Shearing wheel studs, common problem?

[NowForThe5th]

When doing the madigans line last April I busted 3 wheel studs on the rear passenger side. Didn't think too much of it, I had spares luckily.
When I got back I had my machanic replace all wheel studs (at the start of May). Then on a recent fishing trip I busted all 6 studs off, and my wheel over took me. Luckily we were on a wet dirt road and didn't do any damage to drum/hub. I didn't have any spares with me but made do with a bit of bush mechanics, I'll post a separate post up when my mate sends me some pics.

I have a pretty heavy truck, when I did the first set I would have weighed nearly 3300kgs, then yesterday would have weighed 2700/2800 kegs including tow all weight of boat.
I have 33,s on alloy wheels.

I'm trying to work out what is causing this problem. I know weight would be a main contributing factor. But I'm not sure if my alloys may be slightly crushing maybe.
It wasn't a big hit that caused it. We were going over a cattle grid. But I would have been going less then 20 Kms luckily. Towing the boat, and about to turn off the road. Wouldn't gave liked it to happen when in the tar doing 110kms, with the boat ion the back.

Dont think I can blame my machanic, only had one service since having put new wheel studs in. I checked all other nuts when this happened yesterday. Whilst I don't have a torque wrench, I couldn't really tighten any of them any more, yet could crack them all.

I don't know if I should just replace them all with the aftermarket slightly longer ones, and just keep an eye on them and check the nuts before long trips. (Either way I will be doing this)

Or if I should change back to steel rims, but will then may have the balancing issues some people have with steel.

Or is there anyone that makes much stronger aftermarket ones? I have not herd of this as a common problem, so I don't know if there would have been much of a call for reinforced ones.

Has any one else sheered studs whilst driving. I have herd of the stories when trying to crack nuts, or rattle gun issues.

[Cowboy Dave]

So they've not had a rattle gun on them at all? Over tightening seems the obvious thing to look for as that will stretch them out and place them under stress. I would have thought Steelies would be worse than alloys. Are the wheel nuts the correct ones for the rims?

What offset are you running? And how wide are the 33s?

[mickkk]

They are 285 75 16's.
I don't know if they use a rattle gun or not. It's a pretty reputable machanic.
As for offset I'm going off memory, I got it from the bible on here before purchasing the wheels. I think they were -22, or +22. It tucks them in just inside the flairs (flares?)

[NowForThe5th]

Just about every mechanic I've ever seen uses a rattle gun on wheel nuts. Some know when to back off, but it's a guesswork thing. I've never seen one use a torque wrench and very few use those torque extensions that some of the better tyre places use now.

Breaking wheel studs is most commonly due to over tightening or rust on the threads and breaking when trying to undo.

It's not a common problem on the Triton and if you can't tighten them any more but have no real difficulty taking them off that suggests to me that an anti-seize or lubricant may have been used on the threads. This can also result in excessive torque being applied.

You mention aftermarket wheels. Are these fitted with centring rings? Without these, excess force can be applied to the studs which are designed to just hold the wheel on, not keep it centred as well.

As mentioned above, making sure that you have the correct type of nut to suit the wheel is also important.

[smiffy]

I had to have mine all replaced after a tyre place rotated the wheels and over tightened them all.
they should be 120nm +- 9 for alloys.
I was amazed that a tyre place had no idea about torque levels on modern vehicles.

[al coholic]

I too used to have a heap of issues with aftermarket alloy wheels and snapping/shearing wheel studs. Also had the rear left wheel come off one day while towing the camper along a corrugated dirt road.

I have since changed to factory alloys and will only do them up by hand using a torque wrench, not a rattle gun
From memory it was Snowie who used to have a lot of issues too, when the wheel nuts are tightened by rattle gun, it stretches the stud and will eventually fatigue and shear off.

Since changing to OEM alloys I've not had a single issue with wheel nuts/studs. Factory alloys are the only way to go for corrugated rough roads IMO



The weight of your vehicle would be contributing too. I had the alloy canopy on my tray filled with tools and gear for work, close to GVM weight (although I never went off-road carrying all this weight) I was replacing brake pads every 20k, went through a set of mickey T ATZ's in under 35k among other issues.

I've since changed the setup and removed the alloy canopy onto a trailer. Despite towing every weekday, the brake and tyre issues have all but disappeared as the vehicle itself is a lot lighter And all wheel studs are the same ones that were on there when I removed all the weight, so all good there too

[Longranger1]

Pretty common problem, especially after some numpty uses a rattle gun incorrectly. I bring a torque limiting extension to the tyre place and make them use it. Better places use them anyway.

The amount of times I have seen fitters just rattle the hell out of wheel nuts just proves they either aren't educated about how to torque nuts properly, or just couldn't give a rat's....

It is a safety issue that is sadly often overlooked.

[mickkk]

To torque wrenches work in reverse? As in would I be able to set it to the correct torque and try and undo, see if it clicks over?

[NowForThe5th]

Possibly. I've never bothered to try.

Just crack them and re-torque to the correct setting.

If it recurs then revisit what al coholic and I said, above.

[triton_guru]

Manners towing bloke told me when I first got my triton that to be careful of the rear passenger wheel studs :/ didnt think to much about it at the time but that was 2 years ago

[Cowboy Dave]

I wonder why he'd say that about only one wheel?

[triton_guru]

Yh I did question it as well, he said hes had a few and they were all the rear passenger

[triton_guru]

When I say hes had a few I mean he has recovered a few.

[NowForThe5th]

Logical, I'd suggest.

- Rear wheels are the most heavily loaded.
- Left hand side is the road is lower that right hand side so more load transferred to that side.
- Left hand side of the road is usually rougher than the right hand side so everything on that side is subject to more pounding, more stress.

I'd also suggest that the problem isn't just with Tritons. All dual cab utes would be the same.

What I would be interested in is what percentage of those had aftermarket wheels.

[Cowboy Dave]

There you go again, bringing logic, common sense and intelligence to bear. Just once I'd pay to see a childish outbreak of petulant stupidity instead.

[RHKTriton]

I cringe every time I see tyre jockeys putting wheels on. What's to say they're using the correct torque bar on the gun and concept of gradually sequencing and torquing the nuts correctly is not always practised.

If the nuts are tightened up straight around the hub and over torqued, it may be possible that one or more studs will be over stressed once the wheel is back in service.

I usually redo the nuts once home a put a drop of oil on the threads, never had a problem, esp. when it comes time that you want to get the suckers off at a later time.

[al coholic]

Logical, I'd suggest.

- Rear wheels are the most heavily loaded.
- Left hand side is the road is lower that right hand side so more load transferred to that side.
- Left hand side of the road is usually rougher than the right hand side so everything on that side is subject to more pounding, more stress.

I'd also suggest that the problem isn't just with Tritons. All dual cab utes would be the same.

What I would be interested in is what percentage of those had aftermarket wheels.

Also, the wheel nuts on the left rear undo anticlockwise, which is the way the wheel is also turning majority of the time.
Combined with vibrations/corrugations and higher speeds they will easily undo if they've not been torqued correctly

Patrols have a bad reputation for losing left rears too.

The shearing of wheel studs will happen on any wheel, if not fitted or torqued correctly, more so with aftermarket wheels as they are not hub centric