When you pick up your brand-new camper, it’s expected that you will tighten the wheel nuts at 50 kilometres, 100 kilometres, 500 kilometres, and 1,000 kilometres. When you’re out travelling, you should be checking them daily. In this article we will run you through the process of correctly tightening you wheel nuts so you can have a safe and smooth trip.
One of the most common things is people neglecting to tighten their wheel nuts at the correct intervals, ending up with five broken wheel studs and the wheel coming off. It can be avoided. This is one of the reasons that with every MDC camper we include a wheel brace so there’s no excuses.
On your way home, when you hit 50 kilometres, you get the wheel brace out and you tighten it up. Preferably though, you’ll have one of these, a tension, or torque wrench. You can pre-set the torque in these to 125 newton-meters or whatever torque is recommended, which is perfect for wheel nuts. That way you’ll get it right every time. You won’t overtighten them, and you certainly won’t under tighten them.
Let’s run through the process of tightening wheel nuts. Believe it or not, there is a bit of a process you need to follow. When you’re tightening them, you need to start with the first wheel nut, go to the opposite side, then diagonally opposite each time you do them up. That will tighten them in an even fashion on to the hub. Very important.
The MDC wheel brace has got a good length to it so you can get plenty of leverage with it. Once you put it on, you can start turning the wheel nuts. Get them nice and tight. Then lean on it to nip it up. I suggest everyone invest in a torque wrench. With this, you can set it to 125 or 140nnewton-meters, whichever is the recommended torque for your wheel nuts.
The proper procedure with a torque wrench is tighten it up until it clicks once. Then a second time. You know you’re there.
When you do purchase your torque wrench, and you can get these for under $50, so it’s not an enormous purchase, make sure you get a socket extension. That way the torque wrench will clear the tyre.
If you use one of these, you’ll get it right every time. Remember, the day you pick up your trailer, on the way home you want to tighten the wheel nuts at 50 kilometres, then again at 100 kilometres, then again at 500, and 1,000. When you’re out on the road travelling, check them every day.
With the hubs, there’s paint coatings. Things will bed in. The hubs will heat up. Things will change, so that’s why you want to do this every day when you’re out travelling. If you do it, you shouldn’t have any problems.
There is a plate on the drawbar of your trailer that indicates the torque setting for your torque wrench, and how to do the wheel nuts up in a star pattern, as well as the intervals in which you should be checking your wheel nuts.
Check out the drawbar on your trailer. Now, with tight nuts and your torque wrench in hand, you can hit the road and escape with confidence. For more great videos, head across to our website or follow us on Facebook.
