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Chevy Silverado Loses Front Wheel, Sends It Into Ram Pickup: Video

Although it may not be immediately obvious, runaway wheels can be exceedingly dangerous. Not only do they weigh a lot, with the average passenger vehicle wheel-and-tire combo tipping the scales at 50 pounds or more, but the fact that they’re round and traveling at speed means they can be quite mobile as well. Now, we’re watching as a Chevy Silverado loses one of its front wheels, which then slams into an oncoming Ram pickup, as seen in the following video.

Dash cam footage from a video showing a Chevy Silverado losing a wheel.

Clocking in at about a minute-and-a-half, the video was captured by two dash cams equipped by the Ram pickup. The video opens with the front view of the Ram truck, showing a winding, two-lane rural road. We see the Ram pickup slowly maneuver around a left-hand corner running parallel to a hillside. Conditions are dry, while the sky is overcast.

In the other lane, we see a Chevy Silverado driving in the opposite direction. Suddenly, the Chevy Silverado appears to collapse around the driver-side front wheel. We see the wheel detach from the truck, rolling at high speed right towards the Ram pickup.

The driver in the Ram pickup has no time to react, uttering a quick profanity before the Silverado wheel slams into the front end of their pickup. We see the Chevy Silverado slide by in the opposing lane, tearing up the road as it rides on the driver-side front brake rotor.

The wheel hits the pickup and bounces forward, dribbling on the hillside momentarily before launching into the air as the Ram comes to a stop. The Ram driver wonders where the wheel went. The second view reveals the wheel bouncing high over the Ram truck before rolling down the hill.

Later in the video, we see the damage done, which appears to show the Ram’s front end dented and the bumper smashed in. According to the video description, the Chevy Silverado driver needed a new wheel spindle for their truck, but decided to drive to the parts store anyway, resulting in the accident.

Check out the full video right here:

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Jonathan is an automotive journalist based out of Southern California. He loves anything and everything on four wheels.

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Comments

  1. That’s rude.

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  2. OUCH!!!!
    Silverado, just came back from mudding or a very well cared for truck… ha•••••
    Spindle still intact BUT NOT A LUGNUT TO BE SEEN????
    RAM LUCKY it didn’t come thru his windshield!!!!

    Reply
    1. It’s 4wd so no spindle. Lugs are not broken so moron must have put bolts on by hand only

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  3. Stupid asses everywhere. I’ve seen many fatal collisions from runaway wheels.

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    1. What are the odds the victim would be filming this as it happened? Seems fishy to me

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      1. Nothing “fishy” at all. That’s what dash cams are meant for. Continuous loop recording because you never know when something’s going to happen. Saved my butt a few times over the years. Have them in all of my vehicles.

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        1. which brand?

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      2. @charles Blackburn It is called technology grasshopper, Technology. It is not 1950 anymore.

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      3. Logged in just to thumb down your comment.
        Hope you recover from your brain injury some day.

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        1. Used a wrench to tighten your lug nuts. Don’t be lazy people.

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      4. Everything is not always fishy and has something behind it. The ram owner has what’s called a dash camera and records continuously for incidents like this. That way he has proof for his insurance company or the police. But we wouldn’t have the drama if we didn’t think something was fishy, would we.

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  4. It’s called a dashcam.

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  5. Can’t Dodge it Ram it!!!

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  6. Had a wheel come off my truck on the way home from getting news tires. Mechanic forgot to tighten left front wheel. Luckily I went home side streets and not the highway. Never felt it till it came off. Thank goodness it missed everything. Scary stuff.

    Reply
    1. As a mechanic myself, that’s the reason when ever I have tires/wheels off a vehicle for ANY reason, I hand torque with a torque wrench.

      Reply
  7. Charles Blackburn are you serious? It’s a dashcam. And they would have to be pretty dam good scientists to calculate the timing of impact if it was staged.

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  8. Why didn’t the owner of the Silverado ask a friend to take him to the local parts store, so he could get a new spindle for his front left wheel? Luckily the Ram suffered some damage from the runaway wheel, however, this could’ve been a lot worse, if that wheel had come through the front windshield, and hit the driver of the Ram.

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  9. Not good reporting, can plainly see that spindle, rotor and caliper are intact. All wheel nuts are gone causing the lost wheel. Would have been much worse if spindle had broken. Double the weight so more damage to the Ram and the Chev would have been riding on the lower control arm unable to steer probably would have gone over the bank at the side of the road.

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  10. Funny someone here didn’t know about dashcams.

    Um it’s fishy police have them then too huh?

    They are literally $50 and record over themselves when full. A memory. Card is like $10 and will record hours of video before recording over again. They turn on when car starts (12v cigarette socket for you old heads) and turn off once they lose power.

    I’ve had one in my wife’s car for about 10 years now. Hers is a Garmin and was $100.

    Many cars now even have an option for built in dashcam.

    How can this person never seen the Russian dashcam on the Internet videos? They are all over and hilarious. Motorcyclists have them on their go pros as well for over a decade.

    Reply
  11. He probably took the wheel off to work on the rotor or brakes. He forgot to tighten the lug nuts. He was just using the rotor to cover up his stupidity. He’s very lucky he didn’t hurt someone or he would be in jail.

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  12. clearly a well maintained truck that has never been abused. it was just getting its mud spa treatment that day. completely unrelated to parts falling off it

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  13. 25 years ago when trucks where still built like trucks that wheel would have bounced off that bumper and all there would have been is a black tire mark truck front bumpers are way to thin I put a bull bar on my ram

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    1. yes and in a wreck your head would have bounced 600 feet into a ravine. crumple zone, impact absorption, g forces. what are all those things.

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      1. Wrong it’s not called crumble zones the reason front and rear bumpers are now paper thin these days it’s the automakers quest to lighten up parts to satisfy the governments gas mileage requirements .your a bright one lol

        Reply
  14. To me looks like left lugnuts loose. Which to me the driver of the Chevy felt that wobble before he got to any speed.

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  15. Probably an unsuitable aftermarket wheel, based on rear rim on the truck. Doesn’t look OEM to me.

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  16. As others have pointed out has nothing to do with the spindle as its there along with the axle nut, wheel bearing, ball joints, tie rod end, rotor etc. Just the wheel is gone. Tells me they didn’t tighten the lugnuts. The other thing that to me is VERY odd is the brakes. That is NOT what normal pads look like. It seems to be something to essentially disable the ability to brake giving the caliper something to push against but not letting it touch the rotor. Given the small millimeters of clearance there, there is NO WAY that hunk of fabricated metal would fit plus pads. May have been a contributing factor.

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  17. Everybody focussing on the wheel, while the idiot in Ram is taking a U turn on a blind curve in a hilly area on solid double yellow lines where people are already driving over 40mph. Could have easily made it worse.

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  18. Some people are just plain blind and uneducated when it comes to technology.

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  19. Spindle still on Chevy as we can still see the spindle nut and the brake rotor. The Chevy appears to have been playing in mud and probably had to change that tire for some reason like getting a tree branch jammed into the tire or other debris. I’d bet that whoever messed with the tire didn’t torque down the lug nuts. All the studs are intact. Reading fake stories is nothing new, I’ve seen a story about a power wagon having a bent front axle from doing a big jump and landing hard then look at pictures and it’s my truck that got a bent axle from a front end collision with a Toyota truck on my way to work.

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  20. We’ll never know the reason why all six lug nuts left their studs at the same time. But it is safe to assume that the likely reasons as to why they came off are known to the driver/owner.

    Direction of the driver side rim moving forward is counter-clockwise, the same direction a lug nut turns when said lug nut is taken off the rim….

    Reply
  21. ALWAYS torque your lug nuts.
    Also, if you off road check the torque before and after.

    Reply
  22. Chevrolet quality is not what it use to be

    Reply
  23. Looks like to me
    the lug nuts we’re gone

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  24. It takes a real dumb a** to think that somebody staged that and timed it just perfect to be able to record that. And it is most certainly not due to a bad spindle, considering the rotor, caliper and spindle, are all still in place along with all of the studs so it is due to lug nuts backing off and allowing the wheel to come loose. But let’s automatically jump to its suspicious and I did it on purpose because we wouldn’t have the drama if we didn’t do that would we.

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  25. Had a few GMs and it was always countless wheel bearings and tie rod ends with them along with alternators and heater cores. Would never own one again

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  26. Probably had the tire lug nuts overtorqued to the point that the stud bolts were damaged. People that install wheels when rotating them, or installing new tires rarely use a torque wrench. When the stud bolts are cracked or damaged from using an air pressured wrench this is to be expected.

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  27. Spindle!?! I’m laughing on the inside here only. Evidence shows me of no such cause for what has happened. The fact that I’m looking at a front driver’s side missing tire/wheel combo while all 6 studs are in tact, but the lug(nuts) all are on holiday(probably laying in driveway or inside the missing cap that covers the spindle nut sz35 or 36mm.
    Yup, sometimes it really pays to bring it to a mechanic certified in fixing our vehicles. This could a been much worse is truest statement I’ve read in comments.

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  28. If the lug nuts had been loose or missing the wheel would have come off a lot sooner, and If loose the driver would have noticed the vehicle shaking on his steering wheel. Damage to the threads on the studs from overtorquing is common without breaking them and the lug nuts would then fly off along with the wheel. If overtorquing was not a danger and a problem manufacturers of vehicles would not give specific torque measurements for the lug nuts on their vehicles.

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  29. Ram owner must of had a Go Pro Camera. Insurance companies are offering discounts for drivers having Go Pro cameras in their vehicles. Very dangerous situation, luckily they didn’t have a head on collision.

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  30. A few years ago we were following a new motorhome a few miles south of the factory in Elklhart, IN. Then, the two duel wheels on the rear passenger side came off. The motorhome immediately stopped, of course, and we stopped, too, right behind it. The driver got out, looked at the hub, and told us it was the wrong hub, should have had LH threads. He said that was the second time that had happened. Who knew?

    Reply
  31. I know right where that is hurricane Utah heading towards Colorado City

    Reply

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