Two steps to take if your truck's wheel falls off during a road journey
Having one of your truck's wheels fall off when you're driving can be a frightening experience. If you find yourself in this situation, here are two steps that you should take.
Call a mechanic that offers mobile truck repair services
When a person's car or other small vehicle breaks down on a road, they will usually have it towed it to a garage and get it fixed there. However, if your truck loses a wheel on a busy road, it is generally best to contact a mechanic that offers mobile truck repairs and get the issue resolved on the spot.
If the wheel has come off, it will not be possible to simply attach the truck to a towing vehicle and drag it to the local garage. The truck will be off balance due to its missing wheel and, as such, will not roll across the road surface. Instead, it would have to be loaded onto a very large flatbed of a semi-trailer tow truck. This may be hard to get, as a lot of towing companies do not use this type of vehicle for towing.
Even if you manage to find a company that has one of these vehicles available, it could take a long time for them to load and transport your truck. As such, in these circumstances, it would be far easier to simply get a truck repair specialist to travel to the spot where you have broken down and replace the wheel there and then.
Take your truck in for a full servicing as soon as possible
After the mechanic has replaced the wheel, you should arrange for them to service your truck as soon as possible. The wheel of a vehicle does not simply fall off for no apparent reason. This type of issue could mean that there is an problem with your truck that is causing the components that make up the wheel mounting system to deteriorate at a much faster rate than they are supposed to.
For example, it could mean that the lubricant that is supposed to protect the wheel bearings from abrasion and corrosion has become contaminated with debris that is reducing its efficacy. Alternatively, this issue may be the result of a problem with the vehicle's wheel alignment, which is leading to too much weight to be placed on the affected wheel.
Having the truck fully serviced will not only improve its general performance but will help you to get to the bottom of this issue and thus ensure that the root cause is identified and dealt with so that the wheel does not fall off again in the future.