Admit there are weaknesses
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John Dickinson-Simpson (CM 24-30 July) is right to highlight the continuing problem of wheel loss. Surely manufacturers can design a wheel fixing that is failsafe.
The blame is always put on the operating side of the industry and never on the design or manufacture of wheel fixings.
It is nearly always the kerbside wheels that give the problem. In the UK we subject vehicles to different stresses than on the Continent, where most manu
facturers are based. Driving on the left the nearside wheels are in the gutter with more shock effects. We have a preponderance of roundabouts and again, the nearside wheels take the stresses. Road camber also stresses the nearside.
In the 1980s some vehicles (Leyland Olympian buses to name one type) were fitted with left-hand threaded wheelnuts on the nearside of the vehicle. These can never come loose because they loosen in the opposite direction to the wheel's direction of rotation.
We need Government funding and a proper investigation to look at all aspects instead of taking a sideswipe at the maintenance efficiency of operators. John Ashmore MIRTE, Chichester, West Sussex.