Obviously Oversized wheels & tires on jeep?

[RCR 3 EVER]

Last weekend there was a huge jam up on a nearby freeway, the cause: a older model jeep had made a sharp turnaround and lost both front wheels and the thing was sitting crossways 2 lanes.

The guy was sitting at the side of the road on both of his shiny wheels.
This vehicle had huge wheels probably at minimum 20-22" size and the skinniest thinnest tires I have ever seen. It must have felt like riding on steel wheels. The wheel well was filled with tire wheel combo, I am surprised the tires rotated.

It looked as if the wheels had both snapped off outside of the hub leaving the bolted hub intact on brake rotors which were now sitting on the ground. I have witnessed Belle tire refuse to mount some oversize wheels on some cars when they would not fit properly. This was probably a case of a brainless fool trying to look real cool with his fancy wheels and mounted wheels that were never made for that vehicle. Unfortunately I did not have time to get a photo as I drove past the scene.

 

[discounthunter]

this is typical and it happenes quite frequently. just because 20's and such bolt on the stock hubs, the hubs arent stong enough to take the twisting nature of tall rims.

ive seen several ltd's sportin' 22's missing wheels ,usually the fronts, parked on the side of the road.

 

[julian 1973]

You should come around my neighborhood. There are plenty of cars running around with rims up to 30" !! There'a an 80's caprice down the street that has 30" rims with low profile tires and is jacked up so high just to fit them that there is about 2 feet of clearance UNDER the car! The police are finally ticketing these people for not upgrading their brakes to make up for all the rolling mass the modified wheels have. There isn't a quicker way to mess up your suspension and steering rack than to add those stupid wheels and low profile tires.

 

[zr900]

The police are finally ticketing these people for not upgrading their brakes to make up for all the rolling mass the modified wheels have. There isn't a quicker way to mess up your suspension and steering rack than to add those stupid wheels and low profile tires.

Any proof to either statement?

 

[loadthestove]

Was nearly killed by a setup like this back in the summer.This guy had put a set of monster wheels on his truck and had used wheel spacers to set them out to keep from hitting inner fender.
Guess what,one of the spacers broke and the wheel came off and crossed the road in front of me.I hit it dead center running about 50 miles an hours.
Now for the best part,, I was on a motorcycle.this little incident cost-ed just over 11,000 in damage to my Harley ultra.Best part I never hit the blacktop.really jammed my right wrist up but other than that,,not a mark on me

 

[Positrack]

I'll bet the guy had wheel spacers installed to alter the backspacing and/or bolt pattern on the rims and they let go during the turn. If the hubs and rotors were still on the axle, he must have broken either the wheel studs or the wheel centers (or the spacers of course, if installed). Unless he was missing wheel studs or lug nuts on both sides, I find it hard to believe he could have broken the studs off both front hubs just by doing a turn around. There are guys running big, aggressive, and heavy offroad tires on stock Jeep axles without breaking studs. They might break about everything else, but not too many studs. However, those flimsy aluminum spacers are just asking for baaaaad trouble IMHO.

Then again, maybe the meathead just torqued the stuffing out of the lugs and overstressed the studs, causing them to snap when stressed. I used to see that on our semis all the time when the yahoos in the shop would get carried away with the big impact installing wheels.


EDIT: Loadthestove beat me to it. By two weeks. How did I miss that?

 

[Mac_Muz]

A jeep with tall wheels? Hows that work? You loose the bottom end of getting moving.. Do you change the gearing to like 16:1 or something?

 

[Racing2Fast]

I'll bet the guy had wheel spacers installed to alter the backspacing and/or bolt pattern on the rims and they let go during the turn. If the hubs and rotors were still on the axle, he must have broken either the wheel studs or the wheel centers (or the spacers of course, if installed). Unless he was missing wheel studs or lug nuts on both sides, I find it hard to believe he could have broken the studs off both front hubs just by doing a turn around. There are guys running big, aggressive, and heavy offroad tires on stock Jeep parts without breaking studs. They might break about everything else, but not too many studs. However, those flimsy aluminum spacers are just asking for baaaaad trouble IMHO.

Then again, maybe the meathead just torqued the stuffing out of the lugs and overstressed the studs, causing them to snap when stressed. I used to see that on our semis all the time when the yahoos in the shop would get carried away with the big impact installing wheels.


EDIT: Loadthestove beat me to it. By two weeks. How did I miss that?

well my friend is really so stubborn in not believing me that his setup on his jeep is a total mess. well good luck with his spacers i will be posting this thread on his facebook wall so he might change his mind after reading what all you said. but i think he wont listen because he invested so much money on those wheels to make it look like a crap. well sorry for digging this one i just want to warn my buddy. :mad2: