about lug nuts. So if you have a custom built vehicle a lot
of times we are going to need your input on what bolt pattern you are using for the hub
assemblies on that vehicle. To measure those hub assemblies, a five bolt, a six bold an
eight bolt lug pattern, all those are going to have different ways they are going to be
measured which we will show you here shortly on how we should be measuring those. The other
thing is, when you buy a custom wheel assembly for your vehicle, a lot of times the manufacturers
may change up the seat type of lug nut that is required to bolt that wheel to the hub
assembly.
There are a lot of different styles whether it be a conical seat which is more
of a tapered seat which we are probably used to on most o.E.M applications. There is also
a shank style as well and then there is different shank lengths as well as different lug nut
diameters and tapered diameters that maybe required depending on the type of wheel being
used. When purchasing wheels for a custom application like say you are building a 32
ford and your using a ford 9 inch in the read and Chevy hubs up in the front. What you will
come tor realize is that the ford 9 inch may use a 5 by 4 pattern and the Chevy hubs
will probably use a 5 by 4 bolt pattern.
The thing about that is we are probably going
to need your input to tell us what bolt patterns are on those hubs. Some of these bolt patterns
are going to be measured differently depending on if its a five lug, six lug or an eight
lug. For example, this is how you would measure a five lug pattern. You will notice that a
five lug get measured from the outer edge of one hole to the center of the adjacent
hole.
Once the lug pattern of the wheel needed is
determined the next thing we need to look at is the lug seat type required for that
wheel. For the most part the wheels that you purchase from us are either going to be a
conical seat or its going to be a shank style seat lug nut depending on the wheel type and
what the wheel use is really going to be like rice wheels usually use a shank style lug
nut whereas most street style wheels will use a tapered seat lug nut. There is a lot
of different lug nuts out there and actually sometimes there is actually different style
seats within the seat meaning that it could be a different style of conical seat in comparison
to different shank lengths for shank style wheels as well. We are going to go ahead and
dissect those here in a moment.
So lets go ahead and do a quick rundown of all the
conical seat lug nuts that are out there. For the most part most wheels that are being
purchased from are going to require a conical seat lug nut and the seat of those lug nuts
is usually going to require a 60 degree seat. If we were going to have a closed cap wheel
meaning that a wheel that actually had a cap that covered up the lug nuts we would probably
go with something like this here its more of an oem style lug nut which has an open
end on it it is fairly short. For exposed lug nut wheels though, ones that where you
are actually going to see the lug nuts we will probably go with something like this
here.
Which has a finished end on it you will notice that is has a cap over the end so it
dresses up the look of the wheel a little better. For ET style wheels though from Crager
they actually use a shank conical seat combination which actually has a shank insert that goes
into the hole of the wheel as well as well as a conical seat to go ahead and center the
wheel on the hub assembly. Some exposed lug nut wheels though like a they refer to them
as tuner wheels actually have a really tight hole assembly which you will have trouble
getting a socket on in those cases you may be able to get a three quarter inch head lug
nut but sometimes those dont even work because you cant get a socket on there
in the lug nut assembly. At that point you would probably have to go with something like
this here which actually has an internal key set up to go ahead and actually get the lug
nut installed and removed from the vehicle.
Or you can actually go with a spline drive
assembly which uses a really shallow wall socket assembly which will still fit into
that hole like this lug nut right here. Also, in some situations if we had like a diesel
truck or a wheel with a deeply in set setup for the hole we would go with whats known
as a duplex type lug nut which is actually double the length of that of the standard
style lug nut so that you can get a better bite on it. If we were going to go ahead and
use a set of circle track wheels though, everything changes. Circle track wheels instead of using
a 60 degree lug nut now use a 45 degree lug nut like this one here which has a larger
wider surface area to contact the wheel that would be like an arrow race wheel or any type
of Nascar style wheel.
Those wheels will only work with this style lug nut alone and thats
it. Selecting lug nuts for a shank style wheel
is actually a little easier than selecting for a conical seat wheel because there is
really not as many options as there are with the conical seat lug nuts. For the most part,
all you have to figure out with a shank style wheel which is usually a race style wheel
is length of the shank assembly. That is the under head length of each of the lug nuts.
For the most part its either going to be a half inch shank a three quarter inch shank
or an inch and three eights shank and we will be able to determine that for you depending
on which wheel you actually purchase from us on top of that though, the other thing
we have to consider is there is also going to be a washer assembly that is going to be
required for these lug nuts to keep the lug nuts from binding or digging into the wheel
when they are tightened down and that washer is actually used as a spacer and a tensioner
as well because what you will notice about the washer is it is actually concaved so it
is actually like a spring in a sense to create tension against the lug nut and keep it from
coming loose.
For you uni-lug wheel guys like your Crager SSs and what not sometimes
it will not require a standard centered washer. Instead what it will require is a offset washer
if you have the smallest bolt pattern that that wheel will accept like a 5 by 4 or a
5 by 4 and a quarter bolt pattern which is closest to the center of that wheel what you
will notice is that offset will give you the proper clearance so that the washer does not
run into the center cap of that wheel assembly. And the last type of lug nut thats going
to required for our customers that usually have European cars is actually a lug bolt
like this one here which is actually a tapered seat bolt assembly instead of a nut assembly.
These are usually a requirement for aftermarket wheels because the factory wheels on most
European cars actually use a cover to cover up the factory lug nuts whereas; the aftermarket
wheels will go ahead and have an exposed lug nut instead.
As you can see here the difference between a shank style set up in comparison to a tapered
seat lug nut set up. Make sure you check out our other wheel and tire videos and thanks
for watching..
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