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I swore by impact wrenches for lug nuts till an old timer at the shop in Reno set me straight
I used to zip every lug nut on with my 1/2 inch impact and call it done, figured torque sticks were for guys who had too much time on their hands. Last week a retired guy who used to run a tire shop in Reno watched me hammer down a set of wheels and just said, "You know those things can stretch a stud, right?" He showed me a rotor he kept as a trophy where a customer's wheel studs had snapped from years of over-torquing, not one big mistake but hundreds of little ones. He said he started hand-torquing every single car after a wheel came off a truck on I-80 back in the 90s, and it scared him straight. I went out and bought a $40 torque wrench that same afternoon and redid all four wheels on my own truck to spec, which is 150 ft-lbs on my rig. It takes me maybe two extra minutes per car now, and honestly the studs look better already. Anyone else here given up the ugga-dugga life, or am I the last guy to switch over?
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victorhill15d ago
Had a tire guy in Bakersfield named Duane do the same thing to me about 8 years back. I was zipping lugs on my F250 with a 1/2 inch impact and he just shook his head and handed me his torque wrench. My spec is 165 ft-lbs and I'd been way over that, and when I checked a few with his wrench they were all over the place, some pushing 250. I bought a $50 beam style wrench the next day and started doing it by hand, then upgraded to a click type a year later. Takes me about the same two extra minutes you mentioned but the weird thing is it's almost relaxing, kind of a last check before the car or truck rolls out. Cheap insurance when you figure a stretched stud or a wheel coming loose can cost somebody a lot more than two minutes.
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