Offroad-Express

Light Vehicle Rim Cracking

Mine Type: All Surface Mines
Incident: While towing a trailer with a four wheel drive vehicle, the driver noticed a change to the
steering. A check revealed one of the wheel rims had split. An investigation at the mine then discovered
many light vehicle rims were also cracked, but to a lesser extent.

Equipment: Drop centre 16x7 SUNRAYSIA style wheel rims for use on four wheel drive vehicles.
Hazard: Rim failure can cause loss of control of the vehicle, which may result in collision or rollover,
with a high potential for impact injury to the occupants
Cause: Fatigue cracking, initiating on the internally facing side of the rim, around the base of the
spokes.
Comments: There are a number of manufacturers and styles of this type of rim collectively known as
SUNRAYSIA. Some of these may not be designed for the duty required at a mine site.
Recommendations:
• Identify vehicles with SUNRAYSIA style rims; remove and inspect the internal rim face for cracking.
• Check with Original Equipment Manufacturers on the style of rim suitable for the required duty.
• Replace all cracked or suspect rims with only that style of rim identified above.

The full bulletin and pictures can be downloaded from...

http://www.mediafire.com/?g10ytjyzmdi

Peter your link has nothing uploaded in it.
A quick Google search shows the original at;
http://www.dme.qld.gov.au/zone_files/Mines_Teri/safety_alert211.pdf

Interesting to see this is with steel rims!

Similar issue with Alloys
I have a friend here in Chch who broke his neck due to an aftermarket Alloy rim fatigue failure on a long wheel base Safari.
Yoda regularly tows his Class 8 Thunder Truck off-roader on a trailer with the Safari.
He bought the Safi as a tow vehicle and this is as near to off-roading that the Safi does.
A couple of years back whilst towing the Thunder Truck one of the rear alloy rims failed similarly to the photo in the link above. The fatigue crack started at the circumference of the internal side bolting up face. He lost the wheel which put him in a large ditch at 80kms/h. Soon a cross-culvert flipped the vehicle onto its roof. The roof collapsed towards the Chassis as did his neck! The seat base was pushed down into the floor.
Yoda was trapped in the Safi which soon caught fire.
Thankfully some passers by and a mate following managed to put the fire out, potentially saving his life.
Yoda spent some time in traction but made a reasonably full recovery. You will have seen him since then racing his Holden chassied / Ford Falcon Ute with turboed Lexus at some of the big north island events.

At the time the transport division of the police were looking at prosecuting him. This did not happen and in my opinion was ridiculous! The vehicle load was not over weight.
They kept the remains of the wheel so unfortunately I did not get to examine nor photograph it
His description of the crack definitely pointed towards a fatigue scenario.
Yoda's conclusion was that he would never use alloy rims on his tow vehicles again.

My conclusion as a Mechanical Engineer; if you use alloy rims the check them regularly for cracking.
Fatigue cracking happens due to a cyclic phenomenon which runs into millions of cycles. This means that initially the crack will propagate slowly. This has reminded me to check my rims (internal side) every warrant time and also once between warrants.
I.E. For average to hard use Check your alloy rims every 3 months.

It looks as though this would be a good idea for Steel rims as well.

IcedJohnno wrote:Peter your link has nothing uploaded in it.
A quick Google search shows the original at;
http://www.dme.qld.gov.au/zone_files/Mines_Teri/safety_alert211.pdf

Interesting to see this is with steel rims!

Similar issue with Alloys
I have a friend here in Chch who broke his neck due to an aftermarket Alloy rim fatigue failure on a long wheel base Safari.
Yoda regularly tows his Class 8 Thunder Truck off-roader on a trailer with the Safari.
He bought the Safi as a tow vehicle and this is as near to off-roading that the Safi does.
A couple of years back whilst towing the Thunder Truck one of the rear alloy rims failed similarly to the photo in the link above. The fatigue crack started at the circumference of the internal side bolting up face. He lost the wheel which put him in a large ditch at 80kms/h. Soon a cross-culvert flipped the vehicle onto its roof. The roof collapsed towards the Chassis as did his neck! The seat base was pushed down into the floor.
Yoda was trapped in the Safi which soon caught fire.
Thankfully some passers by and a mate following managed to put the fire out, potentially saving his life.
Yoda spent some time in traction but made a reasonably full recovery. You will have seen him since then racing his Holden chassied / Ford Falcon Ute with turboed Lexus at some of the big north island events.

At the time the transport division of the police were looking at prosecuting him. This did not happen and in my opinion was ridiculous! The vehicle load was not over weight.
They kept the remains of the wheel so unfortunately I did not get to examine nor photograph it
His description of the crack definitely pointed towards a fatigue scenario.
Yoda's conclusion was that he would never use alloy rims on his tow vehicles again.

My conclusion as a Mechanical Engineer; if you use alloy rims the check them regularly for cracking.
Fatigue cracking happens due to a cyclic phenomenon which runs into millions of cycles. This means that initially the crack will propagate slowly. This has reminded me to check my rims (internal side) every warrant time and also once between warrants.
I.E. For average to hard use Check your alloy rims every 3 months.

It looks as though this would be a good idea for Steel rims as well.

Sorry about the bump.... but is that guy with the broken neck living in waiwera? I think i bought a safari front diff off him a month or two back.

Where is Waiwera?
Yoda (Brian) lives in Christchurch. He sells auto parts and lights, so you may have bought Safi parts off him. These days you would not know that he had compressed his spine.

argh ok, sorry.

bought some parts from a bloke just north of Auckland who had exactly the same story. He used to race winch challenge trucks and broke his spine when he rolled one day. He now has a few falcons that him and his partner race.