Torque Wrench for WD Hitch nylock nuts

I used my 24" adjustable wrench and a four foot 1 1/2" sch 40 pipe...then jumped on it with my 220 lbs.
Working at the C-17 Tulsa mod center in '97. One big mil spec bolt into the wing spar had a 3400 ft lb torque. It took three 6' plus husky guys with a six foot 2" pipe on a torque multiplier to get'r done. The bolt could only be reached on top of the wing out on the very leading edge. Luckily I wasn't 6' tall.

mkirsch wrote:

dolfinwriter wrote:
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.

Most people pay the RV dealer to install the hitch.

Not sure how they can do it if they don't have a torque wrench either.

dolfinwriter wrote:
I'm also really curious how the wiring is routed on other trailers from the body of the trailer to the coupler and umbilical connector.

On any of mine, the wiring is just held to the frame by clamps.

dolfinwriter wrote:
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.

Most people pay the RV dealer to install the hitch.

If I was going to be torqueing the bolts, I would put a jack under to support. Will that change the final reading/actual torque on the bolt? No. But I'm lazy, don't like to do extra work. Likely the person turning the wrench will not see it, but as he bears down on the wrench the vehicle goes down. Then when release pressure to get another flat, vehicle comes back up.(More likely to see that.) Every stroke, as the bolt gets tighter, more of the force is used to compress springs before the nut starts to turn. That is wasted work.
Something else to think about; I don't know how many times I have had a helper, (confess, once I was the helper) when I have pulled a bolt to get it torqued, then hear "Need to back it off, wrench is locked" Yes, arm wrestling when the other guys wrench is 4 times as long as yours it is easy to wedge your wrench against something solid. By yourself even easier. Hold a bar or board between wrench and solid so you can have leverage to pull it out, get play, and your wrench back.
BTW, most of my life I would of turned things so I was lifting instead pushing down. I could lift more than I weighed, let alone what weight I could get on the wrench. But I have gained over 100 lbs, and lost muscle

Sorry, that makes sense pulling that trailer with a small truck.
Good on you.
Dang , those conduits are usually welded on.
Could you zip some welds off and slip the bracket behind the conduit?

Grit dog wrote:
what makes you need all this hardware for a little cargo trailer? Plan on pulling it with a Hyundai or something? Any newer midsize pickemup or full size SUV, or larger should have no issue with a trailer that size unless it's loaded all wrong.

Better to err on the side of caution, IF in fact I am erring at all...

2011 Tacoma Pre-Runner V-6. It's not a "little" cargo trailer, but I'm sure relative to a 33' camper trailer it might look that way. My Tacoma is rated for 6500 max towing, and I'm using every bit of it. Let's just say it's really heavy stuff that U-Haul won't allow in any of their vehicles or storage.

Maybe some people would think it's overkill. I prefer to play it safe, especially when the lives of other people on the highways are at risk as well.

If I was just tooling around town with it, it would certainly be ok. But I'm going to be crossing six states with it, with some mean crosswinds in some places. The reviews by people who've switched to this hitch from another are enough convincing for me.

Now I've been delayed so much that snow has arrived in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

You really ought to be condemning anyone NOT using one of these than condemning me for being safe.

Oh but wait, there's more--I nearly finished setup last night and ran into a frame interference problem with the frame brackets. My trailer has a steel electrical conduit tube running along the trailer frame on both sides of the trailer on the inner side of the frame rails. This prevents the frame brackets from installing correctly. It looks like I have to modify my trailer to make this work. The only way I can see to do this is cut a section of the tubing out where the brackets need to be, and reroute the wiring--possibly snake them through the frame rail.

Husky towing products tech support is absolutely no help. They say they've never seen this before!

The trailer mfr tech support is absolutely no help. THEY say they've never seen this before! Maybe I would rethink buying this trailer if I had known this two months ago.

What a PITA this whole thing has turned out to be.

I'm also really curious how the wiring is routed on other trailers from the body of the trailer to the coupler and umbilical connector.

dolfinwriter wrote:
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.

The one's who don't own tools, know people with tools or know what to do take their stuff to a shop.
The real question is what makes you need all this hardware for a little cargo trailer? Plan on pulling it with a Hyundai or something? Any newer midsize pickemup or full size SUV, or larger should have no issue with a trailer that size unless it's loaded all wrong.

carringb wrote:
You guys are over thinking this.

Just buy the appropriate length breaker bar so your body weight will generate the torque needed.

If you weigh 180 pounds. A 2 foot breaker bar will apply 360 foot pounds.

^ This.

Durb wrote:

Mike134 wrote:
I have no idea why the springs compressing would concern you.

To compress the springs that force must flow though the wrench, then the bolt after it stops turning at 380ft/lbs then the chassis. End result bolt is tightened to 380.

Doesn't work that way. If you extend that thinking just put the shank on the ground. When the fastener quits turning and the shank flops around you must be at 380 ft-lbs - wrong.

Simple test for doubters: Tighten the fastener without supporting the hitch. Then tighten again with the hitch supported to the same spec - the nut will move. How much will be determined by the stiffness of the truck's springs.

One of the first rules of proper torque wrench technique is to secure your work.

I'm thinking either we are speaking of different things or you are wrong. Used a 4' piece of Unistrut extending from the hitch so I'd have lots of leverage to get some compression of the trucks springs. I torqued the bolt at the very end of that strut without and with the bottle jack in place. No change/movement of the fastener as the torque setting was reached even though the truck's springs and Unistrut flexed as the torque setting was reached without the bottle jack in place. .