Got my truck running really good after the plenum gasket change & tune up and used it to go to haul my Guitar amp Half stack & PA to band practice today and couldn't have been happier with my new 97 Ram until after practice I was heading down the Highway at 65 mph in the passing lane and it felt like my front left tire had gone flat and so I merged over 3 lanes to the side of the road to attempt to get out of the way of the 3 semi trucks behind me and as I got into the right lane my trucks front left side slammed to the ground at around 58mph and I knew I was in the $hit then! I grabbed the wheel hard & kept it straight and then drove it 3/4 of a mile on the highway at 35mph and another half mile off the off ramp and to the next parking lot I could find which happened to be the DMV.

As I got off the Off Ramp I noticed my front left wheel well was full of flames and I floored it to the next parking lot leaving quite the set of posi marks in the intersection. As I got into the DMV parking lot I got out and threw my cup of water from Mc Donalds on the flames but the result of that was equal to a band-aide on a gunshot wound....luckily at the time I realized I might lose my whole truck to a fire a guy slammed down a CASE of Bottled water and we put it out! My mom ended up finding the rim 20 feet inside the median on the highway. I heard a noise in front which I thought might be a wheel bearing in the few days prior to this, but after putting new lugs in and taking it apart in the parking lot I now believe it to have been caused by loose lugnuts, all of the lugs were sheared off! The previous owner said he replaced a wheel bearing on that side a year ago. Other than the slight wheel bearing sounding noise the truck drove great and had no weird vibrations or steering issues. After buying new lugs and a new rotor I was able to fix it in the DMV parking lot and drive the truck home.

So without further ado here are the pics!

 

Glad you are Ok

Q though wasn't there a shoulder on the Hwy/road to pull over onto?

Edit: Looking at the pix it looks like the studs broke, then the rotor cut the rim in two.

 

thats crazy! glad your ok

 

Holy crap dude! Glad you're safe. I would have needed new pants after that...

 

Second the motion.......

The rim left, and the tire stayed behind? That is just bizarre....... Glad you came out ok....... Gonna need some paint work on that fender? I hear gdstock is rather good at it.

 

Thanks for your concern guys, I'm glad to be alive, it could have easily turned bad to worse if it would have happened a 1/4 mile sooner when I was in the middle of those 3 semi trucks passing them.

I don't think anyone would have believed me without showing pics on this one lol I have no idea how a tire stays behind while a rim flies the coupe!. The fender & door is actually ok, I was able to wipe most of that smoke haze off, might give the truck a wax job today. As scary as losing a rim at 65mph sounds it actually wasn't all as bad as I had imagined to steer once the rim actually flew off, initially when the tire felt like it blew it was a real monster to handle but after the rotor cut through the rim and it flew off, the rotor & truck basically became a 5000lb snowmobile & ski!. I'd compare it to trying to drive a snowmobile over blacktop & steering with any degree of acuracy. Maybe it was adrenaline or I had devine help and pure luck? I think it was all of the above, because things like this usually don't end so well, I'm also glad it didn't happen on a corner.

After the fact was tough for about 30-45 seconds when my Mc Donalds water glass was not enough to put the fire out, I almost had to come to grips that after epically saving my truck from a complete rim failure at 65mph on the highway I would come that far as to lose my truck and all my band equipment & prized guitar all at the same time to a fire!. Thank God there was somebody there with a case of bottled water to instantly react like that & help me put the fire out!.

Thanks ....There was a shoulder but I thought it was safer to get it off the highway completely, it was quite busy at 6pm, I only realized the tire was on fire after I got to the bottum of the highway off ramp, so I thought I'd find a place out of the road way to get it to. Looking back I don't think I'd change a thing, it all worked out pretty much the only way it could have possibly worked out for the better.

Damage wise, its probably going to need a new hub, it wore through 30% of the brake rotor so I had to buy a new one and also new studs & lugs, the big job is going to be replacing that hub, it wore into the bottum of the lower ball joint!

 

May wanna replace that ball joint too.....

 

Wow. Big props to the handling of the situation and fortunate it resulted in no injuries.

People might want to take from this that when there is a knocking/grinding/gritty sound coming from the wheel....check them unit bearing SOBs!!

Check your lug nut torques. Coincidentally, my rear lug nuts loosened up on me. Got the ticking going on when coming into the neighborhood. whew! But I was like...seriously? lol

I also think everyone should carry a fire extinguisher considering the age of these 2nd Gen trucks.


I do think that ball joint will buff out though.

 

Wow, great save on the truck. Im suprised the tire didnt catch fire, hell suprised it stayed after the rim. This makes me want to check my truck over now being same year before that happens. I know I have a wheel bearing out but I better check everything else when I get the front end redone this weekend

 

Glad your ok. And good job parking between the lines. ;-)