How to Tighten Truck Lug Nuts

Video Transcript

"Hi my name is Nate McCullough on behalf of Expert Village. In the following clips we're going to talk about the correct procedure for replacing your upper and lower ball joints on a two-wheel drive full size vehicle. In this clip we're going to talk about the proper torquing procedure for the lug nuts on our vehicle. We're going to use the method called the star method. I take my four ways, this particular vehicle has three quarter inch lug nuts. Ninety five percent of the vehicles out there are either going to be three quarter or thirteen sixteenth. Always start on the bottom and give it a nice tight turn. The torque specification for an aluminum style rim like this is going to be approximately a hundred foot-pounds. A hundred foot-pounds is as hard as the average man can push with one hand. As you can see, I started here and went there, from here I'm going to go to the farthest away lug nut which is this one here. If you pay particular attention to the series I'm going on in it will draw a five-pointed star and that's why they call it the star method. The reason why you use that pattern is so that you torque the wheel down in a flat and true manner to the hub surface. That will ensure that the wheel seats truly and isn't bound up on any other surface and will eliminate any possible vibration that can be caused by your wheel not sitting flat. Let me go ahead and indicate to you again, the star pattern, I started here and went from here to there. From this one to this one, this one to this one and this one to this one. And as you can see that drew a five pointed star. That is the proper way to tighten down your vehicles lug nuts. I'm going to grab my hubcap really quick and pop it on for you. As you can see my hubcap has a little spot for each one of the lug nuts. I'm going to take and align two of them, I'm going to pick this and this one and just roll it up into position on. Need a little oil to make sure it's seated, I'm going to thump with my hand and that's the proper way to install your tire, torque the lug nuts and install your hub cap."