Split Ring Horror??

I understand the difference between split ring and split rim wheels and the dangers involved with airing them up. Both have been covered extensively on this site.
But given the age of our rigs and unknown factors of abuse, corrosion and metal fatigue, are there examples of "split ring" failure in situations other than airing up?

Wreckclues said:

I understand the difference between split ring and split rim wheels and the dangers involved with airing them up. Both have been covered extensively on this site.
But given the age of our rigs and unknown factors of abuse, corrosion and metal fatigue, are there examples of "split ring" failure in situations other than airing up?

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Not that I have heard of...
Getting the ring seated correctly is the key.

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Wreckclues said:

I understand the difference between split ring and split rim wheels and the dangers involved with airing them up. Both have been covered extensively on this site.
But given the age of our rigs and unknown factors of abuse, corrosion and metal fatigue, are there examples of "split ring" failure in situations other than airing up?

Click to expand...

From my limited experience, there are a couple times when the split ring can bite. The first is a ring failure during air up. This can be caused by failure to seat the ring properly or maybe failure due to previous damage at some time during its service life. The other possibility is ring bites while trying to seat the ring. Sad to say but I got bit during an installation of a ring. My own fault, I didn’t pay close enough attention to the work area and got a finger too close for comfort. No lasting damage to either the ring nor my finger.

considering how the bead edge of the military tires engulf the split ring my personal opinion is that it would be very difficult to have a catastrophic failure in regular use. driving on a severely under inflated or flat tire might cause it. in my experience even the loss of tread has allowed me time to replace safely. however in the event where you have both the loss of tire structure and the tube it increases the chance something will go terribly wrong. but as all air is lost from the offending wheel at that point the amount of damage it could do is also lessened greatly. some of the alternate tire and tube options I have seen may not provide the same degree of safety as the military ndt's. of course age and poor traction in certain conditions don't speak well as a recommendation for regular driving at speed and under load for the old ndt's either. for your question I have not heard of any catastrophic events on these split rings even with old tires/tubes that failed. I have personally put such rims/tires/tubes under challenging offroad and highway use where the entire tread has separated from the carcass and everything still held together and got me home. I have had cases where the tube failed but the tire held together and i got home. of couse i reacted in a timely fashion and dealt with the problem as soon as safely practical. my two cents

The way the military had the rims and rings designed pretty much guarantees you that it will stay together no matter what. That's assuming it was correctly installed of course. I've driven on totally flat tires to the point the tires and wheels were destroyed, and the rings never showed any signs of coming off.

Most of y'all on here already know this -

Technically, the term is "lock ring" rather than split ring. What scares most folk is not understanding the difference between these type wheels and the old split rims of which many horror stories are told.
In 20+ years of dealing with these lock-ring wheels, plus my time in the military, I have personally never seen anything remotely catastrophic happen with them. As mentioned above, then can bite you a bit if you're not careful, but so will a lot of other parts of MVs. I have not seen any of the umpteen wheels I've been a part of working on do anything but stay together and inflate the way they are supposed to.
Making sure they are good and clean, and undamaged, before they go back together is key, so that they seat properly before inflating.

The biggest issue I've seen with them is getting them to come apart after many years in place!

I've seldom had access to a tire cage, so have used the field expedient method of sliding the wheel under the truck differential before inflating. Just in case.

Cheers

Same here. The Goodyear LTS wheel is the best, safest, and strongest ring design ever.

Lock ring wheels are quite safe if proper procedures are followed. They are made to be soldier proof.

M813rc said:

I've seldom had access to a tire cage, so have used the field expedient method of sliding the wheel under the truck differential before inflating. Just in case.

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I've used a couple heavy chains myself for this. I should get a tire cage though. Looking on Facebook Marketplace right now there are several for sale all within an hour from me for anywhere from $100-$200.