Tires Tire torqueing

[ruralNearDallas]

My husband was busy at work, so I had our son-in-law check the torque on the tractor tires as a maintenance issue. I thought he knew about torque and had him torque the front at 150+ instead of the 100 foot pounds.

Question. Is there anything we need to do about the over torquing? Can we just leave it and they will loosen on their own over time?

 

[Bird]

I suspect it won't hurt a thing, but even so, if it were me, I'd probably loosen and re-torque them. The fact is that I rarely used a torque wrench on lug nuts or bolts myself, although it's certainly recommended.

 

[Dead Horse]

150 on those studs is too much. Back them off and re-torque at the proper amount.

Too much torque will stretch the studs and weaken them. I think U are still withing an ok range, but I would not leave them like that.

 

[RoyJackson]

Torquing serves two purposes:
Ensuring the internal (nut) and external (bolt or stud) are tight enough to establish a tension (reduces the possibility of loosening through vibration).
Ensuring fasteners are not too tight (good example is a service center airgunning wheel bolts or nuts...and you cannot loosen them when changing a flat tire).

Also, overtorquing can damage the threads ("pulling" the threads), but I doubt 50 extra lbs-feet would do that on steel fasteners (aluminum threads might be a different story).

I doubt you see any problems, but I'd loosen them and torque to the proper specification.

One thing I do recommend is "torque stripping". This is done by using a paint marker (or equivalent) and drawing a stripe across the torqued fasterner and the adjacent surface. As long as that stripe isn't broken or misaligned, you know the fastener hasn't loosened.

 

[Transit]

If I were you, I would find and use the correct torque range for all the tractor bolts. There should be a low to high number for all bolts; exp 85 to 100 pound feet, anything in the correct range is ok. Some bolts and nuts will use a flat washer. This washer may not be truly flat, most common washers are stamped and are bell or crown shaped. Set the washer so that the crown, high spot is under the bolt head or nut so that it will flatten.

I would also use anti-seize compound on all the bolts to keep the nuts from locking up and making it near imposable to remove, reduce the torque by 10%. Another point, do not set-it and for get it., after setting the bolts, take the tractor for a ride and then re-torque to the same value and recheck every so often until things stabilize. The same goes for yearly maintenance, at oil change time check all the tractor bolts.

 

[ruralNearDallas]

Thanks.

 

[dstig1]

That's 150% of the spec. That's a lot over... Redo them and hope they didn't permanently stretch. Yes, it is possible that damaged them, though I can't tell you how likely it is. If one ever breaks or you find the lugs loosening down the road, I would have all the studs replaced at that point, as one going bad would be enough warning that you did damage.

 

[Transit]

That's 150% of the spec. That's a lot over... Redo them and hope they didn't permanently stretch. Yes, it is possible that damaged them, though I can't tell you how likely it is. If one ever breaks or you find the lugs loosening down the road, I would have all the studs replaced at that point, as one going bad would be enough warning that you did damage.

Agreed, the max torque number is usually about 80% of the failure strength of the bolt/stud.

 

[ruralNearDallas]

We loosened, then re-torqued. Never drove the tractor overtorqued. Hoping for no damage.

 

[bxonthelake]

Just for the record, you are torqueing the Wheel nuts, you do not torque Tires.
JD