Lug nuts you sickos! Get your mind out of the gutter.
So I was doing some winter changeovers and tire rotations on the home fleet today and it got me thinking about lugnut torque and how much of a pain it can be with different vehicles.
The question is how do you torque your nuts?
Myself I generally put them on with a torque stick and the gun to about 10-20ft/lbs lower than I plan to keep them at after hand starting of course. Then I drop the vehicle on the ground and finish them with a torque wrench. Generally I will go in the prescribed criss cross pattern until I stop getting movement then go around the circle to ensure I didn't get detracted and miss something.
For the 5 bolt axles (jeep and Mazda 3) doing the pattern once seems to get me the correct torque on all 5 nuts. However on the 4 bolt mini and 8 bolt dodge 2500, that doesn't work as well. For some reason on these I seem to have to repeat the pattern at least 2 or even 3 times before I stop getting movement on the nuts (bolts for the mini) now today was particularly bad as I couldn't find my torque sticks, and so just used the gun to snug the lugs down.
Now I don't apply lube to the threads but particularly on the Dodge I'm considering putting antiseize on the cone part of the nuts as there seems to be a reaction between the nut and the rim, the aluminum rim is corroding around the nuts and puffing up. Is that a big no no, or. Is it just the threads that matter?
After a couple hundred km I plan to of course recheck things, particularly the Dodge as it's such a pain about the lugs.
—
There must have been a time
when we could have said no.
So I was doing some winter changeovers and tire rotations on the home fleet today and it got me thinking about lugnut torque and how much of a pain it can be with different vehicles.
The question is how do you torque your nuts?
Myself I generally put them on with a torque stick and the gun to about 10-20ft/lbs lower than I plan to keep them at after hand starting of course. Then I drop the vehicle on the ground and finish them with a torque wrench. Generally I will go in the prescribed criss cross pattern until I stop getting movement then go around the circle to ensure I didn't get detracted and miss something.
For the 5 bolt axles (jeep and Mazda 3) doing the pattern once seems to get me the correct torque on all 5 nuts. However on the 4 bolt mini and 8 bolt dodge 2500, that doesn't work as well. For some reason on these I seem to have to repeat the pattern at least 2 or even 3 times before I stop getting movement on the nuts (bolts for the mini) now today was particularly bad as I couldn't find my torque sticks, and so just used the gun to snug the lugs down.
Now I don't apply lube to the threads but particularly on the Dodge I'm considering putting antiseize on the cone part of the nuts as there seems to be a reaction between the nut and the rim, the aluminum rim is corroding around the nuts and puffing up. Is that a big no no, or. Is it just the threads that matter?
After a couple hundred km I plan to of course recheck things, particularly the Dodge as it's such a pain about the lugs.
—
There must have been a time
when we could have said no.