<VV> LH lug nuts

[Joel McGregor]

The common (wrong) rule of thumb here is to put them on dry also.  People claim they fall off if you lube them.  Of course that is wrong thinking.
I would guess most air impact wrenches get them way too tight since they are usually rated at 90 psi and 750+ ft lbs.
Wheels do fall off here.  The last time I saw a truck wheel service ticket it had a place that had to be signed stating that the driver would retorque within 150 miles.  I also see lots of trucks with the plastic arrows on the nuts so you can tell if any have moved with a quick visual inspection.

Joel McGregor

-----Original Message-----
From: VirtualVairs On Behalf Of Hugo Miller via VirtualVairs
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2020 8:16 PM
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: Re: <VV> LH lug nuts

That's why I prefer to tighten them by feel rather than use a torque wrench - I reckon I can tell whether a nut is stiff on the threads, whereas a torque wrench cannot. At any rate, I've never yet lost a wheel or had a lug nut come loose.
And that is the problem - practically everybody I know in England thinks that if they fit the lug nuts dry, they will stand less chance of coming loose. So if they use a torque wrench, quite a bit of the effort will be absorbed by the friction on the threads instead of stretching the stud so it acts like a spring clamping everything together (not beyond its elastic limit, obviously). And then they can't figure out why their wheels have come loose.
And yet, I have watched tire fitters at truck stops in the United States fit a wheel to a truck with an air gun, let the jack down and out they drive. I once asked a fitter what torque the gun was set to - he shrugged and said "120 psi"! And yet truck wheels in the States don't seem to fall off, which I find surprising if that is how they fit them.