Driving home from the Easter meet, and only 10 minutes from home, and my Dandy lost a wheel!! Sandra was behind in her car, and the wheel did bounce along the motorway, but did not hit a car, and rested up safe on the hard shoulder,
Where the wheel cam off I had NO hard shoulder for a good 50 feet, but managed to keep very cool, drop the revs, and a text book safe procedure , and all safe.

Very lucky no damage to the Dandy, just need a new hub and studs

So CHECK your wheel studs. I had the Dandy serviced last year, and the nuts must not have been tightened up fully.

What could have been very serious, ended up OK, but only by the grace of god!

omg.  so lucky.  It was only brought up a few weeks ago too.  I checked mine about 2 weeks ago, and will check before each trip now.

wheel nuts should be checked and torqued every month or so if camper used regular,i do mine before each trip. i also check to make sure i can get the wheel off in case of a puncture and also able to get the spare out of its carrier.

lucky escape Neil,lets hope you can get a hub sorted.

The hub should be just off the shelf item, so have stripped it down, as we had one stud left, that managed to get a wheel on with.

The rescue guy was also brilliant, to say but the least. Had a Highway agency van, on the scene in 5 minutes, amazed no damage was done, and how I had handled it all. The recovery man was just 30 minutes, and he was gob smacked to how everything was calm, and all parke dup nice, neat and safe  

wow that was lucky no one got injured plus your dandy wasnt damaged

Glad to hear you are all ok Neil. No damage to the unit was a bonus. Thanks for the reminder


Paul

Quoted from Neil

The hub should be just off the shelf item, so have stripped it down, as we had one stud left, that managed to get a wheel on with.

The rescue guy was also brilliant, to say but the least. Had a Highway agency van, on the scene in 5 minutes, amazed no damage was done, and how I had handled it all. The recovery man was just 30 minutes, and he was gob smacked to how everything was calm, and all parke dup nice, neat and safe  

We seem to have had a spate of this recently. Oddly many have them seem to have occurred after servicing.
I have been in the position many years ago where I struck a wheel against a kerb the wheel then loosened over a distance. I managed to stop and re tighten the wheel. It was a VW Beetle and it was bolts entering a drum body.
These seem to have been catastrophic failures without any or any appreciable warning.
In the cases I've heard all but one stud was lost.
I've not stripped a brake drum on these and I'm curious about one thing.
Having replaced studs on hubs on cars the studs were like these.
They are thicker at the rear and therefore can't be drawn through.



I have also used conventional studs fixed in place with an air tool.



What sort of studs are fixed into the drum on Dandys?
If it's the second type I can easily see an over torqued nut pulling the stud to the point where it's on the verge of stripping the threads on the drum.

If anyone knows of the stud types please say. I feel a phone call to Indespension coming on.

Its the first type



It could be that the <service> and new grease could render them. I will do better photos over the next couple of days as I put on the new hub and studs.

Mine shot three, and managed to hold one, which was/is/maybe enough to let me fix.

The grind from the Low Loader, to get the Dandy home was the most worrying, but worked with "Dave" who was a star, and my scissor jack, was used several time.

Quoted Text

In the cases I've heard all but one stud was lost

Exact what happened to  me!  just one stud left...

I bet it was the near side wheel.
These are the ones that loosen first.
I check the torque before every trip departing from home or destination.

jgcr.

P.s glad no one was injured.

Ah jgcr

There does seem to be an opinion about the nature of auto reverse combining to make trailers with not fully released handbrakes easy to push. The slightly on brake then heats up the drum and the heating and cooling cycle helps to undo the nut. For whatever reasons this tends to happen on the near side.

Now the chappie I spoke to at Indespension didn't cover this possibility.
I did ask about the type of studs and expected all studs to be of the rear insertion type rather than the screw in form, as thinking it over that is all I've ever seen on wheels. Apparently hubs are now produced with screw in studs. Now while that gives me the willies it doesn't apply to the age of stuff we're using which is all rear insert.
The other thing that was covered was torque settings for wheels. I don't know what size studs are used on the larger 13" wheels but the 10" wheels only use ³/₈" studs very easy to over torque with windy guns.
It's a bit hard to ask non technical people to look at stud ends and asses how they broke but there can often be visual differences between an over torqued stud that has snapped and a stud that has been broken by a flapping wheel. The flapping will tend to bruise a stud and the break will be further out a sheered stud between the drum and where the nut would have been. I've not allowed for the thread stripping and the wheel subsequently striking the stud as I assume a stripped thread would have been noticed at the time.

                                 Indespension's    Listed Torque Settings  
    Nuts                      lbft                     NM
    3/8"                       42                     57
    7/16"                     50                     67
    1/2"                       56                     76
    5/8"                       85                    115

     Bolts
      M12                       55                     74
      M14                       60                     81


  Now I have seen some claims that aluminium wheels need higher torques. This is stated as for a number of reasons from aluminium's different rate of thermal expansion onwards. If you have alloys and get an answer from a reliable source please post and illuminate us.

One final thing if checking and tightening wheels.
If you take the wheels off just clean the threads (wire brush in drill, whatever) a low torque thread lock may be used. Never, never, never grease or "copperslip" the threads. It changes the nature of any torque setting but more importantly it makes the nuts or bolts likely to unscrew. Copperslip is used on things where the need is to reliably fasten and unfasten an Item and that is the major consideration. Coperslip is not used on items where being securely bolted down is the primary concern.  
Though if you have alloys do feel free to put copperslip on the face between the wheel and the drum. This stops electrolytic action welding the wheel to the drum.  

Well  Nottheotherkevin,

Has Supplied all you need to know.

I use a Torque wrench that I know to be accurate as I have it annually checked where I work.

I do posess a 12 volt wheel spinner though as due to health problems using a wheel brace causes disscomfort.

jgcr

Today, I have had a better examination.

The actual "hub" is now <out of production> but it was OK.

The new studs and nuts I got from a local Indespension, they are part numbers HUAP009 and WRAP020 Total cost £7.04)

The new studs have a wider flange on the head, and are a lot more secure.

I did have one stud that did not snap, but the wear is on the grooves on the flange!

Now on the hunt for a 12 inch mini wheel, and no luck getting one yet

Some photos below

Link to the studs we now have in use -->>

http://www.indespension.co.uk/Trailer-Parts/Spares/HUAP009.html

Also the size of the split pin is 38mm x 4mm Got mine from Halfauds part number HFX112 pack of 5

do 10'' mini wheels fit? how about metro wheels,or are they different altogether.?

will ask my mate as he had quite a few mini wheels.