Broken wheels


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Posted by David Sherman [24.32.202.83] on Monday, June 07, 2010 at 23:51:53 :

I just got back to town after being gone for a week and the Mine Tour people told me the trolley was making a funny noise. It turns out they've been driving it with a broken right front wheel and a broken left rear wheel (dualies in the rear) for the whole time. In the front, it was so loose that the holes were all egged out and the studs were bunged up. 2 years ago we had a broken wheel on that same trolley. The problem seems to be that the Budd lug nuts work loose, which eventually causes the wheel to wobble and break. It's impossible to check the rears without taking off the decorative skirt over them, so nobody checks. There was no excuse for not noticing that the front was loose, because there were rust streaks radiating out from every lug nut. We've located ONE 22.5" 6-lug Budd rim, but finding another is proving to be difficult. That's an odd size. I'm assuming that welding cracked wheels is not safe.

I put our one spare on the front, after much effort to replace the studs. On the rear, I just tightened up the nuts and replaced the one missing one and will tell them to drive it like that until the new wheel comes in at the end of the week. With the nuts tight, it doesn't make any noise even though the wheel is very badly cracked. I figure if it breaks totally, the inner tire will carry the load until they get back to town. The mine is only half a mile outside of town and it's all slow-speed driving.

My question is why do these Budd lug nuts keep unscrewing themselves? I've never had this problem with my M35s which have 9.00-20 6 lug bud wheels and dualies in the rear. Do I need to tighten the p*ss out of the nuts with a 1" impact wrench? I hate to do that because then the only way to get them off is with a 1" impact wrench. I usually use a long bar and a regular Budd wrench and pull on it with all my weight. Obviously I will also tell the Mine Tour people that they need to check the nuts at least once a month, even though that means taking off the side skirts and putting them back on, which is a hassle.

If anybody has 2 22.5" 6-lug Budd rims for sale, we'll buy them.



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