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I had a fun morning, and while not M37 related, I know that some of you can probably relate to my story!

Some people say that a penny found is good luck; I happened to find a quarter this morning while fueling up, and later on, both my friend Dennis and I used up all the luck that found quarter had...

After leaving the meeting point for our day trip, Dennis and I were rolling down the highway, bringing up the rear of our three truck convoy as we motored along out to Baldy Mtn to try a new trail. Tyler suddenly pulls over to the shoulder, with us quickly in behind him. Turns out his hood latch hadn't caught when he checked the oil at the gas station. Pulling back onto the highway we are both trying to catch back up to Trevor, who is in the lead. Dennnis and I are having a rather genial conversation about hoods flipping up at highway speed, when suddenly all hell breaks loose.

With a sound like a gunshot from behind the cab, the rear end drops over a foot, pointing the driverside front corner skyward, and the truck starts to fishtail wildly at nearly 100km/h (60mph). Careening all over my lane, the swampers were howling madly as they slid all over the rain soaked asphalt. With the steering wheel firmly grasped in both hands, and the brake pedal pinned to the floor, my head is swivelling around like an owl, trying to follow the highway and steer the truck away from the ditches. The sliding is getting worse as I'm now using up both lanes. I saw an amorphous black blob in the rear view mirror shoot out past the side of the truck; turns out it was the rear tire and rim. The 'yota does four complete revolutions, showing me nothing but white line, yellow line, and two ditches. At one point the rear bumper came around and smacked the tire as it was racing along beside us. The tire took off like a Sammy Sosa home run, ending up in the ditch some 150 yards further down the road.

As the truck slows the risk of barrel rolling it down the highway increases as the rear end could dig into a tar strip or the soft shoulder of the highway. We're both bracing for the gut wrenching flip, planning for the worst. The velocity is decreasing and the last slide is in a wide sweeping arc heading towards the ditch on the other side of the highway; Dennis and I are both preparing for the abrupt landing in the better than six foot deep ditch. Surprisingly enough, it didn't happen - the swampers, suddenly finding themselves in the their natural habitat on the soft shoulder of the highway dug in, and with only eight inches of gravel they stopped the truck almost dead. The momentum causing the rear end to pirroette around and plant itself firmly on the shoulder of the road. If I had parked the truck there on purpose, it would have looked no different. We figured later on that we covered about two city blocks worth of distance, most of it ninety degrees or backwards to the desired direction of travel.

Dennis and I both climbed out of the truck - him reaching for his smokes, and me giggling uncontrolably like a madman. There is no carnival ride on earth that will produce that feeling! Dennis retrieved the lost tire, while I assured the motoring public that we were both ok, and didn't require any assistance.

We spent the next hour or so waiting for the car trailer to show up, making jokes about the situation, and generally comming down from a massive adrenaline high. There were plenty of mouths gaping open in astonishment, and lots of pictures taken. I badly needed a nap when I got home...! A final inspection of the wheel studs showed that three had been previously cracked. When they let go, the other three remaining studs had no chance. There were no signs of any issues until the moment the tire left.

Here are my shots:
The long sweeping final arc as the brake rotor was digging into the asphalt


The final park job, with most of the credit going to lady luck...



Here you can see the marks in the shouler where the front tires dug in and rotated the rear end around, bringing the truck to a stop.


Here is the rear end, notice all the wheel studs are sheared off or missing



Notice the dark circles around the lug nuts on the front end. We've determined there was enough side load on the front wheels that the wheel studs have actually stretched.


So, here is my carnage report:
- one wheel spacer
- 24 wheel studs - I'll replace them all for safety reasons
- 24 lug nuts - same deal
- fubared brake rotor
- fubared brake caliper
- bent rear axle shaft
- two severly mohawed seat cushions

Holy crap what a ride!

FFFFFRRRRRRRK!, We're just glad you're AOK
A scary ride allright and one I hope you never have to experience again.
On a side note, I like your tray design, very tidy indeed (and I am glad it stayed that way)

Best Regards - MM

WOW....I see the Force was really with you again....

Glad you stayed in one piece. I know exactly how you feel. Lost the left rear wheel at 70 on I-90 by Wall SD on my 76 Chevy 4WD back in 1990.

The water on the highway played a big part in letting the truck slide around instead of biting in and flipping. I'm just really happy there was nobody in the oncomming lane! The lack of a conventional steel bed in the rear probably helped too, as this bed is mostly tubing with a plastic shell to keep the weight down.
Either way, there is no point in purchasing lottery tickets anytime soon, as I don't have enough lucked stored up to win at the moment.

I think I'll epoxy that quarter to the dashboard...

Just one of many reasons why lift kits are okay on the trail, but not so much on the highway. With an unaltered suspension your ride would still have been hairy, but not quite so much. Glad y'all made it back to tell the tale. Now you have something to talk about at the next campfire when it's your turn to say "Now, this here ain't no bullchit!"

Lifer wrote:Just one of many reasons why lift kits are okay on the trail, but not so much on the highway. With an unaltered suspension your ride would still have been hairy, but not quite so much. Glad y'all made it back to tell the tale. Now you have something to talk about at the next campfire when it's your turn to say "Now, this here ain't no bullchit!"

Not much of a lift kit in this truck - only 3" over stock, no body lift, or lift blocks either; its all springs to help keep the center of gravity low. The extra width of the tires balances out the extra height IMO. The internal bead locks on the wheels also helped by not allowing any of the tires to peel off the rim as it was sliding.

Definitley a good story for the usuall camp fire bs session... I'm sure that after the 10 time its told, I'll have slid over a mile, backwards and sideways while weaving through traffic, without spilling my coffee!

Glad you and your passenger are OK. A ride like that is no fun at all. Another blessing was no other vehicles got involved. Yup You better keep that quarter

"Trucking, like a doo-daa man"..........whewwweee! Maybe a horse shoe is called for the dash, instead of the quarter?

Wow....I hope you can afford the drycleaning bill on the front seat covers!

refit1701 wrote:Wow....I hope you can afford the drycleaning bill on the front seat covers!

Didn't soil the seats, but it takes a bit of getting used to now that the seat bolster is in the middle...

Master Yota wrote:Didn't soil the seats, but it takes a bit of getting used to now that the seat bolster is in the middle...

That there's some serious clenchin'!

so, any idea what blew up to cause the whole mess? that would be my #1 concern, to ensure it doesnt happen again...

Josh wrote:so, any idea what blew up to cause the whole mess? that would be my #1 concern, to ensure it doesnt happen again...

I've had some time to ponder that.... Here is my theory:

The rear end has a spool, which can place tremendous loads on the wheel studs as it drags a tire around corners. I also run a pair of 1.5" aluminum wheel spacers in the rear. I'm thinking that over the life of the spacer, the steel shoulder of the lug nut has perhaps pounded out the mating surface on the spacer, slowly creating a gap for the spacer to slop around on the studs a little bit. When we checked the studs on the side of the road, three of them showed signs of previous wear, being either rubbing or chaffing of the stud, or out right cracking. I think that when those three let go, the remaining three just didn't have the mojo to keep the wheel on with the added leverage of the spacer working against them on one side, and the spool on the other.

The second part of the theory is my fault for not checking the spacer over a little more frequently. But most people take for granted that their lug nuts are tight, and I was no different. Untill now.
The solution to the problem is to put the wider rear diff that I have had sitting on the back burner for the last 2 years under the truck and delete the need for the spacers. That should solve all the problems of added leverage on the wheel studs. I've been running a spool for years, so I can't really fault it, as this is a new whoops. The spacers have only been on for a year or so, so I'm leaning towards the extra leverage being the ultimate cause of the failure.

"Spools?" "Spacers?" What are these parts? I can understand spacers if you want to make your track a little wider, but what is a spool and what is it used for? (Obviously, these are not stock parts, or I would have encountered them.)