Poor quality wheel hubs flooding the UK market

The boss of an HGV and trailer reconditioned wheel hub manufacturer has expressed concerns about the amount of poor quality hubs entering the UK market.

Simon Blair, director of Manchester-based Stud Extract, said its in-house technicians have noticed an increase in the number of products that break easily and have the potential to lead to premature catastrophic failure. According to Blair, the use of inaccurately-machined castings and counterfeit/inferior bearings, as well as invalidated changes to proven designs, could be to blame.

He explained: “When reliability and safety are compromised, it is only a matter of time before a serious road incident is caused by an inferior hub or bearing failure.” Stud Extract sends its hubs to an accredited metallurgist testing centre to be analysed for quality and strength.

“Quality components and safety-critical products work with the needs of the wider transport supply chains, and should never be compromised, no matter the cost pressure in a competitive haulage market,” Blair said.

“Stud Extract only provides wheel hubs to the exacting standards of the original equipment, and we urge customers to ensure that when considering replacement wheel hub products, they check the supplier’s hub products are comprehensively audited for safety and reliability.”

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