Community Forums

RickNC · 10-01-2019, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daveandcarol

You picked a fine time to leave me, loose wheel...

..

You rolled down the highway and hid in a field.....

twinboat · 10-01-2019, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RickNC

You rolled down the highway and hid in a field.....

........This time the lug nuts won't heal.....

RickNC · 10-01-2019, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by twinboat

........This time the lug nuts won't heal.....

They should know better than to let some of us sit together on the bus

webby · 10-01-2019, 03:17 PM

We have purchased all our tires for years from Costco, and I noticed that they do use a torque wrench to tighten the lugs.

EJW · 10-01-2019, 05:34 PM

OMG! Glad you or others weren't hurt. In a million years, I wouldn't have envisioned this scenario. Good to know about torque. You learn something new everyday in life and on this forum.

Kountry_star · 10-06-2019, 03:10 PM

The people we trust our lives and others to. We saw a couple killed in Utah by a lost truck tire a few years back. How does one insure critical things like these get done correctly. Any of the places around here won't allow customers anywhere near the maintenance area.

Bmaintz8 · 10-06-2019, 03:23 PM

I have a 2001 Dutch Star gas & it has 19.5 tires...
Torque is 450 lbs., printed on the lug nut...
I have a Torque Multiplier, electronic torque meter & a 42" breaker bar...
Had 4 new tires (Hankook A35) mounted on back & he used an impact...
Service truck came out for this as I couldn't drive to tire shop as tread was coming off one of the rear tires...
Going back to his shop for 2 new front tires & will watch over them when installed & re-torque all tires...
Bob

Tireman9 · 10-06-2019, 04:07 PM

Lug nut torque is important. So is the lubrication (no oil), sequence of installing ,snugging and torquing the nuts.

RV Tire Safety: Lug nut torque. A critical SAFETY item.

Spdstr · 10-06-2019, 04:32 PM

I had just gotten new tires and n the first trip, the right rear dually left the building. The outer tire did exactly as yours did! It took off! I was lucky as I was On a back road headed home at 30 mph. Turns out the lugs were NOT tightened enough as all the lug holes in the wheel were all “egged” out into oval shape. The studs were also sheared off. When they started to come off, it sounded like a Huey helicopter was about to land on the roof! Got pretty loud! Then down it went onto the brake drum. It was a trip! I now carry a B. F. Torque wrench on board now!

lyleapgmcrv · 10-06-2019, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim_HiTek

Really happy it wasn't too bad for OP, as others have said, very dangerous situation.

Some shops think that 19.5 wheels get 150 ft-lbs but not all do. My '94 Bounder took 450 ft-lbs and had 19.5's. I discovered a professional truck tire shop didn't know that when a couple months after they installed 2 new front tires one of the wheels came loose with a loud BANG. Pulled over right away so no damage. All that happened is that several of the lug nuts were loose so only the last one was tight. When it let loose, got the big bang. On the other side, they were all set at 125 ft-lbs too.

So, even truck tire shops don't know that the fewer wheel studs there are, the higher the torque required is. It's best that the owner knows and tells them of course.

Also, I've not found a tire shop that knows that the hub caps on RVs only get 40 ft-lbs on the jam nuts...usually they're going to put on 125 ft-lbs...which distorts the thin metal of the hub cap and can ruin it.

I don't believe for one second that any tire shop or technician understand torquing lug nuts or bolts. They run the lugs up with an impact driver then check them with a click torque wrench. It will click at the torque set on it but that does not indicate at all what the real torque is. Even a dial torque wrench will give the same false reading. Lugs must be installed by hand or with a four way wrench but they must not be tightened at all with the four way. Four way wrenches will spin a nut on very quickly but without the possibility of over torquing the lug.

The wheel size has nothing to do with the torque required for the lugs. It is the bolt or nut size that determines the correct torque. The torque for 19.5 wheels may vary from one setup to another. But the bolt size is still controlling.

nehog · 10-06-2019, 04:39 PM

I will mention that one loose lug nut can cause this to happen as well, even when the remaining are torqued to the proper value.

It happens by over stressing the two studs next to the loose one and they fail. This starts a (rapid) chain reaction where adjacent studs fail, and finally the loose one fails.

I have watched it happen (they only lost three studs as it was detected quickly) in the past.

And this is why I always use a torque wrench on my wheels. Either my 10-150 for small wheel, or my 10 - 600 SnapOn for the big stuff! Yep, they make a torque wrench for big rigs!

rpward51 · 10-06-2019, 05:16 PM

I'm glad the outcome was so good. That's certainly a butt puckering incident that could have ended far worse.

Bob

farmerstu · 10-06-2019, 06:10 PM

the ONLY proper way to install a wheel
1 run the nuts down in the proper cross pattern for the number of lugs
2 by hand or a torque stick or electric driver (not an impact)
3 torque to manufactures spec with accurate torque wrench
4 aluminum wheels must be re torqued in 200-500 miles

all steps must be followed. also if the lugs have been stretched by over tightening they must be replaced.

yes i am an expert on this.

NeilV · 10-06-2019, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teamfoxy

Both my sons are mechanics and both of them have imapct guns with adjustable torque settings. Just because the mechanic is using an impact gun does not mean they are not setting the torque correctly.
For an F 53 chassis with 19.5" wheels, the setting is 150 ft# and for 22 inch wheels the setting is 450 ft#. One can loosen the nuts on a 19.5" wheel if you use a pipe to extend the lug wrench, but for 22" wheels, you are going to need to call for roadside assistance.

The torque adjustments on the impact wrenches are usually not accurate enough for setting wheel torque. You at best set them at the lowest setting that yields well below 100 lbs of torque and then finish with a torque wrench however even that is not correct since best practice is to divide the torque spec roughly into quarters and then go through the tightening sequence taking it up 25% each time through the star pattern. For a 150 lb setting that would be 40lbs, 75lbs, 115lbs and then finish all the lugs at 150lbs.

That's bolt torquing 101 as you are never supposed to take lug nuts to full torque in one shot but incrementally to ensure you do not introduce any wobble or shimmy.

I carry a commercial roofers pancake compressor which has a high volume oil filled pump on it and use a 650lb impact wrench for removing the lugs however a beam indicator torque wrench is brought and used to install them.

I use a commercial truck tire shop to mount and balance the tires on my F53 and they use a very accurate dial indicator torque wrench when installing the lugs and do indeed follow the 25% rule. The impact wrench gets put away after they take the wheels off and they do not cheat by using torque sticks since to do it right they would have to change them 4 times per wheel as they went through the 25% increase each time through the star/criss-cross tightening pattern.