I already knew (from ‘O’ level physics 30-odd years ago) that copper was a better conductor of heat (and elctricity) than aluminium. Aluminium was used in wiring simply because it was significantly cheaper than copper (and a bit lighter). Aluminium is much lighter than steel, but AIUI does not recover anywhere near as well when stressed, which makes it less suitable as a material for wheels. Nothing to do with Google.
nick2008:
Chas:
Copper is a brilliantly fantastic metalso whats the metal in paper money used for
alamcculloch:
Some of the car makers are saying they have done away with spare wheels because of the difficulty of gett ing wheels off.When two or more dissimilar metals are put together corrosion takes place.
Benevolent of them thinking of the children, that howler can only have been dreamed up by a politician.
Nothing to do with saving hundreds of thousands of pounds then, those worthless toy pumps and thick pee solution cost pennies, every little helps their profits apparently.
Most amazing thing is that people fall for the scam and are prepared to buy a car with no spare wheel at all, idiots.
Wouldn’t be any trouble at all removing wheels if cars were still serviced properly, problem being a modern car can go several years before the wheels get removed at all, the modern grease monkey’s (except they don’t use grease any more) idea of brake maintenance is to spray brake cleaner at the caliper and peer at the pads through and from behind the wheel, proper dismantling cleaning inspecting lubricating is only now done by real mechanics and blokes who do things themselves cos they want a proper job doing.
The problem is that the focus and obsession with wheel security has led to an environment where it’s considered that the use of a torque wrench twice is the be all and end all of wheel security, particularly with the now common phrase ‘re-torquing’. With some foolish companies having drivers constantly torquing wheel nuts.
In my view if they tighten and don’t break the back of the Norbar straightaway the second time you check them after a short drive the wheel wasn’t on right and you should take it off and start again giving the mating surfaces a more thorough clean.
Simon:
I didn’t say wheel rims thin out over time, I was repeating Bkings claim in amazement.
Then I said why they didn’t thin out over time, except negligibly over a very long time scale.
NO, you didn’t.
You attempted to scientifically explain why wheel nuts on LGV’s become loose without having even the most basic understanding of why they become loose.
P.S. It’s not this area of interest that got me my Ph.D. But at least I have a clue about why wheels are coming loose (& killing people).
You don’t.
Either leave it at that, or be prepared to debate the subject from an informed position.
Juddian:
alamcculloch:
Some of the car makers are saying they have done away with spare wheels because of the difficulty of gett ing wheels off.When two or more dissimilar metals are put together corrosion takes place.Benevolent of them thinking of the children, that howler can only have been dreamed up by a politician.
Nothing to do with saving hundreds of thousands of pounds then, those worthless toy pumps and thick pee solution cost pennies, every little helps their profits apparently.
Most amazing thing is that people fall for the scam and are prepared to buy a car with no spare wheel at all, idiots.
Wouldn’t be any trouble at all removing wheels if cars were still serviced properly, problem being a modern car can go several years before the wheels get removed at all, the modern grease monkey’s (except they don’t use grease any more) idea of brake maintenance is to spray brake cleaner at the caliper and peer at the pads through and from behind the wheel, proper dismantling cleaning inspecting lubricating is only now done by real mechanics and blokes who do things themselves cos they want a proper job doing.
In fairness it might also be about keeping the weight down and official fuel economy figures for the car up now fuel costs what it does.
To be honest, wheels on a lorry trailer can stay on for a surprisingly long time depending on the work it’s on. I do put copper slip on the back of the alloy wheels where they mount on the hub as they can be murder to get off if you don’t on my Land Rovers. Never had too much problem with lorry wheels the worst are the small steel rims on stepframes and low loaders which can be very firmly corroded on.
Chas:
Simon:
I didn’t say wheel rims thin out over time, I was repeating Bkings claim in amazement.
Then I said why they didn’t thin out over time, except negligibly over a very long time scale.NO, you didn’t.
You attempted to scientifically explain why wheel nuts on LGV’s become loose without having even the most basic understanding of why they become loose.
P.S. It’s not this area of interest that got me my Ph.D. But at least I have a clue about why wheels are coming loose (& killing people).
You don’t.
Either leave it at that, or be prepared to debate the subject from an informed position.
Sorry but your Ph.D seems to failing you there as what he wrote is contrary to what you are claiming.
I think it’s more to do with the space taken up by a spare wheel. Modern cars have enormously wide tyres and many cars simply don’t have room to stow a spare.
Thinking about it, I’ve been driving cars and motorbikes for over 35 years now and I don’t think I’ve ever had to change a wheel at the roadside.
Chas:
Simon:
I didn’t say wheel rims thin out over time, I was repeating Bkings claim in amazement.
Then I said why they didn’t thin out over time, except negligibly over a very long time scale.NO, you didn’t.
You attempted to scientifically explain why wheel nuts on LGV’s become loose without having even the most basic understanding of why they become loose.
P.S. It’s not this area of interest that got me my Ph.D. But at least I have a clue about why wheels are coming loose (& killing people).
You don’t.
Either leave it at that, or be prepared to debate the subject from an informed position.
Best you re-read what it was I actually wrote, rather than simply quoting it and saying it’s wrong.
Simon:
I didn’t say wheel rims thin out over time, I was repeating Bkings claim in amazement.
Then I said why they didn’t thin out over time, except negligibly over a very long time scale.
As wheels don’t appreciably thin out over time, that is clearly not the reason why wheel nuts come loose.
I then pointed out it’s our responsibility to check they are not loose anyway.
OK, I got carried away when I added “better than copper” just before I posted it up 
.
Wheels come off because they are not Torqued properly.
I worked for FR Cawleys, transferring waste from waste sites to landfills for a few years, started about 1998, drove a F10 with the same pushout trailer hooked up 99% of the time.
I’d been doing it for about 6 months when I noticed a rear wheel on the trailer was wobbling, on closer inspection the wheel nuts were loose. Knackered the wheel & nuts as it had been running fully freighted.
Confession Time-
Back then, there was very little training & we didn’t even fill out check sheets in the mornings & I know for a fact that I didn’t thoroughly check the vehicle, just got in, checked the lights & drove off !
Taught me a Big Lesson, Always-Always torque the wheels to the correct setting after a puncture or tyre change & Always-Always re-check after 50-60 miles.
I must have had around 500 punctures (at least 1 a week if not more/Bloody Landfills) & I’m an expert in using torque wrenches & would often find that a wheel/especially one of the rear doubles would tighten up a little on the re-check. Possibly down to the amount of times the Bloody wheels came off for punctures & stretching the threads.
I even re-torqued the wheels on my new TGX the first week (a couple of weeks ago) that I had it & the rear axle wheel nuts nipped up slightly, the second time I checked it they were solid.
When I was on for FR Cawleys, we had an 8 wheel tipper that was forever getting loose wheel nuts on the rear axle, I think that was down to the two wheels moving against each other or it had elongated holes for the studs to poke through.
Visually Check 'Em every day & even grab hold of them, when I was on Serco I’ve found loose wheel nuts whilst they were out on the rounds (we used to do spot checks) so they weren’t checked before they left the depot. Torque the wheels after a tyre change & re-torque around 50-60 miles or at the very least the end of shift.
Professional Drivers need to stop Bull [zb] their way out of the loose wheel debate & get real before someone else gets killed. 
Chas:
Simon:
Oh? You think so?
So what exactly is the correct info and what qualifies you to say so?Where would you like me to start?
Lets start with your explanation of how wheel rims thin out over time allowing the wheel nuts to work loose.
I have a Ph.D in an engineering discipline. You may call me Dr. Chas if you wish but I’m the last person to insist that you do that.
Galvanic corrosion indeed
Does phd mean knows [zb] all because most the pillocks I ever met with one are all wind and pee.
When did you last remove a wheel or did you do it behind or in front of a desk.
Dont tell me my job Mr PHD I do it every bloody day.
Would rather have some grease monkey like me come out and repair your truck than some jerk with letters after his name who knows jack [zb]
Those words are set to be caught by the auto censor, so altering their spelling doesn’t suddenly make them allowable. dd.
Could someone clarify, is Ross v Stobart a real person or an [zb] troll, I have yet to understand any of his posts, or, is it me?, if it is me, well [zb] Ross v Stobart.
Sapper
Those words are set to be caught by the auto censor, so altering their spelling doesn’t suddenly make them allowable. dd.
I think there’s also a connection concerning the issue of securing double wheel sets with one set of nuts securing the outer wheel and also the inner.Which would explain why it’s usually that scenario of twin wheels on the back of trucks or trailers very rarely if ever steers or rear singles being lost.Which would also explain why in some cases designers felt the need to secure inners with a stud which also acted as a bolt for the inner and the nut on the stud only held the outer.
I thought that copper reacted with aluminium. Seems to be the case that if copaslip has been used on mild steel bolts passing through an aluminium engine coolant rail that the ally housing corrodes given time.
It takes less than 5 minutes to visibly check your wheel nuts.
Any signs of wear and tear should easily come to light.
However if operators could afford it,there’s some company’s specialising in wheel loss prevention.
sapper:
Could someone clarify, is Ross v Stobart a real person or an [zb] troll, I have yet to understand any of his posts, or, is it me?, if it is me, well [zb] Ross v Stobart.Sapper
Those words are set to be caught by the auto censor, so altering their spelling doesn’t suddenly make them allowable. dd.
Ross V Stobart is the love child of Toby and Fuse 
I’ve read through this thread,and nobody has mentioned…
As I see it,a build-up of rust on the mating surfaces of two drive axle wheels is one of the causes.
Often,when a pair of wheels are removed,you’ll find a huge amount of thick rust between the mating surfaces.
This, if not fully cleaned off with a sanding disc, will slowly crush after torqueing,loosening
the wheels within a few miles.Re-torqueing won’t help either.
If your wheel nuts move at a re-torque, remove them,and find out why.
This rust build-up doesn’t happen so much,if at all, on single axles as the steel used on the hub
is different to the wheel steel.
206doorman:
I’ve read through this thread,and nobody has mentioned…As I see it,a build-up of rust on the mating surfaces of two drive axle wheels is one of the causes.
Often,when a pair of wheels are removed,you’ll find a huge amount of thick rust between the mating surfaces.
This, if not fully cleaned off with a sanding disc, will slowly crush after torqueing,loosening
the wheels within a few miles.Re-torqueing won’t help either.If your wheel nuts move at a re-torque, remove them,and find out why.
This rust build-up doesn’t happen so much,if at all, on single axles as the steel used on the hub
is different to the wheel steel.
People have mentioned the mating surfaces dozens of times, and the fact that the surface should not be painted. it is just that the OP seems to be on a bonus to start irrelevant threads. Wheel loss is an age old problem that has been discussed to infinity and back.
If the wheels are coming loose, they are easy to spot by the rusty marks, until you put those silly chrome covers on.