Check your lug nuts!

abom2 wrote:
I had a wheel come off once. Found that three studs had sheared. Checked wheel on same side on the forward axle. Found two lug nuts loose.
...
Yep, I am paranoid...lol

Justifiably so! When I bought my current car it was used but had new looking Goodyear tires on it. Three months later there was cracking in the sidewall of one of the tires so I had it replaced under warranty as the date code was less than a year old so even though I didn't have the receipt it was obviously covered (good tread life). A few weeks after that I had a blowout at 55, not fun. I had the spare put on and drove it directly to my favorite tire place. I told them to replace all 4 tires. They told me that those were basically brand new tires, I explained what had happened, they told me to take it to the local Goodyear shop and that they would be replaced for free. I told them there was no way in hell I was going to have any tires from that series put on my car after having a cracked sidewall and a blowout in less than a month. And before anyone asks, yes I check my tire pressure on a regular basis and make sure they are to manufacturer specs and they were not run in any kind of extreme conditions. The replacements made it to ~65k miles of their 85k mile rated life, quite good imho.

TBammer wrote:
Yup, I saw a study showing that the cheap HF torque wrench is actually purdy darn accurate. Just make sure you back off the tightener nut on the end when storing.

I thought so too until I wiped out a fastener doing suspension work. I threw all the HF torque wrenches away and bought all new CDI wrenches.

BTW...make sure you always store your torque wrenches with the spring/dial setting the torque all the way to zero.

mr. ed wrote:
A torque wrench doesn't need to be expensive. I bought mine at harbor freight at a very reasonable price. Every so often, I would re-torque all the wheel lugs on my fiver. Good peace of mind while traveling.

Yup, I saw a study showing that the cheap HF torque wrench is actually purdy darn accurate. Just make sure you back off the tightener nut on the end when storing.

babock wrote:
The people I know that have lost wheels due to sheared lugs have a common denominator. All had greased the threads and likely over torqued the nuts.

I never grease the threads unless the specs call for it.

A common cause of sheared bolts is after torquing to specs, the incremental increase over time by repeated checking. Every time you check there is very slight increase in tightening. Over time it all adds up.
So don't just throw on the torque wrench and check. Back it off and retorque.

If my wheels have been off for any reason I torque at the first rest stop and again at the next 2 rest stops, than a week later and every month after that. Generally after the 2nd rest stop there is no movement of the lug nuts

I'm betting the cone type lug nuts are more likely to come loose than the clamping type.

Mine have never needed tightening with this type after an initial PROPER torque.

The people I know that have lost wheels due to sheared lugs have a common denominator. All had greased the threads and likely over torqued the nuts.

RoyBell wrote:
Do you have a signal booster?

Yes, wired directly to the batteries.

Talked to the company after this, and they recommended moving the booster from the front of the trailer directly to UNDER the trailer no more than 15 feet from any wheel.

They said the signal from the sensors to the booster will have a less obstructed path which will result in a more reliable signal.

But their software does not consider a “loss of signal” a major alarm.

It is kind of hard to test a LOS alarm because you have to take the battery out of the sensor without unscrewing the sensor from the valve stem.

But as with any tool, it works a lot better if we take the time to test its strong points and weak points and to RTFM

Gulfcoast wrote:
What is the correct torque for lug nuts?

My trailer has a data tag on the front near the manufacturers GVWR ect tag that is for the torque of the lugs. Gives values for both Aluminum and Steel wheels.

DrewE wrote:

Gulfcoast wrote:
What is the correct torque for lug nuts?

It depends on your vehicle or trailer and what wheels it's equipped with and that sort of thing.

My car is either 80 lb-ft or 90 lb-ft; I don't remember which offhand, and don't feel like going out to look it up. My class C is 140 lb-ft. Large wheels on heavier duty vehicles often go a lot higher, such as something like 800 lb-ft for many 22.5" wheels.

I never trust my memory for things like that. I have the torque specs in the notepad app on my phone (along with a bunch of other frequently used numbers and settings) The axle manual recommends a three step tightening at 25, 60, and 95 lbs-ft.