The jarring when the nuts let go when I change a truck tyre is starting to hurt too much. I usually use a 3/4 drive T bar with a 36" cheater pipe slid onto it.
Has anyone used one of these torque multiplier units as shown at the link below?
cheers
I've never personally used one of there things, but thought I'd mention that I saw them at Harbor Freight a couple of months ago.
I see on their website they them in both 1/2" and 3/4" drive.
3/4" Drive:
Thanks Erik, I live downunder so harbour freight is not really an option for me. You have spurred me on to check some other tool suppliers however.
Harbor Freight has been advertising such a tool, but for car and light truck lugs. I think it's a good idea. I havn't bought one, nor used one.
Yeah, I've seen the one for cars, its got a reduction ratio of around 1:4. The truck one had a ration of 1:50 or so.
"Stormin Mormon" fired this volley in news:4LU3o.50132$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe11.iad:
Yeah... at 3687ft.lb. (max), that little cast leg seems a bit light.
The other thing -- you probably wouldn't need it, but to get full output from it you'll need to apply roughly 80lbf to the handle. I'm not sure "women and children" (as advertised) would actually be able to do that.
LLoyd
"Dennis" fired this volley in news:wpadnWEd4I1Egc3RnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@westnet.com.au:
68:1 is what's stated. That still means about 80lbf to the handle to get the full 3687ft.lb. torque out of it -- not that you'd ever need that much.LLoyd
I think if I got one I'd only use it for removing nuts and still tighten them up manually. Tensioning torque is around 300 lbf. Any how-to's suggest that everyone uses a torque wrench to set their wheel nuts. I've never seen anyone use one on wheel nuts, but maybe that says more about the people I associate with.....
True enough -- but how often have you encountered lug nuts tightened to over
3600 ft-lbs? IME, even the most aggressive tire stores don't go beyond 200 (and I call them up and complain when I find that!). With a reduction ratio of 68:1, it requires only about 3 ft-lbs on the handle to produce 200 at the nut, easily achieved by any child old enough to walk.Leverage *is* impressive. I remember pulling old wooden fence posts with a chain and a bumper jack -- and how much fun my then 4-year-old son had helping me. I'd wrap the chain around the post and hook the jack into it, then have him jack the post out of the ground. It was, quite literally, child's play.
If Dennis is changing enough truck tires for the pain in changing them to be an issue, it's probably time to look into a 1" impact wrench and enough compressor to drive it.
The HF 20 buck job has two reviews on the HF site--both say that it broke right quick, OTOH, somebody on the Subaru forum says his has worked OK for one tire change.
The usual suspects (McMaster, MSC, Grainger, etc) have good ones from Proto and a few other companies for $1000-10,000--those have nowhere near the gear ratio of the "nut cracker" and have sacrificial drives--the square drive is designed to bust to save the gears. A replacement square drive for one of those costs about the same as the "nut cracker". Note that they have 1" or 1-1/2" output drives so you need the matching sockets.
An outfit called "TIA products" has one with a 12:1 ratio intended specifically for truck, bus, RV, etc tires for about 600 bucks--a number of people in various RV forums have them and seem to be happy with them.
The ones going for around 200 bucks with a 68:1 or so ratio seem to be made by Liaoyang Zhonglian Pharmaceutical Machinery Co--they list a number of models, quantity 100 minimum order. Whether those are any good or not I have no idea--obviously one of them worked once for the video. Personally if I was taking truck wheels off for a living I'd be tempted to give one a try just because it has a higher gear ratio than the expensive ones.
There's another type, with a lower gear ratio and a long handle that needs a pipe or the ground or a jack stand or whatever to brace it instead of an adjacent lug nut--they price on those from all sources is around 200 bucks (Harbor Freight wants about the same as McMaster) but you may need to stack two of them to get a lug nut off of a truck.
"Dennis" fired this volley in news:zpydnZTvptpDtM3RnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@westnet.com.au:
Done right, that is how you do it. Our local "Discount Tire" place sets their impact wrenches below minimum torque for tightening, then uses a torque wrench on every nut. It's not just "practice", it's their policy.
LLoyd
Garrett Fulton
Maybe pushing down. But pulling up? Maybe not.
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