westend wrote:
From a practical standpoint, the force against the lugs shouldn't change much. You will still have the same loading forces, the offset will only change the distances involved. That will effect absorption of the wheel torques by the rubber tire and it's belts, somewhat, but not enough to make the proper lug fasteners fail/not fail.
If I had to guess the cause of your fastener fails it would be improper installation, material failure, or poorly aligned wheels (in relation to the hub). Could some part of the wheel be holding it from total contact with the hub/drum?
Exactly. Our friend from MN nailed it here.
The clamping force of all those lug studs/nuts and the combined breaking strength of all of them is far greater than any tractive force that can be generated by them skinny-azz trailer tires.
Look at all the forces generated by the traction of a big-tire drag car, and yes, a lot of those forces are sideways....those things don't usually go purely "straight line". Five lug wheels....and they don't break. Other stuff gets destroyed, but not the lug studs.
If the OP is breaking studs, it's from under tightened/over tightened fasteners, or other things as Westend spelled out.