Anyone know a place to get longer lugs for our trucks. I want to use the same thread pattern for use on the stock lug nuts.

Ok reason why: I have 35" tires on my stock 17" rims with a 3" body lift on my truck. It at full lock I will contact the frame with just the tips of the tread of the tires. Now I was told by more than one mechanic that it will still pass inspection because it only contacts at full lock and not under driving conditions but I would still like to do something about it at least for inspection day. I was thinking about installing 1/4" spacers on the front to get it passed. With the spacer everything clears but I am a few threads short of full engagement on the lugs and I'm not comfortable with driving like that. So if I can find longer lugs I will install them so that I can put the spacers on at least during inspection time.

Any info would be greatly appreciated,

kev

 

In case no one else comes along with first hand knowledge, I'll tell you that this is extremely dangerous.

There was a story on the board last summer from a member who did pretty much exactly what you're talking about here and on his first test drive on the highway, he watched as his front wheel fell off and rolled right on down the highway as he was taking an exit ramp.

I don't know exactly what you can do here but if you install longer lugs, there is a good chance that they will be stressed beyond their limits and break.

 

I did a few calculations using the material of the lug to find out how many threads of engagement are required to hold the lug at its maximum yield strength. I determined that there are 3-4 full extra threads in the nut. I have to look up the notes I have to give exact numbers. Now what I do at work is subtract 2 threads for conservatism. So that leaves me with only 2 threads extra which is about .25". So I don't want to do this without longer lugs and also a keen mechanic won't pass it in inspection if he noticed that the nuts weren't fully engaged.

I don't know what kind of stresses the lug really takes, I only know what the lug takes to yield. I haven't done any calculation about the increase in bending stress imposed on the lug due to a .25" increase in the effective length. You are right, this could be a drastic difference. I do this stuff all of the time at work and sometimes it isn't a big deal and other times it is. It depends on the material of the lug, thread type, etc. Yes I have to look into this. Right now I was just trying to find out what kind of longer lugs are out there, so I can go from there. If it is just a matter of installing longer lugs in the front hubs and putting in the spacers just to drive down the road to the inspection station, that is what I will do no matter how bad my calculation is. I will just pull off the spacers after the inspection is over. It doesn't bother me one bit that these tires rub at full lock, I just hate argueing with mechanics during inspection time.

Has anyone encoutered a lack of full thread engagement when installing aftermarket wheels? I don't think all wheels are the same thickness at the bearing surfaces, so I'm sure that people here are running with an 1/8" or even more of a positive thickness in the bearing surface of the wheel and probably don't even know it.

Oh is the guy you are talking about Whiplash?


Any info will be greatly appreciated.

kev

 

Why not get some custom billet adapters made? They can do a 1.25" one up front, and get a 2" one for the rear to bring them out even. It'll give you a better track and will be more stable through turns.

 

This Company: http://www.motorsport-tech.com/ Makes adaptors out of 6061T6 aluminum (very strong). However using any kind of spacer like this puts a lot more stress on the suspension because your increasing the leverage the tire has on the suspension components. The RIGHT way to solve your problem would be to get different rims with a different offset.

-Jon

 

Thanks guys, but actually what I did was to drill a 1/8" hole on the stopper which limits the steering on the hub assembly on each side of the truck and installed a pop rivet in there. Just that little pop rivet to limit the steering a hair, prevents me from rubbing now. Also it is real easy to remove (just drill it out) if I don't want the steering limited. However I don't even notice the difference except of course there is no rubbing sound anymore when pulling into parking spaces.


Thanks for all of your help. I didn't want to go with aftermarket wheels. I love the stock ones and my goal this whole time was to retain them.

Thanks again,
kev