Reading through this thread reminds me of how many drivers we have on the road that are just steering wheel holders. It seriously scares me how little knowledge there is out in this world.
Wheel nuts belongs to the daily checking list. Every brake you take you throw on eye on them. The same as you look over everything else on the truck, ex if a wheel has a crack, bulb is broken, it doesn’t take more than 30 seconds to walk around the truck…
If you notice a wheel nut is loose you use the basic tools that provided and every single truck I have seen has the tools to tighten a loose wheel nut.
TIP!
As we are now seeing lower temps a badly tighten wheel nut has a higher risk of becoming loose because of the temperature changes so this time of year it’s a really good call to be on the look out.
100£ fine ain’t much. In some countries you may loose your license, ex Norway. It’s considered dangerous and a truck wheel going of in speed is like a cannonball.
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.
it’s always ‘my mate got fined’, ‘2 of out drivers got fined $20 for each unstrapped pallet’ etc
I started a thread a while ago asking anyone who had actually received a fine, the only response was from someone who had got fined in the early nineties for drivers hours offences!
Icee:
Reading through this thread reminds me of how many drivers we have on the road that are just steering wheel holders. It seriously scares me how little knowledge there is out in this world.
Wheel nuts belongs to the daily checking list. Every brake you take you throw on eye on them. The same as you look over everything else on the truck, ex if a wheel has a crack, bulb is broken, it doesn’t take more than 30 seconds to walk around the truck…
If you notice a wheel nut is loose you use the basic tools that provided and every single truck I have seen has the tools to tighten a loose wheel nut.
TIP!
As we are now seeing lower temps a badly tighten wheel nut has a higher risk of becoming loose because of the temperature changes so this time of year it’s a really good call to be on the look out.
How do you have a “badly tightened wheel nut”
How often do your car wheel nuts come loose in “lower temperatures”
Tip listen to somebody who knows what they are on about not some condecending bull s artist. We have all met them,trainers,assesors,managers,never done the job but these “experts” know it all. yea right.
100£ fine ain’t much. In some countries you may loose your license, ex Norway. It’s considered dangerous and a truck wheel going of in speed is like a cannonball.
There’s can advert on a local radio station saying you should regularly check your nuts as it could save your life if you get in early, it also says about getting your wife/girlfriend involved as it’s more fun but I ain’t taking her into work everyday sod that.
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.
When they tap nuts with a hammer it is not to see if the nut moves .
They are listening to the sound, if a nut gives a dud sound it will be loose.
I used to work in a garage and when servicing a truck, loose nuts (not just on the wheel)where easily identified while tapping with a hammer.
The only way a driver can check a wheel nut visually is to look for rust marks leading from the nut
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.
When they tap nuts with a hammer it is not to see if the nut moves .
They are listening to the sound, if a nut gives a dud sound it will be loose.
I used to work in a garage and when servicing a truck, loose nuts (not just on the wheel)where easily identified while tapping with a hammer.
The only way a driver can check a wheel nut visually is to look for rust marks leading from the nut
Er, yeah, obviously but they can’t put it went phung instead of ping on the ticket.
I can’t be arsed to check the manual but it will boil down to there needing to be visual evidence the nut is not exerting a significant clamping force on the rim. Tapping is really a method of establishing if one needs closer inspection.
ianto:
Until the metric thread came in lorries had both right and left hand wheel nuts and studs and then forward motion helped to keep the nuts tight
Aye, and I reckon that there were far more cases of lost wheels back then as well! It even became known as ‘lost wheel syndrome’ and I don’t think that a satisfactory explanation was ever arrived at really. Speed was one factor of course, one of our laden eight leggers lost a set of rears in the middle lane of the M1 doing around 70 mph, we never did find where they went as he travelled several miles before he pulled over!
The only loose wheel I ever had was on a P reg Foden 3000 series about twenty minutes after ATS had fitted the wheel and torqued it up, they claimed that I should have rechecked them in that time so I always used a bar after that with no more problems.
nab:
The only way a driver can check a wheel nut visually is to look for rust marks leading from the nut
Yes, but as I pointed out above, those rings can be moved by a lazy driver. The rust tell-tale was the easy way to spot a duff wheelnut back in the days before those markers were invented. It simply involves looking a little bit closer, that’s all.
nab:
The only way a driver can check a wheel nut visually is to look for rust marks leading from the nut
Yes, but as I pointed out above, those rings can be moved by a lazy driver. The rust tell-tale was the easy way to spot a duff wheelnut back in the days before those markers were invented. It simply involves looking a little bit closer, that’s all.
Or do as i do as an owner driver,check an axle a day,it takes 10 mins,ive never lost a wheel or had a loose nut ( touch wood )
)