Lug nut fitment

Just installed a set of four American Eagle wheels, size is 17 x 8 with 20mm offset and 5.19 back spacing.

The wheels fit (clearing the front caliper by only 1/16th). Test run up to 70 mph reveals they are balanced nice.

Here is my question. The center of the new wheel is pretty thick which makes the stock lugs sort of short. The lug nuts the shop gave me to use only fit on the studs about 4.5 - 5 turns. Torqued them down to 83 foot pounds like the owners manual indicated but my son who works at a tire change shop told me 5 turns isnt enough and the situation is dangerous.

I contend I'll recheck the lugs with the torque wrench after a 100 miles or so and if they are still tight all is well.

What do you think?

 

If those wheels use the acorn/ conical seat lug nuts, you could grab a set of ET lugs from us and be just fine..

 

+2

Don't drive it like that.

 

Sticky: Wheel studs too short? What to do!

 

So, if five turns is not enough, how many turns do you require? Why?

 

The more turns, the more threads that are locked between the nut and the stud. Therefore the connection can withstand more outward force.

 

Absolute minimum thread engagement should equal the diameter of the stud.

If 5 turns equals 12mm or whatever our stud diameter is, then it is at the bare minimum for torque holding.

The secondary issue is leverage on the studs themselves.
The system was designed to have the lug nuts very nearly "bottomed out" on the hub. Moving the bottom of the nut out moves the stress out and puts more leverage on the base of the stud.

Definite problem? No. People do it all the time.

Contributing factor to that wheel that you saw off the side of the freeway last week? Possibly.

 

Just went through this with my aftermarket wheels, and found out that for our trucks, 6.5 turns is the minimum. The studs have a 12mm diameter, so the nuts need to screw in atleast 12mm - which is 6.5 turns.

 

I may be dumb but I am trainable!

Therealscuba, yes the wheels use the conical lug nuts, 60 degrees as far as I can tell.

Visited your web site and tried to place an order for 25 of the lug nuts but the site kept on telling me I was not filling out all the required information. So I ended up just ordering the gorilla ET nuts from a different source.