Alloy Wheels
I have seen many mentions about checking the torque on the wheels before and after each trip. Such advice confuses me. I do not do this for my car wheels (and have never read any advice to do so) so why is the advice to do so for caravan wheels?
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The only explanation I can see it that car wheels are generally held central to the hub using a raised spigot that the wheel centralises on. Caravan wheel are held central only by the taper seat of the bolts/bolts.
I don't religiously check the torque of the bolts holding my caravan wheels on .... yet to lose a wheel too!
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I check the caravan wheels before every one of our 3 tours and before our winter break.
I check the torque on car wheels only after having new wheels fitted if I have not observed their fitting and, in one case because I had
I do not check torque after my service chap - him I trust!
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I check the caravan wheels before every one of our 3 tours and before our winter break.
And have any bolts/nuts ever been loose since the last time you checked? 🤔
I only use my carefully calibrated right arm anyway ...
. and yes, I do have various torque wrenches.
Maybe I should check my caravan wheels as it's just been serviced a week or two ago 🙄
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And have any bolts/nuts ever been loose since the last time you checked? 🤔
Not In 15 years and probably after 17 (at most) when the caravan dealers pre delivery inspection
, service/warranty work has been done I have found one nut that was not quite fully torqued. Prior to that I did all my own caravan servicing. In the same time with our two cars I have only found one occasion (when all four wheels were off during tyre replacements) when the one wheel that I observed being fitted and I was suspicious of, was not fully torqued. In 50 years of driving I have only had one instance 45+ years ago when I realised that rear wheel was coming loose.
I did my own servicing, clutch work, engine rebuilds, half shaft replacements,engine overhauls etc from age 17 to about 45 as well as doing similar and services for others.Preferred to do my own brake works in particular after rectifying some atrocious work for others. What did amuse me was an acquaintance who had opened a service and repair centre. I was aged about 40 and had just had a months radiotherapy when my car would not start. He came to my home and I told him that if he stripped the carb he would find an internal jet had dropped out. Because I was not at my best and had not worked on carbs for a while and felt that I might be hamfisted I called him in only to have to show him how to reassemble
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I don't think the considered advice is to check them "before and after each trip".
However, both with your caravan and your car you should check them after a few miles use, after the wheel has been distrurbed.
Features of the design, not least the very much higher loading of the SA caravan wheel makes good practice far more important there.
Most car garages will do some road check after a sevice and the better quality engineers will post that recheck the wheel bolts.
With my van I check them probably three or four times a year, I have the mover's brace in my hand so I do a quick check they are not loose. At the start of the season I use my torque wrench during a DIY chassis service.
I have on occassion found a slight slackening after 20 miles, but never post that initial retightening.
"But do they fall off? Have you lost one? Have you seen someone lose one? Do you know anyone who has lost one?"
- Yes they do fall off.
- No I have not lost one, but I know and follow the best practice to check after 20 miles from distrurbance,
- Yes, we withnessed an off side wheel leave a SA caravan as it left a roundabout a few metres directly in front of us.
- Yes, other than that one I know a camping friend has lost one. Directly after a service!
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As they were mentioned. Centering spigots as featured on most car alloys are precisely as named, for "centering ".
They can play no part in stopping the bolts coming loose, as to facilitate fitting and removal of the wheel they must be a loose fit, wheel to hub spigot. The clearance means it can't load carry whilst the bolts are tight, only briefly after the bolts are already loose. So the failing fixing might hold on for a few more seconds as the wheel rolls on around the spigot, but well before then the bolts have lost their tension and are coming undone.
Here and also with most vehicles with centering rings it is only the bolt tension retaining the wheel, lose that tension and failure very quickly follows. Some universal wheels only feature plastic centering rings, evident they are not intended to load carry.
The centering spigots only hold the weight of a wheel, centred, till the bolts centering takes over the task, nothing more.
That compounds that the design of the bolt, inparticular its loaded length within the application, is the key to a secure fixing.
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A caravan tyre is normally at a much higher pressure than the tow vehicle, which will give more stress to the studs , and the weight per wheel is also probably higher than the tow vehicle,
The wheels that normally come detached are the nearside which is also where the most damaging part of roads are,
I understand that lgv nearside bolts are also anti clock wise threaded which "assists" with keeping them tight
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Just as all car wheel and hubs are not identical, there are differences other than centreing spigots, with caravan wheels. Plus, of course not all caravan wheels or even hubs are identical in subtle, but still important details.
WSL realised where the bolt design could be greatly enhanced. In the video, don't believe the hype about a new design. Collared bolts to increase the working length is a very old solution in challenging fixing application, just they adopted it here. Remember it with the 2CV, and it was far from new then.
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No but as the article referenced in the link in the previous post says:
"The National Caravan Council recently brought the issue of wheel detachment to the fore, as more caravan owners began to find this a problem, with established bolts that had not been modified since the 1960s struggling to keep caravan wheels attached".
So it is a problem due to PP design with a solution available and documented since at least 2013. I assume the club will be petitioning the manufacturers to make this OE fitment to save lives of its members.
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I seem to recollect that Bailey suffered a number of wheels departing from their fixings some while ago. It might have been about 10 years ago now and I can't remember the fix (was it an additional torque requirement?).
However, the known material characteristics of the steel bolts are key as they determine the theoretical stretch required when the correct torque is applied. If the stated torque is insufficient to produce he correct stretch, the fixings could become loose and hence result in a lost wheel.
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I check the torque of my SA caravan wheels every time before I hook up the van to the car. Yes it does take a few minutes, yes it gives me complete peace of mind, and yes I have seen in 15 years of using caravans about 5/6 with near side wheels off. Including last year a wheel came off within 100 yds of leaving a CC site. Poor fellow.
I also check at the dealers who have just completed the annual service, as several years ago doing this I found one of the nuts still loose.
I will say that watching others on site, I’am very must in the minority.
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Yes. On the A921 main road through Burntisland in late Summer 2019. 3 wheelnuts went missing, the road was blocked, the driver had no warning triangle and only a very dodgy jack, and, although it was a Sunday afternoon, the traffic blockage was quite impressive!
The driver was totally unabashed. He sat on the wall outside the Bowling Club, apparently without a care in the world! He was less than a mile from his destination site, so he didn't have too long after the recovery driver's verbal ear bashing at a] the state/absence of the safety equipment; and b] the precarious position in which he had left the caravan!
The Manse [vicar's house] is almost opposite. I hope he wasn't listening to the Recovery Driver's technical analysis of the state of play. There was some quite choice vocabulary used, and on a Sunday too
Steve
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There might have been a good reason for the driver to sit on the wall without a care, he might have been medically unable or just not adept enough to change a wheel. There's no requirement to carry either a jack or a triangle. What would you have liked him to have done? Just dragged the caravan .... ?
(no need to explain what a manse is ... 🤐)
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I do know of someone whose caravan wheel came off, some years ago now. The owner of the caravan was a rather dubious car salesman/dealer who lived about 6 doors away from me who had loaned his caravan out! It apparently lost a wheel whilst the people who had it on loan were driving down the motorway! I assume that it did not cause an accident as he was telling his friends about it in the pub where I used to work and they were all laughing together about it.
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It is very alarming that a person who had opened a service and repair centre did not appear to know what he was doing, however, it does not surprise me that much. Many years ago I had my mini serviced at a garage and next day the brakes failed and some years later, I had my Nissan car serviced at a garage supposedly specialising in Nissans and the next day, it wouldn't start. Recently, I had a problem with the immmobiliser on my motorhome and 2 Green Flag mechanics and 3 different garages could not find or fix the fault correctly or permanently. After paying a mobile mechanic/electrical engineer to come out and attache a computer to the engine, it turned out that the metal ring, which is at the top of the ignition was loose and they fixed it with a tube of super glue!
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That would have been interesting! Broken down caravan blocking the traffic, no warning devices and a wheelbrace protuding from rear of waist height from one person, and the mouth of the other
Powerful image!
Steve
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