Well there would not have been much to rant about this week since the truck ran fine. Then comes last Tuesday. Driving down the road at the speed limit when all of a sudden I hear a smack and what sounded like a tearing sound. I pull over to see what it was. My friggin rear passenger side tire had its first ply torn and shredded off, tore one of the inner mudflaps out and dented in and up the sheet metal at the rear of the bed. Damn Coopers (Going for BFGs Next or Goodyear Trackers). The damn thing stayed inflated so I was able to drive it home which was a quarter of a mile away. I figure easy. Take the tire off throw on the spare get a new tire. Not so friggin easy. First off the lugnuts were torqued so tightly from the brake job i got done that the crowbare didnt do anything but take the top caps off the old nuts. I bought a breaker bar with extension and a long socket and low and behold, they start coming off. But then again nothing is ever this easy.
I get to the last old nut. I doesnt want to come off. It stripped with pratically no effort. I tried a six point socket as well to no avail. So I try a trick I ve used on larger military vehicles. A hammer and screwdriver. Nothing. A 5lb ballpeen and chisel, nothing.
I have been hacking and sawing at this damn thing for a week with the only accomplishment being that Ive gotten chunks off of the nut and have been able to hack saw partially through.
But the sucker still wont move. Here I am going to work in my wifes little nissan with my perfectly good truck in the carport haveing tempermental lugnut issues.
Ive thought about hammereing the stud/nut off but figure that would couse some damage somehow. Big problem is I dont have any tools that will cut through the stud.
Too much to ponder. I will be successful in getting this nut off even if I have to dynamite it. I have a weekend long camping/Jam fest to attend next weekend in Texas and will not be taking all that camping gear and putting it my wifes car again. No rooom.
Oh what a headache .
So how was everyone elses week in Motoring?
Hope every one had a nice Easter as well.
Redleg

 

red, craftsman makes a nut remover...kind of like a easy-out for a bolt head the more force you put on the head of it, the deeper it digs in. i have used it for stubborn torque converter nuts and others. it was like $ 25 and you get several sizes and i got mine a sears. hope this helps... determination is the only thing that separates the men from the boys

 

Ive thought about getting those before since ive seen them advertised previously and have many uses for them.But have never known any one who has owned and tried these things out to see if they really work. That and I forgot about their existence through this delemma.I think ill get the set since you say they work and are not too expensive.
Thanx
Redleg

 

What kind of Coopers are you running? I've got Discoverer AT's on my truck. How worn were yours?

 

Discoverer Radial LT 31x50s in the rear. They were a bit worn but not to the wear bars. It was like the glue or whatever they use came undone. There might have been a tear I hadnt seen on it some where. Im wondering if all coopers are made in this fasion.
The tires were on the truck when I bought it 2 months ago.

 

is it the front stud that has the lug nut locked on it? i did that to my 84 f250 i put to short of crome lug nuts on 2 of the studs and didnt know it till i went to tighten them down as i did they bottomed out right before touching the rim i went and ripped on them not thicking and i stripped the little teeth in the back of them that hold them tight in the hub i ended up using a huge cresnt wrench and putting it on the studs with the crome lug nuts stuck on and jumping up n down on it till i broke them off so that i could get the wheel off and then take off the brake rotar i had to go to napa and buy new studs but it was easy to do i taped what was left out of the broken one's with a hammer and put the new ones in and then tappped them down snug up against the rotar then when i put my new wheels on with the new longer right size crome lug nuts i put grease on the threads and the face of the lug nut and tightened them down and it pulled the studs in tightly against the back of the hub good luck on getting them off

 

red...if you buy them , you wont be dissapointed...good luck

 

you should get Yokohama Geolandar A/t's same price a BFG and about twice the tire. I got my 31X10.50's for my 85 at about 90 a piece. they are D rated tires with sidewalls like rocks

 

Thank God you dont drive a Chevy.. you'd be about ready to kill yourself at the end of the week..

 

You can take an angle grinder to that nut and I gurantee it will move. What you do is grind down a flat on the nut until it turns purple and then real easy til you can see the ridges on the thread Do that on an another flat next to the ground flat. Then you can vicegrip what's left. Or you can get the nut crackers from Sears. Anyway when the nuts are off, put a dab of neverseize on each stud, works wonders the next time you have a flat.

 

re:But then again nothing is ever this easy.
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I hear you.....join the club!!! there were times I thought i'd never get things done and be able to drive without worries.

Well, some perserverance and persistance pays off. Hang in there.

How old are the tires in question? how many miles? Perhaps you can contact the tire company and file a damage claim due to poor workmanship of the tire...(if there were no road hazards that caused the tire to fall apart)


I run the Bridgestone AT Duelers and am quite happy, they are pretty quiet on the roads and are durable. My only rant was not being able to get out of a ditch I slid into over in the back roads of Apsen, CO.

So...if you plan on going into the snow....get some knobby BF goodrich or
MT tires.

re:the Chevy comment, I just came back from filling the fuel tank and there was a poor chump who's Chevy truck died on him due to electrical problems.

It sucks to be him.

 

I've got a set of what they call damaged lug nut sockets made by mac the'll get those stripped out lug nuts off,i'm sure they are the same thing that sears has some times I'll have to take a bfh and beat on the next size socket to get it to work just a thought Dave

 

Well gents, thanks for all the advice.
I went and bought a craftman(dremel) rotary tool and some reinforced wheel cut off disks and was able to get the stud off. Had to cut a little into the rim to get enough of th lug out to remove the wheel.
I bought a new stud at autozone for 1.50 but havent installed it yet.
I bought new tires today as well. Wally world LIBERATOR 31 x 50.10. Not really mud tires but have an aggressive tread that is good enough for the back roading I do. The 2 tires with warrenty and protection plan cost $195.00. Looked at BFG Long trails. Similar but more expensive. My front tires are GY Trackers 265 75 R 15s.
Now heres what I cant figure out. Im thinking 265s are smalller than 31s but yet are more expensive. Any Ideas?
I looked at the info on the door of the truck. The recommended size is 235 75 r 15. If my front tires were that size I would have gotten BFG All Terain T/As. But I didnt want to have smaller tres in the rear so I got what I could afford.
Well see how they work out.