TOPIC: Check Your Nuts!!!

Or in my case, bolts.

The last time I trailered my boat anywhere I somehow or another lost one of my lug bolts. It was simply gone when I got back. That was a few months ago and I had picked up all new replacement bolts in the meantime. Just before we left this past weekend I went to put the new bolts on and noticed that ALL of the bolts on the left wheel or driver's side were also loose. They were all backed out by about 1/8" or so. Needless to say this scared the piss out of me big time. The right side bolts were all fine along with all the other nuts and bolts on the trailer.

The question that I have is because this only happened on the left wheel, would that be the reason that people used left handed thread back in the day? The new bolts that I got have a pretty liberal amount of loc-tite sprayed on them so I have a little higher comfort level now than I did before. Also, what amount of torque do I need for them? They're 1/2" bolts. Not 1/2" x 13 but something finer.

All this said, Check Your Nuts!!! When I put my trailer back together after it got painted I made a conscious effort to make sure that all of the new series 8 bolts protruded at least 1/4" past the nuts and I also made a conscious effort to have the nuts rather than the bolt heads to be in plain sight so as to make a visual inspection a little bit easier.

Sad part is I still haven't gotten the boat wet. I had a gas leak in the upper carburetor. Soon though...

shipster

Yes that is the reason they self tighten. However they also ended up ruining a lot of wheel studs from people doing the righty tighty thing. I had a mechanic(?) destroy all five studs on my brand new 1978 Volare with his trusty impact

Properly torqued nuts will not come off. I had my boat off for painting once and installed new tires on the wheels while the boat was off. I could not get the nuts tight so I just left them real snug. Well anyway I forgot to tighten them after the boat was back on. I drove back home with two nuts on each wheel. Only way I noticed was the trailer was a little wobbly.

Have you tried the aviation nuts ?
Those are the nuts with the plastic insert so the they don't loosen as fast if ever ?

Thanks for the suggestion Chuck but I have bolts instead. As I mentioned though they are pretty well dowsed in Loc-tite. They seemed to hold well after a four hour trip. Again, does anyone know torque settings for these guys. Thanks.

Maybe this will help - one to keep on file ??? Good luck keeping your nuts


www.countrytrailer.com/WNDisplayItem.ASP?NUMBER=25

I lost all four lug bolts on a boat trailer while going down the freeway at 65 MPH a few years ago. Luckily it was on a dual axel trailer! I had tightened all lug bolts just a week earlier. I still can't fathom how they all went bye bye on that one wheel.

Andreas