Retorquing the Lugnuts

No, I'm torquing on it! Haven't we been over this already? 180 times, twice a day. Wait we're talkin' ft-lbs here, right, sounds more like a footjob.

 

Wow a whole line of wheel nut widgets! I may try the organic torque seal first (why spend more when everyone knows they never get loose). That and I'm already stooping down there to check tire pressure, so the added visibility of larger indicators is perhaps redundant (realistically I think those would go missing if someone changed a tire, or they'd put them back on crooked).

I don't know, torque seal might get in the way of retorquing or be tough to clean off for reapplication and to keep clean for inspection (it could work though if done carefully, where they put a smaller dot in between the two surfaces on a truck wheel). The benefit of this is you don't have to remove and install parts, or line each indicator up with another, just look to see if individual seals are broken. I guess if the wheel was muddy I could use a spray bottle to rinse and check that too (just as mud would obscure the other indicators).

Looks like there's more than one option for that (loctite 7414 there).


Dykem brand says their Cross Check cures in an hour and withstands extreme temperatures and vibrations (would depend if the wheels could sit for an hour, not too bad though, the loctite says 24hrs). Well, I'd also have to prep them with a wire brush to remove surface rust, so it would be a little more involved than the demo.

 

Another torque wrench in action here, they found a loose nut or two on their retorque, which apparently the tire place told them not to bother checking (and who's to say all those got tightened properly to begin with, there's another factor).

I don't know who's using torque seal, but it should probably be put on after the initial retorque for that matter (it wouldn't do too much good on an undertorqued nut, and if there were enough of those, the wheel could fail without them being completely loosened from there, I'd think, and in the video they commented that one loose nut can be like a domino effect, causing the others to lose torque).

Anyway, how long did it take them to put a wrench on ten nuts? One minute. So yeah, just a few minutes for a trailer (with a couple axles, in general). This isn't the cumbersome and time consuming task people are making it out to be, with hub piloted wheels at least (and those are most common). Five or ten minutes on a tractor-trailer, once a week is nothing (even once a day, if switching trailers often, wouldn't be too much trouble). It would take longer to walk inside a shop, wait in line, and ask someone to do this, then wait for them to come out, and watch them check those, then maybe go back inside and wait in line to pay for that. Quite possibly an hour, not including driving there (which is hypothetical for me, since this 24/7 shop with a company account doesn't exist, I can only leave them notes to have something fixed, but it better be broken or it aint happenin', because what do I know, I'd have to tell them I used a torque wrench to determine a wheel was losing its torque, end of story I guess, since I can't know for sure how often they have a retorque done, if at all). That's alright I need the exercise, and would rather not get it chasing a wheel down the road.

 

I went to a truck supply place and got a 33mm nut (or it measured 32.6) to compare with mine, then threaded it on backwards and it lined up perfectly (later I took the nut to another truck supply place and checked fit with a 33mm socket, they only had it in a one inch drive though, and the first place didn't have one, so I couldn't compare play with a 1-5/16 socket either, because that's even less typical, I figure the reason is a 33mm has less play). Those 3/4 drive sockets are so big anyway, I'd rather not carry around a set (if I didn't need the rest). Hard to find locally and the pictures online don't always match their description, so I tried to order the deepest one I could find for variations in stud thread profusion, which is a six inch socket
(with six points, pretty much all impact out there, okay for this too). I also measured the wheel depth from the nut, which is between 14 to 16 inches, depending on wrench width or how you want to hold it, so an 8 to 10 inch extension with that socket should work for having the wrench clear the tire (found a set of three extensions, 8, 10, 12, and the longer one would work with a standard depth socket I suppose, those are non impact, but 3/4 drive are hefty enough for that torque wrench, and otherwise I'll know for sure what size impact extension to replace them with). I might get more spare nuts in case one or two those need replaced (they seem sturdy enough, may have a service life, still), it's potentially more useful than carrying extra sockets. Well, there is a super deep eight inch socket, but it's one of those send inquiry to order deals (and business to business industrial parts are beyond me, usually). There's also a 16 inch extension, but if the wheel is next to a pole or another trailer, I'd like to keep that to a minimum (and I guess torque is less of a factor on shorter extensions, sometimes they snap according to reviews). You'd think sockets would be easy to shop for, although they become more obscure in large sizes (and one costs as much or more than a smaller drive set, so I wanted to be sure of what size I needed).

 

There they are, couldn't possibly be undertorqued, right?

 

Yeah like the guy in that video was an olympian.

 

It's six seconds per nut, not exactly anaerobic there. Maybe if you were doing three seconds per. I've moved tons of freight by hand at a steady pace, not that I could run a marathon at the moment, but you know torquing wheels is closer to offloading a pallet (which was at most three seconds per item, often heavier, odd shaped, reaching over farther, etc). I've thrown tires all day too, so maybe I'm still in shop shape. This shouldn't take too long to get used to otherwise, I think six per is a warmup or moderate pace, not a pit stop.