It Happens

[cpaharley2008]

Originally Posted by Rossue

Me thinks that might have been a reference to the 17A owner preferring up why you should grease the wheel studs.

Exactly.......

[Rossue]

Found this- very revealing from crash forensics.com:

One excerpt: Over-torquing is likely the most common wheel system failure due to the widespread use of impact wrenches to install wheels. Using an impact wrench to install wheels commonly causes the wheels to have 3 to 5 times the specified lug nut torque. The use of lubricants and anti-sizing compounds on the threads of the wheels studs or lug nuts can cause an even higher degree of over-torquing".

Wheel and Hub Failures

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Rossue

Me thinks that might have been a reference to the 17A owner preferring up why you should grease the wheel studs.

Sure, but in that whole discussion of lubrication of wheel stud threads I don't recall anything relevant to the number of axles.

[NW Cat Owner]

At most campgrounds I feel like I'm the only one checking the lug nuts on the tires with a torque wrench. I check them before I leave home and before I leave the campground. I dunno, does everyone only check them at home? I'll still check them before leaving any time and anywhere with the trailer.


A friend's husband used to work at Camping World in Salem and he said they had lots of damaged trailers come in where the owners were clueless about checking the lug nuts. I told him I was trained well by my husband to check.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by NW Cat Owner

At most campgrounds I feel like I'm the only one checking the lug nuts on the tires with a torque wrench. I check them before I leave home and before I leave the campground. I dunno, does everyone only check them at home? I'll still check them before leaving any time and anywhere with the trailer.

You may be the only one. I can't imagine checking them every day, or any reason why that would be necessary. I suppose it can't hurt, if done properly.

[padlin]

I check mine before a long multi month trip, and maybe once during, if I think of it.

[Iowa Dave]

If I’m traveling that day. I ask my wife when she wants to leave the CG. I start on packing up outside, she does the inside. After I get the first few things done she tells me I can stow the electrical cord, water if I’m on city water. and hook up once that’s done I can pull the chocks, X chocks, etc. At that time, I walk around the trailer, torque wrench in hand. Four clicks and I’m done. I have a plastic case for the wrench and only have to turn the setting up and down and put into the back of the Highlander, it sets alongside of my booster pack, tire inflator (12v Milwaukee) and my bottle jack. All in boxes or a cordura bag(inflator) I like to keep my stuff handy and clean. Always carry a roll of shop towels and wipe down grease or dirt. I have a small tube of coupler grease in the front box too. I wipe the ball down shiny once in a while and up inside the coupler to get rid of sand, dirt and road grime. Then regrease.

Not knocking the use of the battery powered drill to put the stabilizers up and down, but I only have so much room so I don’t use one. I’m fortunate to have the flexibility and strength to just use the crank. I do like the
Power jack on the 21. It makes hooking up the Anderson WDH easily and quickly.

It’s all part of traveling for me, just like checking my oil and wiping dead bugs off of the headlights with a wet shop towel on our Highlander.

Have a great day, don’t forget Veterans Day on the 11th and let me know if you need my Christmas list.
Iowa Dave

[oldwave]

I check mine at the beginning of a trip. And two or three times through the season.. if it’s a very long cross country trip, I’ll check upon arrival

[RBRV]

spent a sunday afternoon once replacing every single wheel stud and replacing all my lug nuts on my tundra after the toyota dealer had managed to actually stretch the threads out on several of them to the point that some lug nuts would not thread on to some of the studs depending on how bad they were.
dealer only offered to replace the studs that had broken when I tried to change a flat. thank goodness for the flat or I may have never known until it was too late.

[Greg A]

I check lugs before every trip and during long hauls. Rarely find any that aren’t tight so not as concerned about it as I used to be.
Only thing that would be worse than a tire passing you on the highway would be two tires passing you, one on each side.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

At that time, I walk around the trailer, torque wrench in hand. Four clicks and I’m done.

I don't know Dave, are you saying that you pry off the hubcaps and torque 20 lug nuts before heading off for the day?

In a couple of other disciplines I'm pretty rigorous before each use but torqueing lug nuts isn't one of them. For most of my life and many, many trailers I've never specifically torqued the wheel lugs. Heck, I never even used a torque wrench. Never had an issue.

So, since hearing of Escapes recommendation to torque the wheel nuts I've done so, got lot's of torque wrenches. I check the torque at the start of the season and maybe once through the season. Never found one that was in danger of coming undone.

Whatever makes you feel comfortable.

Ron

[Centex]

If you don't grease your nuts ( . ) they're much (Much) more likely to stay-put as intended after a post-installation / drive-a-few-miles torque verification.

Just sayin' .


Admitting that I'm rabid about doing DIY vehicle tire rotations every ~3-5k miles but my compulsion doesn't extend to re-checking lug-nut torque after that post-installation / drive-a-few-miles verification. But then, my nuts are always installed CLEAN AND DRY.

[tdf-texas]

I check the torque on my lug nuts fairly regular - especially before a long trip. I also check the hub temps each gas stop to make sure the bearings are still happy. With the hub caps installed, both were hard to do.

Also, each time I pulled the hub caps, the hubs and the lug studs seemed to be rustier than the last time I checked.

So the hub caps had to go!

I removed the hub caps, painted the hubs with caliper paint, and replaced the lug nuts with chrome lug nuts. Much better.

[Iowa Dave]

Originally Posted by Ron in BC

I don't know Dave, are you saying that you pry off the hubcaps and torque 20 lug nuts before heading off for the day?

In a couple of other disciplines I'm pretty rigorous before each use but torqueing lug nuts isn't one of them. For most of my life and many, many trailers I've never specifically torqued the wheel lugs. Heck, I never even used a torque wrench. Never had an issue.

So, since hearing of Escapes recommendation to torque the wheel nuts I've done so, got lot's of torque wrenches. I check the torque at the start of the season and maybe once through the season. Never found one that was in danger of coming undone.

Whatever makes you feel comfortable.

Ron

Hi Ron
On our 2010 19 we had the painted wheels with the white plastic snap on hub caps that snapped on over the lug nuts. I didn’t check the torque near as often because yes, the hub caps needed to come off. On the 2013 Escape 21 we have the shiny wheels. The hub cap is plastic “chrome”. It goes through the hub center and is held in place by the wheel. The lug nuts are in a recess in each hole around the hub and therefore it’s not necessary to remove a hub cap to access the shiny chrome nuts. Those recesses assure straight on alignment between wrench driven socket and the lug nut sides. What I should have said was “5 clicks on each wheel and I’m done”. Twenty clicks in all. When I walk around if I see a piece of glass or flint like rock (mostly in the west) in the tire tread, I unholster my Buck knife or my USA manufactured Old Timer Scrimshaw Catfish pocket knife and pick the rock or glass out.

Sometimes when I am camped for a few days at one location I sit for extended periods of time, watching birds or other wildlife, engaged in conversation, watching people and sometimes, drinking. Basically doing nothing.

However, when the next day comes where I’m going to be on the road, my behavior in the morning changes. My focus is on the tasks at hand. Hope this explains my behavior and routine. When you have a $175 Proto Torque wrench where a $20 Harbor Freight unit would do, you gotta use the damn thing to make yourself feel good about spending the money.
Iowa Dave

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

When I walk around if I see a piece of glass or flint like rock (mostly in the west) in the tire tread, I unholster my Buck knife or my USA manufactured Old Timer Scrimshaw Catfish pocket knife and pick the rock or glass out.

Iowa Dave

I always wondered if I'm the only person that makes a point out of picking rocks out of the tires. Every time I stop for gas or pretty much anytime I see rocks stuck in the tread I pop them out.

Over the years I normally just use my Buck knife or Leatherman since I always have them on me. Sometimes on a stubborn one I've used a bottle opener. Most of the time they work great but sometimes you can see the rock but just can't get the tool into a position to pop it out. So I made a simple tool specifically for the purpose. Tapered enough, just sharp enough but not too sharp and long enough. It's just a habit now, see rock, reach into door pocket and pop it out. Don't know if any would have caused a problem but it can't hurt.

Ron

[Mike G]

Some educational stuff in this thread. Even a professional can pick up a good tidbit from the guys now and then. When we stop learning, we’re either durn stubborn or lying in a coffin.

[Iowa Dave]

Hi Ron
When I was a kid I worked in a standard oil station after school and on weekends with my dad. One of my jobs was to fix the flat tires that came in during the day. I’d get right on that and often people who had dropped off a tire in the morning would stop by after work to get their repaired tire. A tire repair was $1.50 or $1.75. I’d fix 5 or 6 a lot of nights. Basically then the rest of the work I did was at no cost to the owner. At $1.00 an hour I made the two or three hours I’d work each night just fixing two flats. And if the customer was a regular and had time we would jack the car up and put the fixed tire back on and his spare back in the trunk, check all the tire pressures and send him on his way.

My dad said in mechanized maintenance in World War II he would walk around his truck about every day and use a blunted ice pick to flip out the rocks. So the DNA was passed on to me and one of my brothers. When you hauled gasoline in a truck in the European theatre you did not want an unnecessary flat tire stopping your journey. Lafayette Pool and the rest of the tankers had to have fuel to keep those Shermans rumbling along. Read the U S Army published book “Spearhead in the West”. It will let you know how good we have it. It’s been transcribed and is on the internet.

“Pick the rocks out, check the tire pressures, check the oil and the radiator. And catch those headlights son.” Jeez I wish I had those days back again.
Iowa Dave

[Ron in BC]

Yah, know what you mean, but not the buck an hour.

Ron

[Patandlinda]

Originally Posted by Greg A

I check lugs before every trip and during long hauls. Rarely find any that aren’t tight so not as concerned about it as I used to be.
Only thing that would be worse than a tire passing you on the highway would be two tires passing you, one on each side.

Same here Greg but if we ever remove the wheels like for bearing repacks , good idea to check a few after . Pat

[raydsimmons]

I have found over the years that the "steel" wheels do not loosen up after the first re torque. It's the aluminum wheels I found that loosen up and should be re checked at least every 4k miles. Always check before a trip either way