Torque for wheel nuts

monaro17, Sep 19, 6:53am
Does anyone know what torque I should tighten my caravan wheel nuts to!
kevlight, Sep 19, 6:58am
not too tight ,do them up firm with the tool you are going to use to undo them with (on the side of the road if you get a flat) we do ours up till snug thengive the a 1/4 turn to tight ,you do not want to stretch the bolts too much, do not do the classic jumping on the wheel spinner to over tighten, it is not needed
mugenb20b, Sep 19, 6:59am
100Nm.
monaro17, Sep 19, 7:00am
any particular reason you have that number!
mugenb20b, Sep 19, 7:12am
Most cars are around 100Nm, Early 90's Corolla for example is 105Nm, so 100 should be close enough.
monaro17, Sep 19, 7:17am
Keeping in mind my caravan is tandem and weighs 1800kg. I assume it is different for caravans! I'm not sure
skin1235, Sep 19, 7:45am
450kg per wheel!, now tell us you've got standard car tyres under it
monaro17, Sep 19, 7:52am
no they are 8 ply truck tyres
richardmayes, Sep 19, 7:59am
Tight enough that - if you need to - you can get them off again using whatever wheel brace you have in your boot.

They are big coarse-threaded 12(!) mm steel-in-steel studs covered in dry horrible road dust. I don't think they are a high precision item that need to be within 2% of some optimum torque.
miss-shortae, Sep 19, 8:40am
ft
skin1235, Sep 19, 9:43am
there is a guide re torque figures somewhere, relates to the stud size generally, tried a quick google but have probably mistyped a key word cos the bugga doesn't immediately jump out

the rims would be heavy duty too I'd expect, but what size are the studs, even the size of the lug nuts should be larger than most car lugs for that weight
40wav, Sep 19, 9:47am
Having had a few 'adventures' in the past, I use a socket and strongarm, then do them up till my wrist 'clicks'. Seems about right.
skin1235, Sep 19, 9:47am
as someone has already said, hardly need a precise torque but tighten with a robust bar and remember one day you'll have to take them off again, the rims will not distort cos you will have then fairly even just with the armstrong method
you can al\ways recheck them part way through the first journey
74nova, Sep 19, 6:33pm
just take it to Beaurepaires, they'll tighten them up with their rattle gun to 300 ft lbs and then check them with a torque wrench set at 65 ft lbs just to make sure there tight enough.
kngfhrt, Sep 19, 6:41pm
i always put a smidgen of grease on the wheel nut threads it makes for easier removal later on down the track
kngfhrt, Sep 19, 6:52pm
just use your monaro wheel brace and stop tightening before the veins in your neck burst!
dave653, Sep 19, 10:13pm
Why guess! Replace the studs with new ones, tighten to spec. no worries.
mrfxit, Sep 19, 10:24pm
In over 40 years in the auto industry (in 1 form or another), the only wheels I have known to come off are either.
NOT done up tight in the first place
OR
Done up WAY WAY WAYyyyy to tight & snapped off
**>
OR .
Left loose on the trailer deck ;-(

I use the system of 2 nuts more to a wheel then what the wheel really has
Eg:
4 stud becomes a 6 stud
6 stud becomes an 8 stud
Or more

NEVER ever only go around once.
I go around twice (at minimum) nipping up the nuts till they really don't want to move much BUT not till they simply won't budge.
Arm strength only with a std cross bar wheel brace
mrfxit, Sep 19, 10:25pm
Key word "smidgen"
mrfxit, Sep 19, 10:27pm
Commercial truck wheels are a little different because of the SIZE of those nuts & the HUGE km's they do.
Same for tire shops, because .

They do so many
It's not their own vehicles mostly
They do so many DIFFERENT types of vehicles
They do it for unknown strangers & unknown history of that vehicle/ wheels etc
rsr72, Sep 19, 10:27pm
Put small amount of grease on car threads,
and tighten to a maximum of 90lb/ft, no more.
studio1, Sep 19, 10:28pm
Yeah what is it with tyre outfits using a rattle gun to tighten the nuts so damn tight that you need a rattle gun to get the damn things off again! A few times in the past I've observed this.