Attempted Theft?

[Sparky-Watts]

Re: RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: girl + jeep

Yesterday I changed the oil in the YJ and was getting ready to rotate the tires when I noticed a couple of lug nuts on one rear wheel missing. When I pulled the other three off, I noticed that one of the remaining nuts was stripped pretty badly, and had damaged the stud also. I'm thinking someone was trying to rip off my wheels and either got caught or thought I had a locking nut when they stripped the other lug. The only place this could have happened was at work, because I leave it locked in the garage all the time it's home, and I haven't left it anywhere else unattended for any amount of time. But at work, it's parked right across the street in front of the building, and it's never there at night in the dark. Yeah, I know it doesn't have to be dark to get stolen, but that's a very busy street, and a very busy shop with people coming and going all the time. Someone had to be pretty ballsy to try to steal them there.

Anyway, I replaced the stud and lug nuts and finished with the tire rotation. I've had the tires since July and haven't rotated them until now (because since I haven't worked, I haven't put many miles on them until now). They look good, just a little feathering on the fronts, but the rears seem to be wearing fast.

 

[jeepless20]

wow your lucky. couple months ago someone broke out the little sail window in the left rear of my dads 98 malibu and stole his 250 doller pioneer CD player and then got in the trunk and took his 200 doller galaxy dx959 cb. now thats a sweet CB.

 

[Craig]

Durabak???

I've found that with oversized tires, I have to tighten the lugs every couple of months. That's even what's recommended when they intall larger tires. At first I tried to see how long I could go without retightening them and got about 6 months into it before they started come completley loose. It also depends on the type of chamfer of your bolt holes in your wheels and the kind of lugs you're using.

 

[88Wrangles]

RE: Re: My last trail run

If you ever had a tire shop or someone else change your tires (even the previos owner...if the jeep's used) they could have stripped it a little, and then it just got to the point that the nuts kept coming loose, until they fell off.

And like Craig said, you have to check them often to make sure they are tight. On my truck, I re-torque them before every run I go on...and they are almost always a *little* loose (and I go every weekend...at the least).

 

[mudwoman]

I never think about anybody stealing anything- I know I must have a house key somewhere- no idea where that might be. Once in awhile, when we leave for a week we think we might lock the house, but then get bored looking for the key and give up. I was looking for my YJ keys and couldn't find them- still in the ignition, right where I left them! Partly it's that it really is that safe here and partly it's that no one can find us- either way it's a good place to be!

 

[TwistedCU]

RE: Re: RE: Durabak???

You definately should have re-torqued the lugs after a few hunderd miles or so after you put those new cragar steelies on to re-seat the lug nuts. They may have worked loose?

The feathering will happen on most all mud tires, gotta rotate them more often to get optimum life out of them.

The rears wearing quickly would tell me you like the skinny petal

 

[Sparky-Watts]

I check the tightness of the lugs at least once a week, so I know they weren't working themselves loose, have been doing that since December when I got the wheels put on. I'm kinda surprised my stereo is still in the Jeep, too, as I didn't have it locked and the rear windows have been out for over a month now. There were also fresh marks on the center cap that indicated someone had had a lug wrench on the nuts, that's why I immediately suspected the attempted theft.....And I know the stud wasn't stripped before, I'd pulled the wheels a couple of times already to check the rear brakes.

Yeah, TC, I do like the skinny pedal on those dirt roads.....and that's really the worst place to use it, because they are sand and gravel around here, and it's akin to using heavy grit sandpaper everytime I turn the tires on it!!! Just surprised at the amount of wear compared to the old Kumho's I used to run. I like the Mud Kings, but think my next set will go back to the Kumho's again....seemed to get better wear out of them, at least on my old Toyota....