Well, I'm back rolling in the truck: Total damage: $168.02 to Ford for finding it, and replacing my wheel studs -- parts and labor. 5 wheel studs is about $80 by the way -- not a trivial expense at the dealership!

Here's the wheel after my FUBAR:

http://home.earthlink.net/~johngrigg...s/badwheel.jpg

I had a nice talk with the service manager Tim about what does and does not void warranty coverage. I'll post on that later. It's pretty interesting.

Now I have to spend $93.00 for a replacement wheel, which includes mounting my tire on it and balancing it. All-in-all: a costly mistake for me!

OOPS!!!

I don't know if thats a good thing or bad thing. Good it wasn't the rearend, bad it was your fault and u most likely could've fixed it yourself for less. Ooops!

YES to all your comments, Adrian!

Well, my tire guys say the bad wheel is good enough to use as a spare PROVIDED I put it on with stock lug nuts, which are slightly wider in the tapered portion than the chrome ones. So, they will mount my spare (31x10.5x15 BFG AT/KO) on that wheel when the new wheel comes in, and my regular tire (31x10.5x15 Cooper S/T) on the new wheel. So I'll have a sort of "matching" spare.

Oh well! Lesson learned!

Okay, all better and for less than I thought. My tire guys sold me the replacement M/T wheel, removed my tire from the damaged wheel and mounted and balanced it on the new wheel -- AND they took my BFG spare tire off of my steel wheel and mounted it on the damaged wheel so I have a sort of "matching" spare! Pretty cool.

Total cost: $97.00 -- that includes the new wheel, new valve stems, and all the mounting and balancing. These guys are the best. If you need tires in the northern Delaware, southeast PA area, try them. I may have gotten an especially good deal since I do so much business there -- but they really do have excellent service.

K&W Tire
Ridge Road,
Claymont, DE 19703

302-798-6811

Ask for Jim Sliban and tell him I sent you! :)

As well as Cooper and other tire lines, they sell American Racing, Mickey Thompson tires and wheels and so forth.