Truckers advised to step up with daily tire and wheel checks

many tire shops use 1" impact guns to put wheels on and they have between 1000 to 1400 ft lbs of torque, which is way too much and stretches the wheel studs more than the 450 ft lbs required .....which can cause the studs to weaken which can lead to the studs breaking off

 

Make sure to check for unauthorized welds every day on your pre trip. The other day someone repaired one of my wheels while i was sleeping! #### bums fixed the wheel and woke me up and asked for $10!

 

You got that right. I do biz with just one local tire shop and they always use a calibrated torque wrench for the final tightening. Anyone out there getting a tire changed at a shop they're not familiar with should make sure this gets done. And drops of oil on the studs, not anti-seize.

 

At Complete Tire in Ellsworth, the 1 inch gun was only for removal. The 3/4 inch was used to put wheels back on. The other thing is, if your mounting aluminum wheels, take your truck back in 2 weeks for a retorque. Something about the way the nut interracts with the aluminum. Most of the time they stay tight, yet some of them will loosen in that 2 weeks.

 

even a 3/4 can be too much my ingersol-rand 3/4 puts out 900 ft lbs the tire shop i use has torque sticks..... when i take them off at home i just use the snap-on 3/4 torque wrench

and if you have daytons (spoke wheels) they are 250 ft lbs any more than that and you will pull the studs out of the hubs

 

Interesting thread here, with many variables... I'm with 112 on this one, as I've witnessed so-called "mechanics" hammering wheel studs with impact tools. Those same "mechanics" aren't the ones behind the wheel when things go south out there on the interstate... just my $.02, for what it's worth. Oh, yeah, there are also "mechanics" in training, just as there are drivers in training who don't really know their... well, you've probably heard that line before, and I'm being careful about my language.