Darwin Award Thread

[Fawnbuster]

We had a single vehicle motor cycle crash out on a flat long country road one summer afternoon. One of our deputies also owned a Honda MC dealership and he was able to help figure out what failed. This young man decided to take his bike apart and make some alterations one of which was attaching and plumbing a nitrous oxide tank to his gas tank. When he got up to speed he hit the nitro button and promptly snapped the front axle bolt that holds the front wheel on, the wheel fell off and his front forks impaled into the asphalt. The bike stayed right there. The driver went over the bars and went airborne head first, let's just say that the utility pole won the impact. He was estimated to be traveling well over 125 mph on impact.
Turns out that for whatever reason he did not use the oem axle bolt and replaced it with a common bolt sold at hardware stores.

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[P. A. Schilke]

not a fan off spacers either. esp not when lives could be at risk.

Hi Mark

I just added a video of the flat track machine...

Best,
Phil

 

[Fawnbuster]

Holy BBQ Batman, those flames look so real!

 

[Fawnbuster]

Dangerous .

Note to self, never voluntarily park near a Tesla

 

[Fawnbuster]

Was NOT expecting that!

I've worked several fatalities and bad injury crashes where the driver and or passenger got ejected and run over by there own vehicle. Most times the vehicle could be driven home..

Edit: I meant to add that those ejected did not have a seatbelt on.

 

[Radioman]

I also thought of Wheel Spacers, of which I am not a fan. What I think happened might be a bit different though. I have seen so many wheel separations, many when I was racing in SCCA events. Many times you look at the after wheel separation event and all the wheel studs are sheared off. However we duplicated this in the test lab on the flat track with instrumented wheel studs, (pricey little devils at $5,000 each including wiring to attach to slip rings on the head of the flat track machine. We could turn the wheel on the flat track, (a huge inverted Belt Sander like device with an A frame over it with a hydraulic ram to which is attached a spindle from the vehicle, Ranger, F150 etc. What we found watching the stud strains was one stud let go so the other studs increased in strain as a result and then another stud failed and increased the load on the remaining studs and at that point the remaining studs gave up and catastrophic failure occurred and the wheel left the spindle and crashed into the safety cage around the flat track machine. It happens so fast that you think all the studs failed at the same time, but this is not the case... Analysis after shows two different failures...Tensile failure and then shear failure...

This is one reason I am against wheel spacers. The other is too many joints. Wheel to rotor changes to Wheel to spacer and spacer to rotor...

Okay... I retreat to the flame proof bunker as the Rangers running spacers will start with their no problem with my Ranger rant...

I am not here on these forums as a popularity contest but to give back on 30 years of experiences in the behind the scenes realm of automotive engineering.

Best,
Phil

Thanks for the response Phil and for the video. Very interesting; I am impressed with the testing ability.

I, for one, have always appreciated your learned input and have gained knowledge from you postings.

From what I could see, it could have been a problem with the wheel studs or the axle, or ???. I'm glad that there weren't any other vehicles involved and that the drivers were able to "walk away".

I also live in the Jeep world where many install thick wheel spacers and heavy offset wheels to extend the width of the Jeeps footprint. This, I believe, adds extra strain on the axle, sometimes resulting in failures.

 

[9zero1790]

I also thought of Wheel Spacers, of which I am not a fan. What I think happened might be a bit different though. I have seen so many wheel separations, many when I was racing in SCCA events. Many times you look at the after wheel separation event and all the wheel studs are sheared off. However we duplicated this in the test lab on the flat track with instrumented wheel studs, (pricey little devils at $5,000 each including wiring to attach to slip rings on the head of the flat track machine. We could turn the wheel on the flat track, (a huge inverted Belt Sander like device with an A frame over it with a hydraulic ram to which is attached a spindle from the vehicle, Ranger, F150 etc. What we found watching the stud strains was one stud let go so the other studs increased in strain as a result and then another stud failed and increased the load on the remaining studs and at that point the remaining studs gave up and catastrophic failure occurred and the wheel left the spindle and crashed into the safety cage around the flat track machine. It happens so fast that you think all the studs failed at the same time, but this is not the case... Analysis after shows two different failures...Tensile failure and then shear failure...

This is one reason I am against wheel spacers. The other is too many joints. Wheel to rotor changes to Wheel to spacer and spacer to rotor...

Okay... I retreat to the flame proof bunker as the Rangers running spacers will start with their no problem with my Ranger rant...

I am not here on these forums as a popularity contest but to give back on 30 years of experiences in the behind the scenes realm of automotive engineering.




Best,
Phil

wow i kept waiting for the tire to give up. it deformed so much during the testing.

 

[subquark]

Wholly Crap! You posted this on my birthday and I missed it.

Crud, I'm going to go out and tighten all my lug nuts right now!!!

 

[AzScorpion]

Wholly Crap! You posted this on my birthday and I missed it.

Crud, I'm going to go out and tighten all my lug nuts right now!!!

Happy Belated Birthday David!

I hope your year is fulled with many joyful dump runs with visions of Graphene and Dampers filling your dreams.?

It's the best I could do on such short notice. ?

 

[subquark]

Happy Belated Birthday David!

I hope your year is fulled with many joyful dump runs with visions of Graphene and Dampers filling your dreams.?

It's the best I could do on such short notice. ?

It's a beautiful cake, thank you Dave! =)

And I may have to get a belated birthday present, inspired by you, it's looking like this for my dashcam - thanks for all of your insight and help! Which is a pretty awesome present in, and of, itself! =)

https://www.blackboxmycar.com/produ...nnel-dash-cam-with-gps?variant=40035753132087

 

[AzScorpion]

It's a beautiful cake, thank you Dave! =)

And I may have to get a belated birthday present, inspired by you, it's looking like this for my dashcam - thanks for all of your insight and help! Which is a pretty awesome present in, and of, itself! =)

https://www.blackboxmycar.com/produ...nnel-dash-cam-with-gps?variant=40035753132087

I'm always happy to help when I can. Especially spending other peoples money. ? I'm 99% sure I'll be getting this one too. Just with the extended warranty this time. lol

 

[subquark]

I'm always happy to help when I can. Especially spending other peoples money. ? I'm 99% sure I'll be getting this one too. Just with the extended warranty this time. lol

I saw that it uses a capacitor and has a built-in fan. I think it also said up to 65°C (149°F) which is probably not as hot as even a white Ranger will get at your house.

Did you have window deflectors on your old one? I swear by them, mainly from my years in Houston and Dallas. Don't really need them now, but I do like to leave my windows cracked most of the summer. Of course, I wouldn't expect a kewl kat like you to get my old school ginormous ones, but there are some nice slim ones.

Your' frigging heat is insane!

 

[AzScorpion]

I saw that it uses a capacitor and has a built-in fan. I think it also said up to 65°C (149°F) which is probably not as hot as even a white Ranger will get at your house.

Did you have window deflectors on your old one? I swear by them, mainly from my years in Houston and Dallas. Don't really need them now, but I do like to leave my windows cracked most of the summer. Of course, I wouldn't expect a kewl kat like you to get my old school ginormous ones, but there are some nice slim ones.

Your' frigging heat is insane!

I do have a window shield but with the cam in front of it it really wouldn't make any difference. I think they raised the heat rating on the Viofo because when I was looking at them the Thinkware was the highest rated one at the time so that's why I spent the extra money for it.

 

[subquark]

I do have a window shield but with the cam in front of it it really wouldn't make any difference. I think they raised the heat rating on the Viofo because when I was looking at them the Thinkware was the highest rated one at the time so that's why I spent the extra money for it.

I was using BlackboxMyCar but also went over to the Viofo site (looking for a longer front cable for my kooky fixation of the center console 12 volt) and saw this remote Bluetooth button for $18.

Would make sense for me, it would be a good stretch to look for and reach the cam itself. Gee, with it's range I could mount a button on the bed for those extra special dump captures! Hmm, my brilliance even blinds me at times! =p

https://viofo.com/accessories/90-vi...9-prot130a119-minia229wm1-series-dashcam.html

 

[AzScorpion]

I was using BlackboxMyCar but also went over to the Viofo site (looking for a longer front cable for my kooky fixation of the center console 12 volt) and saw this remote Bluetooth button for $18.

Would make sense for me, it would be a good stretch to look for and reach the cam itself. Gee, with it's range I could mount a button on the bed for those extra special dump captures! Hmm, my brilliance even blinds me at times! =p

https://viofo.com/accessories/90-vi...9-prot130a119-minia229wm1-series-dashcam.html

That's pretty cool I'll have to check it out more. Thx!

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