Another Torque Reminder - Montana Owners Club

rames14 · 05-10-2006, 03:52 PM

We went over tonight to pick up the Monty after having some maintenance work done. One of the items was some road damage to a tire sidewall and also a magnet wire short. Well, it is about twenty miles home and after all of the recent discussion on torque wrenches, I made sure that mine was handy when we got home. Threee out of four wheels needed retorquing. We will be going back to our seasonal site on Friday and I will need to stop several times on the way to retorque. All four tires had been removed, so this was expected with aluminum wheels.

By the way, with all of the problems I see on the forum with dealers, I want to tell everyone about a truly great dealer - Rollin On RV in Schererville, Indiana. Great service, friendly people. Mike McKenna, one of our members is one of the service managers. After reading about Yank's story, I feel very thankful that we have a dealer that really takes good care of us.

Bruce Lenhardt · 05-10-2006, 04:41 PM

I also agree that Rollin On RV in Schererville, Indiana is a very good dealer. We just picked up our new Monty from them and was real impressed with the service.

VanMan · 05-20-2006, 04:04 AM

Is there any reason to ever loosen the lugnuts and retorque them? I know there can be some problems if they are over-tightened, but once they are on and torqued, do we just check them for looseness - not overtight? What about when someone else services them like this topic?

Glenn and Lorraine · 05-20-2006, 06:33 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by VanMan

Is there any reason to ever loosen the lugnuts and retorque them? I know there can be some problems if they are over-tightened, but once they are on and torqued, do we just check them for looseness - not overtight? What about when someone else services them like this topic?

Recheck them. It only takes a couple extra minutes to be sure.

If you didn't put the nuts on yourself than I would loosen them one at a time and retorque them. It is rare that a lugnut will get tighter thru usage.

rames14 · 05-24-2006, 01:25 PM

As Glenn said, they won't tighten but will loosen. If someone else put them on, ask what torque they set them at. If they say 120 ft lbs, okay. If they don't know what you're talking about, start over. All dealers and all transport companies should know, but that doesn't mean they do as told. Just remember that if you do loosen and retorque, check at 25, 50 and 75 miles.

sreigle · 05-24-2006, 04:10 PM

I haven't loosened and retightened ours except one time when they were so tight the brakes would squall when applied. But it sounds like a good idea to loosen and retighten the first time just to make sure they're torqued correctly. After that you just try tightening with the torque wrench.

Ron, you may remember many of us met Mike and Wendy at the first Goshen rally. Very nice people.

Driftwoodgal · 05-24-2006, 05:57 PM

Just curious, are you worried that the lugnuts are to tight or that they are to loose? We have had vehicles that they were tightened so tight that you couldn't get them off.

I have to make a note to myself as the rims that are on our soon to be RV were defective. The new rims are in the cargo area waiting to be changed out. When something like that is done should the tires be balanced?

Montana Sky · 05-24-2006, 08:33 PM

Driftwoodgal,
I had my tires balanced for my peace of mind. There has been great debate on this forum about balancing the wheels, I chose to do it and will do it again when I replace the tires.

VanMan · 05-25-2006, 04:42 AM

Driftwoodgal, BOTH - too tight can cause stress and damage - too loose and you might lose a wheel and,or damage. That's why they have specs to torque to. This goes for your cars/trucks also. Sometimes the mechanics completely disregard torque and just fire up the impact hammer and crank 'em on !! I recently had a brake job done on my truck and during an 800+ mile trip (with the Montana) my brake calipers came loose losing a couple of bolts. It did some damage to my wheel, bolts were a dealer item, stranded at a brake shopp 400 miles from home for several hours waiting for bolt delivery to the repair place + repair time, missed a reservation for a riverboat tour (grrrr!).

I tend to think because I pay someone to do a job, that they do it right! I have a friend who will, after EVERY Wal Mart (or whoever) oil change, before ever moving the vehicle, will check the dipstick before driving off.

Thunderman · 05-25-2006, 05:18 AM

Steve,
Did your lug nuts being too tight cause the brakes to squall?
Thanks,
Weldon

Wrenchtraveller · 06-03-2006, 06:38 PM

Vanman, you must have a starting point for the torque value and your torquewrench will not let you know if your lug nuts are over tight so loosen them and re torque them, after that you only need to check the torque as they will not go over tight on their own.

As for letting someone else change your oil, it really is a leap of faith as this very simple task is often done wrong with dire consequences for your engine. I have changed my own oil for the last 40 years and my Dad who will be 80 this August still changes the oil on his Van.

The story about vehicles being started without oil in the crank case happens every day in North America and the honest dealers will tell you about it. Most won't.

richfaa · 06-04-2006, 05:13 AM

balancing tires..The general opinion is they do not need to be balanced and my tire guy will say the same thing primarily because the tires are not used for steering and you do not ride in the camper...however..in the tire guys experience and he is a Rv'er most new Rv tires are out of balance and he recommends balancing them to improve tire wear.He will balance mine when I get a chance to haul the camper up there.He also said that the Mission tires are no better no worse than any other OEM Camper tires foreign or otherwise.

ols1932 · 06-04-2006, 12:08 PM

By all means they should be balanced. There is no perfect tire and any "bounce" that may occur because a tire is out of balance will be transmitted to the structure and the rig contents. Imagine all four tires out of balance and bouncing at random times as they roll....

Orv

sreigle · 06-07-2006, 02:06 PM

I did not have the OEM tires balanced although I think it a good idea. I had replacement tires balanced. All five tires on this Montana are balanced at this time. I'm not real sure if it's necessary but it stands to reason it would reduce wear on tires, suspension, contents, and the rig in general.

Wrenchtraveller · 06-08-2006, 06:33 PM

If you saw the way my Missions galloped while they were on the balancing machine you would never pull a unit without balancing the tires first. They were fine after they were balanced and in the 3500 mile trip we just completed, some not so great roads, I have never owned a unit that the contents rode so well. Even the lazy susan was not a problem and everything stayed where we put it. I decided to try the Missions after getting some good reports from others on this site and the Missions now get an A plus rating from me. They held 80 PSI the entire 6 1/2 weeks we were on the road and they ran cool and true. They show no signs of wear and I was one of the posters that complained the loudest about these Chinese tires. On the other hand , I also have the smallest Montana model so no doubt the Missions will have an easier life on my model than they would on the larger units.

sreigle · 06-09-2006, 03:00 PM

Don, did they use a lug centric balancer or a center hole centric balancer? Those tires cannot be properly balanced on a center hole centric balancer. They will gallop, exactly as you described. The normal auto tire balancer is hole centric. I found out about this after having an auto repair facility try to balance the tires on our first Montana. They thought the rims were out of round. Keystone sent four new rims at my dealer's request. Same thing. They galloped a bunch. Took it to someone who knows about balancing rv wheels and they had no problems balancing the tires. They used the lug centric balancer.

I thought I'd post this just in case they used the standard auto balancer without using the lug centric adapter. That really makes the rims and tires look bad. Plus, the balance job isn't going to be accurate, either.

H. John Kohl · 06-09-2006, 03:15 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by sreigle

Don, did they use a lug centric balancer or a center hole centric balancer? "snip"
I thought I'd post this just in case they used the standard auto balancer without using the lug centric adapter. That really makes the rims and tires look bad. Plus, the balance job isn't going to be accurate, either.

OK I give up

What is the difference between the two?
Cheers and tow safe.

richfaa · 06-09-2006, 03:42 PM

Hub-Centric
A hub and wheel design in which the wheel is centered on a raised center portion of the hub: Here, the lug nuts/bolts then serve only to hold the wheel in place on the hub. Most tire balancing machines use a conical wheel mounting mechanism to locate the wheel/tire on the machine for balancing.
Lug-Centric
A hub and wheel design in which the wheel is centered by the lug nuts/bolts themselves, often with clearance between the center of the hub and the cut out in the wheel. Toyota wheels are lug-centric and as such require a special lug-centric fixture to be properly balanced on a cone-type balancing machine, as the wheel center hole may not be exactly centered on the lug center point

Wrenchtraveller · 06-10-2006, 06:04 AM

Steve, thanks to this forum, I learned the difference between the two types of balancing and the first shop I took one of the Montana wheels to , he incorrectly used the hub centric method.
I took that tire plus the other 3 to a better shop that used the correct lug centric method .

The wheel and tire that had been hub balanced was terrible so in fact a poor balance job is worse than no balance. Correct me if I am wrong but any wheel that uses bevel lug nuts is centred by those nuts and needs to be lug centric balanced. If the wheels get their fit on the hub and use a lug nut with a flat swivel washer like my 05 Ford F350, then these would need hub centric balancing.

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