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Work Vehicle.

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So, you have just had new tyres fitted to your work vehicle wheels by a tyre company.


Q.What is the first thing that you should now do?


A. Check that you can undo the wheel nuts/bolts so that you can change a wheel if you have a puncture.


My work vehicle had 4 new tyres fitted a few months ago. I have had a squeaky wheel so I though that I would attend to the brakes as I thought that they were binding. The wheel bolts had been tightened so much that I broke the locking wheel bolt  key of the locking wheel bolts. I have used that key many times before and it has been fine. The tyre company had really overtightened the wheel bolts when fitting the new tyres. I managed to get the locking wheel bolt off after about an hour with much difficulty. You don't want to be out one cold dark winter night with a puncture only to find that you can't get your flat tyre changed.


A video for the very patient.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-dr38wV7nA


Z.




  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    That’s because the tyre monkeys always use their little air wrench to tighten up your wheel nuts, regardless of the manufacturers recommended torque settings, plus you should NEVER use an air wrench to tighten up the locking wheel nuts.
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    I've yet to see an invoice from a reputable tyre fitter that isn't endorsed with the statement that you should check the wheelnuts after 24 hours or 100 miles or variations thereof.......


    So it looks as if we can conclude that possibly:


    It was a "cash" payment on "the nod" so no invoice

    The invoice didn't have this endorsement

    It was endorsed but the responsible person didn't read it

    The responsible person did read it and ignored it.........................


    Regards


    BOD
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    The other recognised way is to not remove all the "free" wheel nuts but to keep them tight to take some of the pressure off the difficult one and get a skilled welder to weld a stub onto the wheel nut.............It can be done! 


    Or as the video, tungsten carbide drill on a diamond wheel to grind it to cut metal and the non tapered type of bolt remover knocked in. Think well known tool brand in USA.


    Regards


    BOD
  • 0
    I've not had to break off a locking wheel nut yet, but I know someone who had his fancy alloy wheels pinched, and all they did was to break the bolt heads with a very large hammer an chisel.

    This was actually worse than if there had been no lock bolt, as then the brake hubs had the snapped off bit of stud in to be removed.



    I can second the welding trick works, and not just for wheel nuts but all manner of sheared off fittings. welding steel near aluminium is quite safe as the aluminium is such good conductor of heat, that it does not even get a little but mellted. I nearly did it today for real with a stud snapped off in the catalytic converter, but in the end it came out stuck to the end of the left hand drill bit I was trying first.
  • 0
    Personally I have owned and been responsible for many vehicles over the years, and have NEVER had a wheel nut come loose even by using just the car maker's small hand wheel brace/wrench supplied with the jack. I have removed and replaced dozens of car and van wheels. These wheel brace/wrenches are only ever about 12 to 18 inches long. Sometimes they may require a foot to help to remove a stubborn wheel nut, but hand tight is normally good enough. Over torquing wheel nuts can stretch the studs and cause untold misery.


    Z.

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