My New Years Eve Jeep Adventure

[Joopin]

A story for whoever wants to read it...
Well as you all know I recently finished my spring over and regeared my axles. So for new years eve my girlfriend and I made a last minute decision to go up to Northern NY (Lake George area) and see a couple friends of mine who just happen to be gearheads also.

I'm thinking that this trip will put the needed 500 miles i need to break in the new R&P gears and a chance to show off my new improved jeep. So on New Years Eve the GF and I took off for a 5 hour ride up north.

Everything was fine, the Jeep was riding as well as expected, and the gas milage was the norm. I got about half way into the trip when I started feeling this vibrating in the front of the jeep. It only seemed to happen when I let off the gas though, when I pushed on the gas, it went away.

I decided to pull over at the next exit, #17 Newburgh on the thruway...
as soon as I pulled off the exit, about half way up the ramp, we felt a huge CLUNK! And the whole jeep seemed to shift downward and to the right. I jump out of the jeep and start looking around and underneath for a broken driveshaft or a loose wheel. My GF then called me over to the rear drivers side wheel and sure enough it had no lugnuts on it, even the studs were nowhere to be seen. I look underneath and find that the drum was resting on the inside of the wheel.

At this point I consider myself lucky that the wheel didn't flyoff all together and let the jeep come crashing almost 2 feet down to the pavement... so I ran up to the toll booth and called for a tow.
I was then back in my jeep waiting for the tow to come when a fellow jeeper passed by, saw I was stopped and pulled over to see what the damage was... I told him what happened, and that help was on the way. He seemed to be very interested in my lift since he was driving a YJ as well. We chatted about the soa process while my GF was rolling her eyes probably in the freezing cold.

Anyway we got towed to a local dealership where we had to leave it over night and get a hotel nearby... We then spent new years eve eating pizza and watching the 3 stooges marathon in a hotel with no ride anywhere! We did make it to our destination the next day but without the jeep...

It seems when you put aluminum rims on anything you need to keep checking the lugnuts and tighten them constantly... I didn't do that.
Lesson learned... I hope you can benifit from this!

[Sully]

That sucks about the jeep.At least you slowed down before it went boom. :) Sully

[avyoung]

I had the same thing happen in my 63 IH Scout with a SOA. I was glad there were just Fields around so when the tire passed me it didn't hit anything. It sure does scare the crap out of you.

[TwistedCopper]

That could have been uuuug-ly! Whew. Makes me want to go tighten mine!