Wheel nuts for racing car or just in general use

[Neil Choi]

Hello all and the brains trust,

Didn't know where to put this so I will go here.

What is the general opinion of wheel nuts?  Normal ones are made of steel and heavy, Alfetta being M12x1.5, correct?

How do you all feel about light weight wheel nuts in the acorn sharp, made of alloy, 7075 grade aluminum, forged and machined I think.

Will this sort of thing hold and is there a risk?  Are they junk?  I am using steel ones at the moment and I torque them up to 80 Nm with torque wrench religiously, check twice, all the time.

I tend to like my wheels staying on the hubs.

Neil

[Mick A]

They are on Hung's car and his wheels haven't fallen off yet!

[Beatle]

http://oxwheel.com.au/index.php?option=com_djcatalog2&view=item&id=382:forged-alloy-wheel-nuts&cid=163:wheel-nuts-forged-alloy

http://tracksformations.com.au/949racing-alloy-wheel-nuts-p-174.html

[Evan Bottcher]

http://oxwheel.com.au/index.php?option=com_djcatalog2&view=item&id=382:forged-alloy-wheel-nuts&cid=163:wheel-nuts-forged-alloy

http://tracksformations.com.au/949racing-alloy-wheel-nuts-p-174.html

Are those recommendations Paul?

[Neil Choi]

Apologies for my stupidity.

What about some of those ebay ones?  I am wearing my race suit at the moment.

Neil

[hmd]

Neil,

Which one on ebay? There're good and bad stuffs on it 
My experience and understanding is the good quality ones have deep threads and hold wheels in real well.
They are softer than steel ones so after repeated use with a rattle gun say they will have a tendency to round-off on the outside only.
If you hand torqued them they should last long.

[Neil Choi]

Okay, tight arse alert.

These, as an example.  Crap?

http://tinyurl.com/k5g77e3

Or are the ones Paul recommended good?

Or any others.

[Neil Choi]

I will only be using hand tools to get off and on.  So no rattle gun.  But I do want my wheels to stay on for obvious reasons.

[Beatle]

Sorry, not recommendations.  Merely showing that alloy nuts exist.

However, I'd be very picky about where I sourced al alloy wheel nuts.  No-name brands from some bloke in Outer Mongolium with nothing more than a mobile phone number for a shop front  probably doesn't provide good product support after your front wheel taks off at a tangent in turn one at Eastern Ck or PI

[Craig C]

I noticed that these are all chamfered and that some of my original alfetta wheels are countersunk whereas the others aren't.  Was there a change in design along the way and is it signicant which nuts go with which wheel?

[Ross Flood]

I have had a set, bought from Demon Tweeks in UK for about 5 years with no problems - some wear of the anodising colour. always hand tightened.

[redsky]

I've run factory alloy wheel nuts on Triumphs for much of the past 15 years, no problems during road use or motorkhanas but i have had one or two strip their threads. I would think that the quality would (or could) be better than back in the 70's though.

Darren.

[hmd]

I bought a set on eBay, $50. After repeated use their soft thread would strip against the steel studs.
Unless you get a good quality set like a genuine Rays Engineering from Japan which would cost about $200 a set. Don't bother.

And just for you Neil, they weigh 26 grams each compared to steel ones which weigh 43 grams. Saving of 272g for 16, just don't eat breakfast

[jazig.k]

That's a weight saving of around 2 cups of tea? Hard to justify spending a couple hundred on the brand name nuts, which in my opinion would be THE ONLY safe choice. It's cheaper to buy good nuts than trying to plough through a tyre barrier or another car...

I'd but yourself a set of dimple dies for the same price [or cheaper] and go nuts with those. Might save a kettle of tea and a pack of biscuits if you're keen

[colcol]

But with the lighter nuts, you would save some unsprung weight which would help the handling, always prefer soft nuts that buy the farm, and can be replaced easily, rather than stripping a stud, which is a lot more work to replace, Colin.