Retorquing the Lugnuts

Oh, right. Looks like dial types go higher than beam types (I was checking out the Seekonks, good variety in those).

 

I know T/A torques to 475 with the wrench after impacting them on. I get flats repaired on trailers all the time and watch them do it. They make you sign a little disclaimer on the receipt that you watched them do it and will re-retorque them after 50-100 miles. (I never have.)

 

It's just to cover their butts, but it's really just smoke and mirrors. Over tightening is a more common problem than under tightening. Hammer them on with a 1" impact to 600 ft. lbs., of course a torque wrench will click at 475. To do it right, the torque wrench needs to finish the tightening. The next time watch close, if the torque wrench did not move the nut and only clicks, ask him how he knows that are not over tightened.

 

Grape ape hit the nail on the head.

All these rules and regulations came about because wheels have been know to come off trucks and fly down the hwy. Sometimes even killing people.

I blame almost all of this on the tire repair shops. They got there 1" long snout air impacts,rattling on your nuts with no lube that were just laying in the sand beside your axle.
They proced to burp all your nuts on goodntight.
Grab there trusty torque wrench and of course it clicks off on every nut with out even turning.
Mean while your studs have all been stretched and the nuts are sitting at 900 ft lbs. . But hey , we torqued those nuts! !!.
Do this over and over a bunch of times and eventually those studs snap and there goes the duels down the hwy .
I get a kick out of all the stupid safety items on the market for loose wheel nuts. Florescent pointers go over your nuts so you can do a quick visual to see if any have moved. Lmao!!
9 times out of 10 it's not that they come loose, it's because they were to dam tight to begin with.
This is why I do all my own tire work.
Actually this is why I do all my own work period.

 

Never thought of that. I've seen it happen both ways. Sometimes the wrench will click without budging the nuts and sometimes they will turn a tiny bit before clicking. They did lube the threads first I noticed last time. These are just fleece trailers with steelies so I've never been *that* concerned. I'm usually happy with service I get at TA shops, for basic repairs anyway.

 

That's the thing about carrying one of those in a truck that concerns me (even in its case). My dry air pressure gauges lost calibration in a short period of time because of the bumps and vibration, so I'm not sure if this applies to any type of dial gauge without a dampener. Whatever they do for the instrument panel in there, or maybe that's off too. I sometimes see fluid filled gauges on trialers though, so I wouldn't presume the dry ones are as accurate there.

 

I had a trailer with those recently, they do give a quick visual versus comparing thread protrusion, although what if one or more loosened a full turn or two, they'd still line up! I think that's where torque seal is more effective or less questionable, because it breaks when the nut turns.

 

Now I'm thinking the beam type wrenches wouldn't work well with a multiplier, because they don't ratchet, and the multiplier turns very little at the working end (I guess the higher its ratio, the less it turns per crank).

 

Oh there is a 3/4 drive torque adapter by Titan that goes from 50-600 ft-lbs.

Not sure about using one of these in the rain, but it should be good for testing a wrench.

Anyone use the digital torque wrenches outside?