Torque Wrench for WD Hitch nylock nuts
Is this the right thread for this, first of all? I'm trying to install a weight distribution hitch to haul my trailer of stuff from east county San Diego California to Kansas. It's a 7' x 14' cargo...
Forum Discussion
After lining up all the bolts and checking them against the manual and kind of mock-up test fitting, they left off a 1-1/16" socket for the nylock nut on the 3/4" bolt and a 5/8" open end wrench for the square head frame bracket bolts. I could use a Crescent hammer for those, but adjustable wrench isn't listed either.
So thank you to BenK for mentioning the bolt hex head size vs. bolt diameter, because that prompted me to verify everything I need.
The 3/4" bolt hex head is 1-1/8", but the nylock nuts on those bolts are 1-1/16". Those 1-1/16" nylock nuts are the ones that need to be torqued to 380 ft-lbs.
The install instructions leave a bit to be desired. Maybe they're written "correctly" for the way engineers think and talk, but most people putting this together won't be engineers. And if you assume that a 3/4" bolt means both hex head and nylock nuts are 1-1/8", then you'd be wrong.
What amazes me is the most common response I have gotten is to take it to a semi or big rig maintenance facility and bother them to borrow a proper torque wrench for this. Is that really what most people who are doctors, lawyers, cybersecurity professionals, carpenters, electricians, teachers, bankers, police officers... do? I doubt most people even know where to find one.
Probably the second most common is some version of a "calibrated elbow" approach. I don't torque spec every single thing I work on that lists a torque spec, but torque specs exist to ensure that things are properly tightened, but at the same time not OVER-tightened. This seems like something where it is really important to get it right. One of the reviews of this was a user who winged it, and down the road it came loose. He was smart enough to be checking it at intervals, so he caught it and had tools to tighten it. But would it have come loose at all if he'd gotten the torque to spec to begin with?
So I bought a 3/4" breaker bar, a 3.4" torque adapter (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009GLITFW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1), and a 3/4" 6-pt impact rated socket set w/ratchet and extensions. It's costing me about as much as the proper rated torque wrench by itself, but I'll do this right and I'll have some versatile tools for future use.
So thank you to BenK for mentioning the bolt hex head size vs. bolt diameter, because that prompted me to verify everything I need.
The 3/4" bolt hex head is 1-1/8", but the nylock nuts on those bolts are 1-1/16". Those 1-1/16" nylock nuts are the ones that need to be torqued to 380 ft-lbs.
The install instructions leave a bit to be desired. Maybe they're written "correctly" for the way engineers think and talk, but most people putting this together won't be engineers. And if you assume that a 3/4" bolt means both hex head and nylock nuts are 1-1/8", then you'd be wrong.
What amazes me is the most common response I have gotten is to take it to a semi or big rig maintenance facility and bother them to borrow a proper torque wrench for this. Is that really what most people who are doctors, lawyers, cybersecurity professionals, carpenters, electricians, teachers, bankers, police officers... do? I doubt most people even know where to find one.
Probably the second most common is some version of a "calibrated elbow" approach. I don't torque spec every single thing I work on that lists a torque spec, but torque specs exist to ensure that things are properly tightened, but at the same time not OVER-tightened. This seems like something where it is really important to get it right. One of the reviews of this was a user who winged it, and down the road it came loose. He was smart enough to be checking it at intervals, so he caught it and had tools to tighten it. But would it have come loose at all if he'd gotten the torque to spec to begin with?
So I bought a 3/4" breaker bar, a 3.4" torque adapter (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009GLITFW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1), and a 3/4" 6-pt impact rated socket set w/ratchet and extensions. It's costing me about as much as the proper rated torque wrench by itself, but I'll do this right and I'll have some versatile tools for future use.
