Got schooled by a trucker on axle nut torque specs

Last Tuesday a driver rolled in complaining about a wobble that showed up after he hit a pothole near Flagstaff. I torqued the axle nut to the book spec at 300 ft-lbs, but he just laughed and said "that's for a dry nut, this one's got grease on it." Turns out he was right, the manual wanted a correction for lubricated threads that I never noticed in 14 years. Now I check the fine print on every torque spec before I spin anything. Anyone else ever get a correction from someone who doesn't even own a torque wrench?

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1 Comment

william_taylor11d ago

Seems like 300 pounds is plenty for most situations anyway.