torque wrench

[SteveW77]

Hold on Steve,

Tight is tight? Sorry but I have to strongly disagree with you.

Disagree all you like, but the fact remains that millions of fitters and mechanics all over the world carry out repairs and fit wheels and all other types of jobs without ever using a torque wrench let alone owning one. If someone is incapable of doing up a wheel nut without it falling off after 20 miles, then as I said before, they should leave things that they don't or can't understand, to people that can.

Steve W

 

[ProfJohnL]

I accept that in many cases there may be a considerable latitude to the tightness of some fixings, but in many cases an over tightened nut or bolt may be as dangerous as an under tightened one. The aerospace industry is one where the size and tightens of fixings can be seen as critical.

Closer to home, Alloy wheels with the conical seating for the bolt head, over tighten it,and you spread the alloy or even begin to propagate stress cracking.

The argument that 'I've never had one fail' does not show that the correct tightening was applied.

 

[SteveW77]

I am sorry John L, but we are not talking about aeroplanes, we are talking about cars & caravans and as for distorting an alloy wheel by over tightening,not unless you are built like big Arnold the Austrian giant. I am 19 stone and I could not excert that amount of force unless I was using a scaffold pole as an extension. So lets try to keep it within the bounds of reason. If a wheel is fitted to a caravan correctly, whether a torque wrench is used or not, that wheel should not become loose under normal conditions.

Steve W

 

[Robert_374373903]

For a lot of years I used a socket bar with a 1Ft marker and connected a spring ballance to the marker then pulled to required reading on the ballance scale.Could this be a way of checking the calibration IE mark down the torque wrench shaft at 1Ft from the fulcrum point then the FT Lbs reading and the torque wrench Ft Lbs setting should be equal when pulling on the balance any difference % wise could be compensated for.Hope I've managed to explain myself OK Cliff.

That is one way of doing it ,just make sure of balance with some accurate weight object first.