunch of 17 yr olds work on my stuff, I personally wouldn't ever do it, no matter how cheap it was.

They did the same at my school, if you did not sign the waiver then they would not touch your vehicle. The waiver also stated that the school was not a professional shop and the work was being done by inexperienced people.

I would check with the school, but try to be nice and calmyly explain the situation and they will probably help out and might even pay for the parts. If you go all balistic, they may say not our problem and your up the creek then, cause you got to remember since it is a school with "inexperienced mechanics", this work was done kinda at your own risk.

 

[SVO]

I would check with the school, but try to be nice and calmyly explain the situation and they will probably help out and might even pay for the parts. If you go all balistic, they may say not our problem and your up the creek then, cause you got to remember since it is a school with "inexperienced mechanics", this work was done kinda at your own risk.

I second this motion, although it was a deal to begin with you have to remember whom was working on it reguardless.

Play nice with them and you may just be suprised by what happens, remember we all had to start somewhere, if anything this is a great reminder to you and them both to triple check things.

I have been in the automotive field for 17 years, don't think for a min that I never made a mistake.

Speaking of which, you should have heard some horrendious noises/shaking before that tire ever left the vehicle, let alone towing at 50-55mph.

 

[351wExplorer]

thats what was crazy about it all... the thing towed fine, i mean straight line didnt pull, a little wobble from the bias plys but thats typical. it felt like it just dropped of the side and was gone

 

[jeff96]

sounds like this was done on purpose to me....like they just hand tightened all the lugnuts. Some stoner probably thought it would be funny....Remember (no offense) that most people at the vocational school are'nt the brightest kids in the world. Usually for people who have decided against college.

 

[Doug]

sounds like this was done on purpose to me....like they just hand tightened all the lugnuts. Some stoner probably thought it would be funny....Remember (no offense) that most people at the vocational school are'nt the brightest kids in the world. Usually for people who have decided against college.

Just because you choose a vocation over college doesn't make you stupid....

 

[IAmTodd]

sounds like this was done on purpose to me....like they just hand tightened all the lugnuts. Some stoner probably thought it would be funny....Remember (no offense) that most people at the vocational school are'nt the brightest kids in the world. Usually for people who have decided against college.

Thanks, I feel 100% better about myself dumbass

 

[davidmmm69]

Here in Fall River MA where i am staying for the moment till We buy another house. there is a highschool called Diman Vocational. It is a tech high school and i grew up in the next town and tried so hard to go to that school but they only took 3 kids from each surrounding town.
Anyway now some20 years later my Brother in Law is the head automotive instructor at the school. he has been a Automotive Master Tech for wuite a few years and is as expeienced as any other.
Any way you got the freshman who can not work on any cars for any reason. the Juniors and sophmores can work on the cars with constant supervision and the seniors do most of the work granted they have been around that shop for a few years so most of them know the basics and he tells me if someone does not get it or doesn;t care they kick them out or transfer them to another trade.
Yes they do anything on my 3 vehicles that either is too much for me needs special tools or i just have no time for.
example 2 weeks ago in my windstar light came on cam positoning sensor which needs a special alaignment tool so they did it 2 days and all i pay is part.
since he has been there theere has not been anyproblems with any work done by any students,
he was asking me if i wanted them to do the ball joints on my 1995 I had to say no because i am adding lift spindels so they would not do it .
and usually they will not work on a car over 10 years old cause of rust and broken bolts etc...
he tells me also the body shop is good as they repaint whole cars, bumpers etc..and when they have nithing to do they always asking to wash and wax instructors cars...

Of course if a relative wasn;t working there i would hesitate to take my vehicle there.
but it is nice just paying for parts and no labor even if it takes twice as long which i do not care because i have 3 vehicles..
now are you talking just a regular high school that does work or an actual technical school.
I highly doubt like in his school any one would do that because they want to be there not told to or just ent there ...
just my 2 cents

 

[351wExplorer]

it is a regular tech school that is part of the high school.. kids that want to go there come from neighboring schools and attend.

 

[410Fortune]

this happens all the time, after my tire fell off my BMW about 14 years ago, I always check my lugs.......always.
anytime sombody else has my tires off, for whatever reason (new tires or rotation) I get in the truck, pull to a safe spot, grab the old 4 way, and check the torque.

My tire almost did kill someone, I had my snow tires put on at a local tire shop and driving home the drivers rear passed me, then the car fell down and I pulled onto the shoulder. My tire went into oncoming traffic and bounced off the hood, then roof of an oncoming Geo Metro, if it had gone through the windshield it could have killed them....

So what have we learned? Never trust anybody else to do the work right, always check the drain plug and lug nuts

Sorry this happened to you, I dont think you should have balded out your frozen tire, but hey you made it...jsut be glad it could have been ALOT worse.

 

[2001ExpSport]

No offense, but when I read the part about you putting the tire on an then towing it home locked up made me fall out of my chair. It sucks that this happened to you, but what you did was pretty dumb. Who takes a perfectly good tire and drags it a mile? Not to mention the jack fiasco, lik eyou didn't know a standard jack isn't high enough for 35's. Funny stuff man. Common sense should have kicked in when the tire fell off to get a flatbed.

I agree with 410fortune, always check your ****. Especially if it's done my uncertified techs.

Oh and btw, I am sure in the towing section of your manual it says in huge bold letters, DO NOT TOW THIS VEHICLE.

Just bustin yer balls man...

 

[351wExplorer]

i guess i failed to mention the tires werent the ones i was running. I worked at a tire shop for a long time and could grab any used tire i needed and just throw it in the back of my ranger and take it home or whatever. The tires on it were just for rolling it around and i wasnt planning on using them. so i just wanted to get it out of the road and avoid expenses, so i was like fu(k it ill just tow it locked up

 

[2001ExpSport]

i guess i failed to mention the tires werent the ones i was running. I worked at a tire shop for a long time and could grab any used tire i needed and just throw it in the back of my ranger and take it home or whatever. The tires on it were just for rolling it around and i wasnt planning on using them. so i just wanted to get it out of the road and avoid expenses, so i was like fu(k it ill just tow it locked up

Ah, ok then I take it all back....

 

[410Fortune]

well my point was we all hear the stories of the loose drain plug, the lug nuts coming apart, and most people never think twice about it until it happens to you!

Of course I have had it ALL happen to me, makes me so mad.
The most recent was when I went to OR to pick up my brothers old 96 Ex 5.0L he was nice enough to have quick e lube do a oil change on it before I drove it back to CO, I got it back to Denver, I checked the oil about every 4 gas stops and all was fine, but I smelt buring oil every once in a while, I figured pretty common, probably just valvecover gasketrs or something. I get back to Denver, it leaves a 5" dia puddle of oil over night, get under there DRAIN PLUG IS NOT EVEN FINGER TIGHT.

I mean WTF!! they must have done 47 oil changes that day and of course mine is the one they forgot to tighten the plug? So typical. I can guarantee you that now that this is my truck, no quick e lube tech will ever have their hands on it.
There are 3 things I dont do myself, and I plan to learn all 3 of them eventually, Alignment, exhaust, and rebuild auto transmissions
Oh and of course mount tires.
Its sad that you have to check their work, but man its the truth!