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Wasted 2 years torqueing lug nuts to the book spec until a tire guy in Amarillo showed me his trick
So I was doing brakes on a 2018 F-250 last week and the owner mentioned his wheels kept loosening up on long hauls. I always torqued to the spec in the manual, 150 ft lbs, thought I was doing it right. The guy who owns the truck said his regular tire shop in Amarillo does something different. I called them up and the old timer there said he goes to 165 on those aluminum wheels, then rechecks after 50 miles. Said the book number is for steel wheels mostly and the aluminum ones need a bit more because they flex and settle. I tried it on the next two trucks and the recheck showed almost nothing moved, where before I was finding lugs down at 120 or so on the second pass. Turns out I was doing it backwards this whole time, going by the sticker under the hood instead of what actually holds on real world wheels. Any of you guys run higher than spec on aluminum, or am I asking for trouble down the road?
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jason52411d ago
Reminds me of this old guy I knew who ran a lawn mower shop. He swore by putting a little anti seize on blade bolts even though every manual says dry torque only. Said the grass juice and water got in there anyway so you might as well control it. Ran that shop 30 years and never had a blade fly off. Book specs are a good starting point but real world stuff like heat cycles and corrosion changes things. Sometimes the guys turning wrenches every day know stuff the engineers never thought about.
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