[Art-n-Marge]

Here's the scenario. Thanks to the MOC, I now know to check the U-bolt torque on the rig on a regular basis and the torque has been holding well.

A few days ago, I used 4x4 blocks and jack stands at the frame on the same side of the rig after using a bottlejack at the u-bolt to gain the lift to deploy the jack stands. Then I was free to spin the Monty tires to adjust the brakes and all looked good (a little adjustment was needed, but some was needed nevertheless). Then I removed the jacks from that side and did the other side. Nothing unusual at this point.

Now here's the curiosity. Just for grins after someone posted reminders about checking the nuts on U-bolts for proper torque, I figured it's been almost 6 months I may as well check them. So yesterday, I found most u-bolts nuts still holding the torque except for the ones that were used as a jacking point. Some of those needed some tightening but non-jacking U-bolts were 65 ft/lbs on the nose.

I'm guessing that in some cases the bottle jack pushing up on the U-bolt just might cause the U-bolt to seat up against the axle a little bit more and cause the nut to get a little loose. I do see that most U-bolts aren't always flush to the axle and there might be some gap however small. I went ahead and torqued them back to 65 ft/lbs (3 of 4 had this anomaly), but I was wondering if we should all remember to check the torque if the U-bolts were used as a jacking point.

Any thoughts? Extra concerns?