How one user dodged this hidden hazard when towing a boat
When you are travelling down the highway at 100km an hour, towing a 3.5 tonne boat behind you, and carrying a weekend of memories with you, the five hour long journey home can be exhausting at the best of times.
Wheel Bearings can corrode very quickly.
The wheel bearings were not only just five months old, the owner of the boat is also meticulous in services and maintenance.
First up, a pit stop at the fuel station, briefly into the journey. Some snippets from the Wheel Sensei app road dashboard will show you what the driver was seeing.
Left Rear Wheel: 23.5 C
Driver undertook heavy braking with the onset of traffic.
Nothing seems wrong at all…. right?
Left Rear Wheel: 41.7C
Wheel Sensei started alerting to high temperatures
The driver was in heavy highway traffic with no where to pull over. Wheel Sensei alerted the driver and he started to look for a safe place to exit the highway
Left Rear Wheel: 61.5C
Temperature rose very quickly
The driver exited the highway and finally found a place to pull over. Although the hub was warm, there was no indication that of a bearing issue. Upon taking the wheel off, the bearing had completely collapsed.
Without Wheel Sensei the driver would have keep driving and would have lost a wheel or worse.
Left Rear Wheel: 116.8C
Here is the full timeline below...
If this driver had relied on hand checks at rest stops, they could never have predicted such a sudden change in conditions or the risk ahead. One minute the bearing was fine. Less than 20 minutes later it was falling apart.