http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.s...incart_m-rpt-2 i had 2 boat calls last year where the 5 studs all sheared at the same time and they were not loose makes me wonder if our studs get brittle with age? or something we might want to take a closer look at..... one tire we never did find. boy what a sad deal for everyone

The studs I have seen break were stretched by over tightening. Gotta use a torque wrench. Sheared off studs usually means they were loose, then shear when the brakes engage. That accident is a horrible tragedy, poor woman and poor kids. Her last act was to get the vehicle stopped so the kids were mostly ok.

I've lost two wheels over the years. This scares the crap out of me.

1) I felt it come loose and saw it cross the oncoming lane and go into the woods.
2) I never knew it; came loose somewhere on a 100 mile journey in the middle of the night. I didn't notice until I was backing into the driveway.

I had one come off at the end of the summer before last. Luckily I had just made a turn into my neighborhood. I saw the wheel n tire start to wobble, went another 20 feet and it came completely off, rolled back down a hill a bit and hit a mail box. I'm thankful it didn't happen while travelling at 50 mph down a busy street. Not sure of the cause. The studs were all intact. I did notice a couple of the bolt holes in the wheel were wallowed out. I suspect that they had some how loosened up over the summer causing this to happen. Since then I have tightend the hub nuts a hair to remove the slight bit of play that I found each hub to have and I check the lug nuts with a torque wrench before every trip.

Tragic for sure.

What Ft/lbs do you torque them to?

I torque at 90-100 ft/lbs

Aluminum wheels have to be retorqued , (discount tire says after 50 miles) I had a wheel beat me to the launch because the lugnuts loosened up and the wheel basically cut off the studs. My ride is all highway and it happened 5 minutes after I got off.(lucky!)
I see a wheel go past the truck, I thought WTF who is the moron messing around at the launch, then I realize.... wait.. thats MY WHEEL!

I checked all the other wheels and most were loose too. This was after I rebuilt the trailer... first ride.. I know they are were tight when we left.

I haven't lost a wheel (Will be checking today), but I did lose my trailer last year because some A$$HOLE decided to loosen the nut on my hitch and going down I-5 at 65-70 I hit just a big enough bump that the ball came out of the receiver... Lucky I had the safety chains on, I was able to pull over without incident

I have worried about this for the last 25 years. I always wonder if Ill be able to control and stop.