<VV> Special wheel CENTER FIT

[Tony Underwood]

At 07:24 PM 6/28/2010, Vairtec Corporation wrote:
>Anecdotal evidence:
>
>Years ago -- at least 20 -- a club member was honking down the
>Interstate at 70 mph in his Greenbrier.  He got off at his exit, he
>toodled along the surface streets, and he turned into his driveway.
>
>But as he was turning into his driveway -- THUMP -- the Greenbrier fell
>down on the right-rear corner and stopped.
>
>All five lug studs had sheared on the axle flange.
>
>He was running lug-centric aftermarket wheels.
>
>He was VERY HAPPY that this occurred as he was turning into his
>driveway, not while he was hammering down the superslab.
>
>Now, does this settle the debate about hub-centric vs lug centric?  No.
>But it does say something about those of you who may still be relying on
>the factory-installed lug studs all these years after your car was built.
>
>--Bob Marlow




In my lifetime I have personally seen three instances of wheels that 
sheared studs and came off the car.    One was Bill Reed's '67 
Chevelle SS-396 (1971 while I was home on leave), had to go help 
rescue that one.   Another Was Joe Arron's '68 T-Bird (mid-'70s) 
which he loved dearly and was kicking himself for not checking lug 
nuts.   The third was our "business" Ford F-350 shop van at work 
(last year) that not only ruined the wheel because of the elongated 
stud holes but it also crunched up much of the rear fender sheet 
metal on the side of the van.   The fellow driving couldn't hear the 
noise that MUST have been coming from the rear because he was wearing 
his I-Pod ear buds...


All three had steel hub-centric wheels.   All three came off because 
they were loose and the wheels showed evidence of eaten-up lug stud 
holes as well as scarring on the drum from wheel-walk.  All three 
wheels were on the driver side rear.


In my lifetime I have never seen any non-hub-centric wheel on a 
street-driven car come off...




...unless you consider the Keystones on Ron Bratton's Mustang and Sam 
Hollingsworth's '69 SS Chevelle, both of which had centers come loose 
from the rim although the lug studs remained intact (and is thus non 
sequitur but it's a good story anyway).   Ron's Mustang had the 
driver side rear wheel come partially apart (what IS it with driver 
side?) and wobble so bad he locked up the brakes and stopped in the 
middle of the road and the wheel almost re-assembled itself again.

He still has the same wheel today.  It's in his basement.  Keystone 
refunded his money and he bought Cragars.   I was surprised they let 
him keep the one that tried to come apart... but they did.   It 
almost did come apart and the joint that was supposed to hold the 
center in the rim was visible... there was some sort of epoxy or the 
like, looked like JB-Weld.


Sam's Chevelle wasn't as fortunate.   He had lined up beside 
something else on Williamson Road on a weekend night at "pole 
position" at Williamson and Hershberger (where the best races 
started) and they both launched from the light when it went 
green.  Sam's Keystones were new... he launched and halfway across 
the intersection both rear wheels spun the centers completely out of 
BOTH rims, one of which wadded up the driver side rear fender and 
jammed there, the other folded up the OTHER fender and exited the 
vehicle and bounced across the road and into another car parked on a 
lot across the intersection.   Sam said it was an odd feeling 
watching his right rear wheel pass him and head towards the lot 
across the street.


He would, after that incident, often as a running joke break into 
that parody of that country song "You Picked A Fine Time To Leave Me, 
Lucille"...


"You picked a fine time to leave me loose wheel...  over the 
guardrail and down through the field....
I hit a big tree, but it didn't stop me, and this time I'm hurtin' fer real...
You picked a fine time to leave me,loose wheel..."

We'd all join in...                  I AM SERIOUS.   None of this is 
a joke.    ...although it should be.   ;)


Sam sued Keystone.   They paid off the damages to his Chevelle, he 
got it fixed, immediately traded it in on a new Monte Carlo.   It had 
GM rallys on it which stayed there through the end, until relatively 
recently when he finally let the old car go after keeping it for over 
25 years.  We got to see Sam's Monte slowly disintegrate over the 
years until its paint was dull as dirt and rust in all 4 corners and 
the doors was suggesting eminent demise.    Now he goes everywhere in 
his 41 Chevy street rod.



tony..  got non-hub-concentric wheels on my Plymouth Satellite and 
the '65 ragtop