Anyone Have This RV Lug Nut Wrench?

[gfs1943]

I'm trying to make sure I can change a tire on the road. My RV has the original lug wrench and cheater bar, but I'm not sure I can get the lug nuts off with that. I saw this on ebay:

Torque Multiplier Heavy-Duty Lug Wrench 5 Sockets for RV Truck Bus Semi Tractor | eBay

Anyone here have one, or have used one? $165 doesn't seem too bad if the quality is any good.

[Pigman1]

An interesting unit. With the 78 to 1 ratio, you realize that all you'll need is something to put 6 ft-lb of torque on it to tighten a lug to 450-500 ft-lb. As long as you can get a small enough torque wrench attached to the drive to give you that, you're fine. Should be able to remove any nut you have without breaking a sweat. Of course as soon as the nut is broken loose, you'll need to remove the tool or you'll be turning it forever.

[Shore2Shore]

Haven't used one personally but have seen and heard of those very units before. As the lug nuts on our vintage require something like 400lbs of torque to do up was thinking of getting that exact model for side of the road changes & at home repairs.

Look forward to hearing any hands on experience with this.

[Akibase]

I don,t know what these things cost, but the best lug wrench on the market is called Road Side Assistance. It's a very cheap investment, and you can keep your back in one piece so you can enjoy your RV.

[gfs1943]

Originally Posted by Akibase

I don,t know what these things cost, but the best lug wrench on the market is called Road Side Assistance. It's a very cheap investment, and you can keep your back in one piece so you can enjoy your RV.

I have roadside assistance and have thought about carrying a spare tire but letting RA do the changing. Just concerned that I will be stuck out in the boonies of Canada, Alaska, or west Texas where it may take RA a long time to get to me.

I see that you are in Moncton. I've always wanted to see that area, on the ground. Moncton used to be the first controller we talked to when coasting in from Atlantic crossings.

[ottffss]

I carry a Northern Tool model they used to sell. 6-1 ratio. It is similar to the link below, but 6-1 and only had the multiplier. Cost something like $180. At 6-1 I cracked the internal planetary gear set, by hand input only, and they did replace. DO NOT GET A CHEAP ONE like mine is - the OP model is likely to be nothing short of garbage with 78-1. $160 does not buy 5,000 ft-lbs of strength. Period. Nor did $180 buy 1,000 ft-lbs of strength in my case. I would only buy another if it had a Snap-On type of quality name on it and was in the $400+++ range. Instead, I'd suggest the Harbor Freight 4ft torque wrench they used to sell. But, read on, there is more to these tools - handy as they CAN be....

My lugs are 475ft-lbs. The reality is that it is realistically infeasible to remove and re-install a 200 lbs tire with 10 475ft-lb lug nuts unless under absolutely dire circumstances. I mostly use it to set the torque after a shop that does not have a torque wrench has to remove a wheel. Even then, it takes surprising stamina (I'm a big guy) to wield 100ft lbs input (15% efficiency loss) over many revolutions per lug (that ratio thing) with a complex multiple wrench arrangement to achieve the torque like these tools require. And then do it ten times to get the lugs off and ten more times to put it back on.

---> The most important thing is that you must have a counter support for the tool (except the eBay model which has a counter rotating wing), i.e. a very heavy jack stand that the tool can push off of (it won't load the jack squarely making it more difficult), and you must have a very tight fitting socket that can hold itself on the nut being worked under full load with the input off center. So for the rear wheel lugs you have an extension on the socket to get the tool outside the wheel dish so the tool can react off the counter support (jack stand) in an non-square loading fashion, while trying to keep the socket reasonably squarely on the nut. It ain't pretty nor is it easy, nor is it realistic to do it ten x twice times for a single wheel when (as you go around the circle) the lugs get high and low relative to the ground messing with your counter support angle. Do not even think you can work this wrench combination (multiplier, counter support, input torque, holding it reasonably square on the counter support, and holding it square on the nut) like an impact tool - no one, not even Charles Atlas. But that's the non OP eBay version of these tools.

It is a very awkward tool arrangement to use these multipliers, but it CAN BE DONE, if need be. I promise you, you won't want to ever do it again. I still carry it (and the stands, and the 3/4inch drive extensions, and the 3/4inch sockets), more for the sanctity of saying I could do it IF I had to do it, but I won't! BTW I have also used it to some success in setting the 900ft-lb IFS A-Arm bolts because the geometry was such I could have the multiplier counter off the frame rail directly.

Northern Industrial Torque Multiplier Set | Wrenches | Northern Tool + Equipment

[mgscott4]

I purchased this one:

Welcome To LugWrench.Biz

Same thing as that one only 60:1 ratio and mine is blue. I paid $160 with free shipping. It works great. I used it to remove my tires and lube my brake caliper slides on my workhorse W20 chassis. My MH had a history of brake calipers sticking, Recall fixed it with new calipers but the caliper slides still should be lubed annually. My lugnuts are torqued to 450 FT/LBs. I can break them loose with one hand. I now have a spare tire under my rig. I also have Coachnet. I am just covering all of my bases because I am fulltiming and working all around the country and driving around 20k miles per year.

[Mike Canter]

So with my luck I can loosen the lugnuts and my great big tires will fall on me. Does anyone know where you can get a tire cradle dolly that you put under the tire so you can roll it on or off? So with a 78:1 ratio tells me that all I need is 6.5 ft lbs of torque to retighten the lug nuts to 500 ft lbs. Hmmm do we think that is correct?

[JimM68]

The tires don't fall on you because you only lift the rig exactly enough to take the load off and not a millimeter more. Then you can just wiggle them off.

As far as a tool that will let me apply 450 ft lbs with one hand, no, I ain't buyin into that.

[jcthorne]

Why not? Torque multiplicaton wrenches are well known for large bolts on pipe flanges. I have a different unit than the one pictured that I bought at Harbor Freight for a lot less. It works fine once you learn how to use them.

[Martind4]

Originally Posted by Mike Canter

Does anyone know where you can get a tire cradle dolly that you put under the tire so you can roll it on or off?

I raise it up just enough to get a shovel under the tire. The shovel handle leverage makes it easy to raise or lower small increments to get the tire on the studs and then wiggle side to side the rest of the way.

My torque multiplier is a 1-1/2" diameter black pipe about 6 feet long. Here is a link to a homemade long handled torque wrench.

Torque Wrench extensions

Works for me and also as a pry bar for stubborn leveling jacks if necessary.

[gfs1943]

Originally Posted by mgscott4

I purchased this one:

Welcome To LugWrench.Biz

Same thing as that one only 60:1 ratio and mine is blue. I paid $160 with free shipping. It works great. I used it to remove my tires and lube my brake caliper slides on my workhorse W20 chassis. My MH had a history of brake calipers sticking, Recall fixed it with new calipers but the caliper slides still should be lubed annually. My lugnuts are torqued to 450 FT/LBs. I can break them loose with one hand. I now have a spare tire under my rig. I also have Coachnet. I am just covering all of my bases because I am fulltiming and working all around the country and driving around 20k miles per year.

Thanks for that link; I'll check it out. I like your blue one better, but since I have a yellow engine, the wife wants everything to match. Gotta remember what's important!

[1ciderdog]

A couple of years ago I tried an inexpensive one I bought from Harbor Freight and it failed. Simply came apart on my first attempt to remove lug nuts. I went back to the 5 foot bar which has never failed me. My suggestion is if you get one be sure to get a quality one.
Safe Travels
Bob

[RustyJC]

HERE is the real industrial strength torque multiplier that's been used for many decades on large industrial engines, etc.

Rusty