Wheel Liners - Safety Issue

[Shayne]

Today when I went to pick up my Clipper from getting the springs installed, they only found one little issue.  They did not want to reinstall the stainless steel wheel liners.  The ones I have install under the lugnuts.. i.e. the lugnuts hold them on. Well, I guess when they went to remove the wheels, my lugnuts were not so tight.  And after looking at the wheel liners, they decided that the light duty metal the wheel liners are made of was a) compressing and b)when tightening the lugnuts, the metal would twist just a little.  Over time, this would cause and allow the lugnuts to loosen.  Not good.  So they decided to error on the side of safety rather than good looks.

I have them looking for a better solution, might even get lucky and find a set of late model dually takeoffs that wouldn't cost a fortune.  Anyway, just something to consider for those with wheel liners.

[Horst]

My wheels are painted "Clipper white" - looks pretty good.

[Shayne]

I already got 3 of my wheels painted PRIMER white... ran out of daylight and it got too cold to do the last... hopefully I'll get the 4th primered tomorrow morning, then come home for lunch and paint them the off white color.  

I found a tapered plastic tub and picked the right spot to cut the bottom out of, so I have a handy dandy masking ring to keep as much paint off the tires as possible  

I'm hoping to make the rally this weekend.. and while the wheels won't be quite so spiffy, I hope they won't be UGLY!

[Adrian]

Shayne are you selling your wheel liners?

[Shayne]

Actually... I talked to my wheel guy today.. he says that after many phone calls, he can't find any liners that fit our wheels any better.  And also after talking to several manufacturers, including the one for the liners I have, they swear they have never had a problem so long as the lugnuts are re-torqued every so often... which they seem to think should be part of 'regular RV maintenance'.....

So, I'm not sure what I'm going to do other than the guy at the wheel shop said that anytime I want them retorqued, to just drop by and he'll do it.  I did have them on there for a few years and 6000 or so miles and they didn't fall off... but then the guy did say the rear nuts were not tight enough.  They were not falling off, but still not as tight as they should be. But then maybe the last shop didn't torque them down very tight to start with?

[bigray]

While I like the classic look of the painted rims, I like the chrome inserts alot better. I put mine on a month or so ago and haven't really driven it. I like the way she looks though.

I have to admit, I was a little skeptical about safety issue. When I had my tires replaced and rotated, it was done at Discount Tire here in Houston. The guy that did it was a young kid who appeared to know what he was doing. However, I talked to him a bit and found out about Discount Tire's hiring practice. Basically, all the guys in the shop are part-time kids (I use kids loosely).

Bottom line, when I removed my tires afterwards, the lugs seemed a little loose. I don't have a torque wrench or anything but I can tell loose when I feel it.

Like Shane said, I think tightning the lugs should be part of routine maintenance just like adding water to your batteries. and everything else

Happy Clippering