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Mike Hartigan

In article ,
says...
On Wed, 13 Dec 2006 19:46:43 -0600, Mike Hartigan wrote:

In article .com,
says...
DK wrote:

Walmart torques my nuts at least 25 ft lbs higher than spec. Discout
tires over torques more than 40 ft lbs.

I wonder why? Do they think over torquing is better/safer?

Given that they're going to do it wrong, I'd rather have them over
torque than under torque. It's safer to lose a bolt than the whole
wheel.
I'd rather have neither. It sucks getting a flat tire and being unable to
put the spare on because some asshole overtorqued the lugnuts. I don't
appreciate hiking back to civilization especially in bad weather.

It sucks even more to have a wheel fall off at 70 mph due to under
torqued nuts. On a return trip from Philadelphia to Buffalo quite a
few years ago, we had to stop due to a severe wobble in one of the
rear wheels. Turns out that three of the bolts had already failed
and the remaining two were barely hanging on. I shudder to think
what might have happened had we gone just a few more miles.

BTW: All the discount tires shops I've seen use torque wrenches. (at least in
colorado and arizona. I don't know about elsewhere)

That's been my recent experience around Chicago, although I don't
know if it's a universal thing.