Does anyone else use a torque wrench on lug nuts? It drives me crazy to see the help in the tire shop pounding repeatedly with the pneumatic impact wrench, no clue about what the wrench is set to and not even following the recommended tightening sequence. When I ask they say don't worry, the wrench is set right but when I torque by hand when I get home they are almost always over-tightened.

I bought a used slant-load horse trailer recently, tandem axles, six lugs each wheel. I cleaned the exposed threads, lubed, and removed the lug nuts. They were so tight some took a lot of pounding with my impact wrench just to remove, some tight all the way to the end. It turned out each lug nut was horribly distorted from over-tightening and some wouldn't even go back on the studs gracefully. I had to use a thread restorer to "retap" some of the nuts and clean up the ends of some studs just to get them back on.

The next day I bought all new lug nuts and installed them with a manual torque wrench in three steps as recommended, rechecked after driving some. I was headed out for a 22 hr drive and wanted everything right (also repacked the wheel bearings and cleaned/lubed/repaired rusty brake hardware.) Tires were overinflated too, according to the mfgrs recommendation.

I think I'm less stressed when I jack up and take the wheels off the vehicle or trailer myself and throw them in the truck; let the shop mount the and balance the tires, I'll put them back on.

End of rant...

JKJ