Measuring torque on lug nuts

[Uncle Cereal]

I asked the question in a different thread but, bad timing for me, the discussion took a different turn. I'll try again in a separate thread.

I'm looking for a thread where there's a discussion about checking the torque of the wheels' lug nuts. Can anyone help?

Does anyone do that? Can you please remind me the necessity of doing that?

Thanks!

[The Minimalist]

Look at the bottom of this page.

[Uncle Cereal]

Awesome! Thanks!

I feel really silly. My guess is that I wasn't spelling "torque" right.

[Wayne Collins]

Thanks for the reminder. That's one thing I have neglected to check, other than visually. Time to get out the wheel wrench!

[Perry J]

I'm older than most here and have been towing different things for over 50 years.
Fifth wheel T. trailers, bumper pull trailers, horse and stock trailers, boat trailers, equipment trailers and now a UTV trailer, 16' Casita and sail boat trailer.
Never have I used a torque wrench.

I just tightened them as tight as the tire wrench would allow, checked them after 100 miles or so and forgot them.
I never have lost a wheel or had a loose lug nut.

[Borrego Dave]

Originally Posted by Perry J

I'm older than most here and have been towing different things for over 50 years.
Fifth wheel T. trailers, bumper pull trailers, horse and stock trailers, boat trailers, equipment trailers and now a UTV trailer, 16' Casita and sail boat trailer.
Never have I used a torque wrench.

I just tightened them as tight as the tire wrench would allow, checked them after 100 miles or so and forgot them.
I never have lost a wheel or had a loose lug nut.

Same experience and time around RVs as you. Maybe with some custom wheels it may be different than steel rims.

[Jim Bennett]

Torquing lug nuts is such an easy thing to do, why not do it? A reasonably priced torque wrench can be bought rather inexpensively from Princess Auto in Canada, or Harbour Freight in the US.

Having properly torqued lug nuts has little to do with a wheel falling of, but is more of a performance issue.

If nuts are torqued too much, or not evenly, it can lead to warping the rotor, causing problems with brakes.

[Raspy]

Originally Posted by Perry J

I just tightened them as tight as the tire wrench would allow, checked them after 100 miles or so and forgot them.
I never have lost a wheel or had a loose lug nut.

Some people are three times stronger than others, so "as tight as the wrench will allow" could mean three times the torque. I've seen people snap off studs because they thought they needed to be as tight as possible.

If you torque them properly a few times you get a feel for how tight that torque feels, then you can do it by feel and be close enough. Then check them once, after a few miles.

I like to grease my threads, but that means the normal torque is too much. You get a lot more clamping force with the same torque and greased threads.

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by Raspy

Some people are three times stronger than others, so "as tight as the wrench will allow" could mean three times the torque. I've seen people snap off studs because they thought they needed to be as tight as possible.

If you torque them properly a few times you get a feel for how tight that torque feels, then you can do it by feel and be close enough. Then check them once, after a few miles.

I like to grease my threads, but that means the normal torque is too much. You get a lot more clamping force with the same torque and greased threads.

All good information.

There is not way I would tighten as hard as I could. In fact it always seems that 100 ft-lbs seems light. I could easily damage threads.

I used to be great with torquing 3/4", 5/8" and 1/2" bolts with a ratchet real close, when I used to do it regularly when building electrical substations. After countless numbers of bolts per week, one got the touch quite well.

I too always grease the threads a wee bit, it helps with spinning the nuts on, and more smoothly attains the proper torque. It really helps if you need to do a roadside tire change too.