Gotta respect that.



I double-check the lug-nuts at least once after putting a wheel on and driving around for a day or two. Sometimes twice.

Here's another tip that might seem obvious, but until you think of it the first time, it might not get thunk: if you have aftermarket wheels, you still need to keep a set of five OEM lug nuts in the car, for the spare.

 

And how often do you bust out the torque wrench to check the lugs away from home

And I thought I was obsessive compulsive

 

Couldn't agree more with this. Nothing would be worse than to not have what you need to simply change a flat.

 

So far, never. But you never know.

Jokes aside, the torque wrench is simply much easier to use than the OEM crowbar thingy.

 

I just use a duffel bag.

 

Joke-Mode enabled

Maybe I'll start putting my air compressor in the trunk and keeping my impact wrench with me. I'll need a 15 amp inverter

 

I have a cardboard box

 

Perhaps, but you'll still need the crowbar thingy to remove the lugs. It's not a good idea to use a torque wrench to loosen bolts, but you probably already know that.

I prefer a 1/2" drive flex head ratchet to loosen the lugs.

 

What, for fear of damaging the torque wrench? Nah.

I up the wrench to 100 for easy removal, then down to 85 when torquing the lug nuts back down. Been doing that for decades now.

Lego, if you know something I don't and should, by all means go ahead and say your peace.

 

I was always told, and the instructions said, not to loosen bolts with a torque wrench.

If you google 'torque wrench to loosen bolts' virtually everything is going to advise against it. Tools are designed for a specific purpose, and loosening bolts isn't it what a torque wrench is for.

Torque Wrench Myths - Circle Track Magazine

A Torque Wrench Should Never be Used to Loosen Fasteners

This one is the truth. You might argue that if a torque wrench can handle tightening bolts to 250 ft-lbs, it should be able to reliably handle loosening that same bolt. And this is true, but when it comes to loosening a fastener you don’t always know what’s going to be required to get it loose.

After several heat cycles and the accumulation of dirt and grime that can coat everything in a race car, a bolt can gall against the threads and require a lot more torque to remove than was required to originally install. Most of us don’t watch the torque when loosening bolts, so it’s quite possible to exceed the maximum torque loading of a wrench when breaking bolts loose. The wrench will still function in terms of tightening or loosening bolts, but by exceeding its maximum torque limit loosening that tight bolt may have thrown off the calibration.

 

The way this is written, it only seems like an issue if you have to use more torque than the wrench can handle. It's not specifically the fact that you're loosening, it's that you're loosening something that requires lots of torque.

Given the wording of the statement above, I wouldn't be too concerned to loosen a lug nut if it needs 90 ftlbs to come off, unless or course, your torque wrench stops at 89 ftlbs.

 

Like I said, I'm probably over thinking it. I have two 1/2" ratchets, a 1/2" breaker bar and a 1/2" sliding T handle. I just see no need to use my torque wrench to loosen bolts

I also store it set on the lowest torque setting.

Obviously all this only applies to click type wrenches.

 

I do that, too. Although my current torque wrench is some $30 amazon purchase from like 10 years ago.

All this talk has got me thinking about buying a really nice one.

What do you think of those digital wrenches? Or is that just a gimmick?

 

Digital is probably fine, although I probably wouldn't want a $30 digital one

 

A tool box should be heavy enough so that it would not move around much in the trunk.
My torque wrench from Harbor was real cheap,but works just fine. I think I used it once in four years.