Make sure your wheel nuts are tight boys,1 of lads got a tug from vosa,£100 fine,2 wheel nuts loose,more money for there Xmas fund!!
This always baffled me that the driver gets tarriffed for this one. If you’re an owner driver perhaps, or if it were still the 1920s perhaps.
I did read the head of DVSA is keen for a more accountable engineering side of road transport. Surely it’s not beyond the wit of office “man” to realise that LGV drivers are not furnished with the tools/training to check tight wheel nuts on a walk around (questionable reliability dayglo witness caps aside). I think this is one roadside finding that should penalise the maintenance side of things. Penalising drivers just makes drivers stare at the wheels more in the walk round and twiddle at the wheel nuts with their “torque wrench thumbs and fingers”, hardly a solution is it DVSA?
WTF? What, are we all expected to get out every 20 miles and check them with a torque wrench? They wouldn’t be after making easy money would they? Noooo, must be my cynicism…
Face:
WTF? What, are we all expected to get out every 20 miles and check them with a torque wrench? They wouldn’t be after making easy money would they? Noooo, must be my cynicism…
In all honesty if two had come lose in the space of 20 miles you’d have a pretty serious problem on your hands.
DVSA could have said to driver “did you check them during daily checks?” Driver says “no” and fine issued.
It doesnt take long to check them really does it.
I was being slightly sarcastic with the 20 mile quip… but nuts, bolts, etc can loosen - even after a visual check.
Not doubting the veracity of what you were told Keef, but did you see any official paperwork regarding this? Imo this is a bit dubious and if it happened and if said driver willingly coughed up would you please forward him my e mail addy and tell him that I’m the deposed King of Nigeria and would like to deposit 60 million US dollars into his account.
What exactly constitutes loose wheelnuts in a DVSA inspectors eyes? Hand tight maybe? We can all manage to tighten hot nuts (ooh err missus) with a scaffold bar and 15 stone on the end of it. I remain slightly dubious however.
How do you check them during a daily? Stare at them. Twiddle them. If a yellow cap, trust it hasn’t just been popped back on by the last recalcitrant? Yes all drivers carry/have access to a torque wrench. No they don’t, let’s not be silly. It’s DVSA/department for transport not pressuring for updated enforcement legislation to make it fit for purpose. Isn’t the point to stop wheels falling off? Fines on end point users of machinery won’t do that. Sorting out a proper accountable maintenance system will.
the maoster:
Not doubting the veracity of what you were told Keef, but did you see any official paperwork regarding this? Imo this is a bit dubious and if it happened and if said driver willingly coughed up would you please forward him my e mail addy and tell him that I’m the deposed King of Nigeria and would like to deposit 60 million US dollars into his account.What exactly constitutes loose wheelnuts in a DVSA inspectors eyes? Hand tight maybe? We can all manage to tighten hot nuts (ooh err missus) with a scaffold bar and 15 stone on the end of it. I remain slightly dubious however.
Generally it will be if he taps it with his little hammer and it shows visual signs of movement or there are obvious other visual signs it’s not clearly exerting a clamping force on the rim, like a gap behind the nut.
In my view one operation failing that VOSA have never shown any interest in rectifying is, in my view, it should be obligatory that some notification is left for drivers if any wheel has been disturbed recently due to maintenance or tyre changes so there is an opportunity for drivers to pay special attention to that wheel.
They will say drivers should always be checking properly but it’s stupidly unrealistic. It’s similar to how if you make inspections too close together, to the point little occurs between inspections, things actually get missed as a going through the motions attitude sets in.
Loads of people on here don’t like to hear it and they’ll go on about the time they spotted a slow puncture but the reality is very little real safety critical defects come via driver’s daily checks and many, many trucks go in for inspections and glaring safety critical defects are found it’s hard to see how they would be missed.
Freight Dog:
How do you check them during a daily? Stare at them. Twiddle them. If a yellow cap, trust it hasn’t just been popped back on by the last recalcitrant? Yes all drivers carry/have access to a torque wrench. No they don’t, let’s not be silly. It’s DVSA/department for transport not pressuring for updated enforcement legislation to make it fit for purpose. Isn’t the point to stop wheels falling off? Fines on end point users of machinery won’t do that. Sorting out a proper accountable maintenance system will.
Since you ask…one of the classic tell-tale signs of a loose nut is rusty stains on the wheel rim spreading out from behind the nut. See that, you look closer; and if in doubt torque it up. In my experience, admittedly only 30 years of it, wheelnuts don’t suddenly spring loose, and every tyre I’ve had changed in that time has been accompanied by a note from the tyre fitter informing me that it needs re-torquing either within 50 km or after 30 minutes. Maybe I’m one of the lucky ones but I’ve yet to find a loose wheel nut once out on the road.
I’m also lucky in that I pretty much drive the same rigid every day, so it’s relatively easy for me; but how many of you check the wheelnuts on every trailer you pick up? Can the OP confirm if his mate got done for loose nuts on the unit or the trailer?
As for those so-called tell-tales; the idea’s good in theory, but there’s too much scope for lazy sods to move them around as mentioned above, and it discourages drivers from having the close look that they should be doing. It’s not just about wheelnuts, that closer look can show up cracks in wheel rims, bricks between tyres on drive axles and a dozen other things too.
Thanks for the honest and genuine response. That’s a good point. I did actually know that one. But it does of course not cover the wheel nut that was incorrectly torqued/missed during the wheel change the day before. My point stands. It shouldn’t be left in this day and age to drivers relying on “tell tales” and old seaman’s stories. They’re either tight or they’re not according to the authorities. Bare in mind they use a hammer to check an item you probably used your eyes/fingers to check in absence of any other way provided in the course of your job.
The point being to prevent wheels coming off. Like it or lump it DVSA, this isn’t the 1930s. Drivers do not carry /have access/time amongst the other crap of the job/training to torque test wheel nuts. If you want to actually stop wheels coming off, do as you preach and sort out accountable maintenance.
When we do a walk round on a wide body aircraft and the wheels fall off, it isn’t us they chase for that particular one unless the nuts were actually missing/damaged.
This may amuse some of you. I drive a MAN and it was recalled for a brake check and installation of yellow markers for the wheel nuts on the lift axle. Apparently the yellow markers they put on changed colour if the brake disc got too hot which meant there was a fault somewhere 
I’m no mechanic and just observed there instruction. 
The joke is…the woman was explaining to me that the yellow markers also indicated loose wheel nuts, I said to her that I hate them as they are on every other wheel and I had to move them every day so they lined up 
her reply was very good 
I do find it hard to believe these stories sometimes without valid paperwork.
when anyone is fined on the side of the road as long as they have a uk address, they will be issued with the fine notice which has to be paid within 28 days unless you want to appeal.
The only drivers who have to pay anything are foreign drivers who do not have a uk address, then they have to pay a deposit equal to the fine, then they have 28 days to either appeal or the deposit is taken to pay the fine.
For that reason I doubt any post saying I was fined for this or that 
part of your dailys is a visual check of nuts, if your not a mechanic then how do you know whats loose or wrong with wagon, id appeal this ticket every time and probably win, its like asking a doctor to diagnose an ulcer via a visual check
Maybe time to get a GOPRO camera and record ur morning/daily checks.
Evidence and all that.
Yes it sounds crazy but, its cover ur erse time by the sounds of it. Don t look like saying( it was ok when I checked it before I set off ) covers u.
Plugster:
part of your dailys is a visual check of nuts, if your not a mechanic then how do you know whats loose or wrong with wagon, id appeal this ticket every time and probably win, its like asking a doctor to diagnose an ulcer via a visual check
Fair comment; but if, as happens in a lot of cases, you overlook an obviously loose nut, then the ball is very much back in your court. You’re not being expected to check that they’re to the correct torque; all they’re asking is that at the time you did that check there was no obvious fault. In other words, that you actually looked. My guess , and to be fair it is only a guess, is that the bloke who got pulled had two nuts loose on a trailer which had been loose for some time, i.e. they were halfway off with red rust on the threads behind them, showing beyond doubt that he’d been slack on his daily check.
Our company has a good track record in training drivers to do the job properly. As part of that, we all did an on-site course on checking wheel nuts, including how to use a torque wrench properly; you might think it’s a bit like teaching your granny to ■■■■ eggs, but the idea was that we should know how to do the job properly so that if a tyre fitter skimped on the job we would be able to notice this and deal with it accordingly. It’s all about covering your backside so that the poor bloody driver doesn’t end up carrying the can and I’m happy with that.
There does obviously have to be a line drawn where a driver has got to take some responsibility in areas where there’s a reasonable expectation that they should have the ability to do so.
Reading through this thread, I get the impression that a lot of drivers don’t see it as their job to check the wheel nuts are TIGHT ! (Just a visual will do)
We haven’t got easy access to a torque wrench either, the fitter won’t lend me his ‘Expensive’ Tool, I’ve asked him on a few occasions to check the nuts on wheel/tyre change, but he just says that it’Frank the Tyre Fitter’s job & he’s too busy to ‘check the at the moment’.
The only way around it, because you’ve got a deadline to meet, is to check them the same way that the Vostapo do-with a small tapping hammer, let’s be honest, it only takes about 20 seconds to tap 10 nuts on a wheel, so to check 6 trailer wheels should take around 2 minutes, if you find or suspect one is loose, it ain’t going out of the yard, deadline or no deadline ‘SIMPLES’.
I drive the same tractor all the time, so keep an eye on the wheels & tyres & tap them maybe once a week, more if I’ve had a tyre change, especially the drive axle. I’ve got no idea what’s happened to the trailers, so they need checking every time I hook up to another one.
(remember it only take 2 minutes-a lot less time & expense than it would if you lost a wheel & it killed someone & damaged vehicles & property=VOSA, Police, Ambulance, Probably Fire Brigade, Wrecker’s to recover the vehicles, People to clear up the mess, Insurance Company’s, Solicitors, Judges, Prison Officers, oh & don’t forget Undertakers for the Poor Sod who ended up under the offending wheel ! & you would loose your job as well, just to put the icing on the cake.)
On the last unit I drove, rather than the yellow pointers it had a ring of inter-connected ones, and I was told that if a nut was loose then the ring would break either side of the nut. Thought it was a nice, if expensive, bit of design.
Surely, randomly checking a nut on each wheel should be part of any pre-trip inspection?
No excuse for loose wheel nuts.
Maybe in the days of left/right handed coned nuts.The shrinking of the wheel in cold weather could cause a loose nut but now they are all right hand flanged nuts.
If a driver gets pulled with loose wheel nuts then its his fault.Never use a torque wrench just the wind gun and never lost a wheel yet or one come loose.
The MOT man just taps them with a toffee hammer.The nuts are there to hold them onto the hub spigot and the spigot takes the load.This wheel torque business is ■■■■■■■■.Most times you undo the nuts and got to sledge hammer the wheel off the spigot.The nut is just a retainer not a load bearing item.As long as they are all about equally tight (600 newtons) they wont come loose.The nut flange spreads the load onto the wheel face and the studs should never touch the wheel.