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Took my truck to a local tire place because I had a flat while in town (limped in on one dual). Noticed a couple days later that 2 lug nuts were missing. When I went to replace them, I saw that the outside rim was cracked! Upon further review - BOTH rims were cracked!
Evidently, the guy installing the tires forgot (or didn't know) that there are alignment pins on the rims. He torqued it down (with the air wrench) so hard, that it mashed the nipple, bent both rims, cracked both rims, and generally ruined my day!
So far, the tire place has agreed that they owe me a couple rims. I asked today, and they are ordering new ones since they cannot find a set of good used ones......
You can see in the photos that the rims were actually mounted 1/4 turn from where they should have been. The holes and what's left of the pin, don't line up....
I've got holes in my simulators from people not watching, but never anything like that.
When I last got tires at Moe, Larry and Curly's garage I watched for 5 minutes as the guy tried to bang the trim ring on before bolting the rim on. He had it on the front hub and it kept bouncing around. It took someone else telling him to bolt it down before he stopped trying...
They guy called me this morning.....he can't find any used rims available, so he ordered two NEW rims! Should be here Monday afternoon, or Tuesday morning.
I have run into the pinned rims before, they have to be there for a reason. I noticed on the truck I was working on, the wheels were hub centric, meaning the center hole on the rim fit tightly around the center hub on the truck. I also noticed on the pinned rims that the lug nuts had big flat washers made onto the lug nuts, they were not the beveled type that fit up into the rim.
The only theory I have is that the pin keeps the rim from "scooting" around the hub, since there is not a tight fit from the rims to the studs.
I have run into the pinned rims before, they have to be there for a reason. I noticed on the truck I was working on, the wheels were hub centric, meaning the center hole on the rim fit tightly around the center hub on the truck. I also noticed on the pinned rims that the lug nuts had big flat washers made onto the lug nuts, they were not the beveled type that fit up into the rim.
The only theory I have is that the pin keeps the rim from "scooting" around the hub, since there is not a tight fit from the rims to the studs.
The pin is there for ONE reason only.
To stagger the valve stems so you can reach the inner one when the outer tire is on.
Has NOTHING to do with balance since the wheels are balanced separately
