On several large trucks, I have noticed that the wheel bolts all have what appears to be a plastic “teardrop” under the bolt-head. These are all aligned the same way, e.g. they all point to the clockwise direction.
What the heck are they? Do they have a function, or are they the trucker equivalent of the confetti streamers we used to attach to bike handlebars?
IIRC truck wheel rims are not like one-piece car rims. The outer edge that holds the tire on the wheel is a separate ring that is held in place by the tearshaped retainers you describe.
Many years ago 60 Minutes did a story about faulty rings or retainers that shot off the wheels killing truckdrivers as they inflated their tires.
Not sure, but IIRC the 60 Minutes piece was about multi-piece rims, something that was on the way out then and hasn’t really been an issue in recent years. My memory could be pretty faulty, as this was a while ago.
I had thought it was a safety-check system. There had been problems around here with wheels coming off moving trucks for a while.
With those little tabs, a truck driver can quickly inspect his wheels to see if any of the lug nuts (that hold the wheels on) are turning. If they are, it means they are loosening themsleves, and he should get it checked. Orienting them all the same way means he just has to glance at his wheel; if they’re all pointed clockwise, or all inward, or however he put them on, then they aren’t getting loose, and his wheel probably won’t come off.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen what the OP is desribing. I have seen the things that stuyguy mentioned, which are used to hold split-rim wheels together (like those on on older school buses and dump trucks), but I don’t think that’s what the OP is referring to.
It would make sense that they would be a way to check for lugs backing off. I’ve seen some tour buses where the mechanics took a paint marker and drew a line across the lug and the top of the stud, so you could see if the lug had loosened. Maybe these teardrops serve the same purpose.
-Andrew L
wolfstu’s got it:
That’s the gadget!! Thanks, Nametag and Wolfstu!
Huh. Never saw those things before.
A lot of the buses in the Toronto area have them…
Cool. An elegant device.
Wow. What an amazingly simple yet effective idea. One of those, “I wish I’da thought of it” sort of things. I used to work in a tire shop, and had never seen these before.
God damn, that’s ingenious. This is why God made patents. Somebody clever enough to come up with an idea like that freaking deserves to be the only one who is allowed to profit off of it, at least for a while!