wheel stud and lug nut question

[HeavyDuty]

Any one know if the studs and lug nuts are the same for the factory steel wheel the Factory aluminum wheels?
In other words can the lug nuts that came with the OEM Aluminum wheels work with the OEM steel wheels without bottoming out on the studs?
Or do I need to change the stud lengths?

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[HeavyDuty]

I'm setting up some pizza cutter tires on steel wheels and wanted to make sure I wouldn't run into trouble going from Alloy to Steelies.
Thanks for the reply.
I can check when the steelies get here too - But good to know up front.

 

[Frenchy]

Chances are the lugs may be a little different between factory steels to factory aluminium wheels. Comparing to aftermaket wheels there is a high chance they require a different lug nut. As for the studs yoy will be fine

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Chances are the lugs may be a little different between factory steels to factory aluminium wheels. Comparing to aftermaket wheels there is a high chance they require a different lug nut. As for the studs yoy will be fine

Hi Chris,

For Ford testing, the aluminum wheel at each corner is removed and the spare tire is installed and the vehicle is put through its paces on the handling track, evasive accident avoidance, lane change etc. The lugnuts used for the test came from the aluminum wheels..so it has to work. The steel wheel cone is still at 60° angle so the test ensures that the studs do not bottom out before the wheel is tight.

So a bit of a back story.... It was after hours and a bunch of us train drivers were enjoying a malted beverage at our favorite hangout and we wondered what it would like to have a vehicle with 4 spare tires on it. We speculated on the adverse vehicle dynamics and thus the gauntlet was thrown down to Vehicle Dynamics to see what would happen. It took some effort to round up 4 spare tires but thanks to our scrap vehicle business, Environ, we obtained 4 spare tires. So the test was on! We expected disastrous results, but the vehicle on 4 spare tires passed our criteria...not without the driver being a bit rattled but it worked! So....you have a snap shot into a bit of inside Engineering humor and what we did... Not an approved test by any means but we had fun betting on what would happen and left amazed at how the Ranger (twin I beam version) worked. Driver commented the ride would shake your eyeballs out of your head.... Yeah....engineering humor.

We also did other crazy things like milling off the brake friction material and brake shoe material so the brakes were metal to the brake disk or drum... We wanted to see if the vehicle would even stop from various speeds...Again....It did surprisingly well.... Sounded like a grinding mill but the Ranger did stop...not within FMVSS requirements but the brakes did work.... Okay...I know Yawn...f*ucking engineering humor...

best,
Phil

 

[Dgc333]

We also did other crazy things like milling off the brake friction material and brake shoe material so the brakes were metal to the brake disk or drum... We wanted to see if the vehicle would even stop from various speeds...Again....It did surprisingly well.... Sounded like a grinding mill but the Ranger did stop...not within FMVSS requirements but the brakes did work.... Okay...I know Yawn...f*ucking engineering humor..l
Phil

Phil, you brake story reminded me of an occurrence I witnessed many years ago. I was at the local Dodge dealer to gets some parts. This dealership had the parts department on the opposite side of the building from the showroom and they didn't deal with payments. You had to get and invoice and walk across the shop to the showroom and pay the invoice and go back and get your parts.

Anyway, I was walking across the shop and I stopped dead in my tracks. There was a mini van on the lift with the front tires off and the brake rotors caught my attention. The rotors and pads had been running metal to metal to the point that the rotors were worn down to the cooling vanes in the center and you could see through the rotors. The tech noticed the shock looked and said "if you think that is bad check this out" and he showed me one of the calipers. The pad was gone and it was the piston that was grinding into the rotor.

He went on to say that the mini van was not even in for a brake job. The van stopped moving when in gear. Both CV joint boots were shredded and the balls in one had worn to the point that the hub of the CV would spin freely in the the outer housing. He was waiting for the owner to come in and see why they needed two CV joints, calipers, rotors and pads. They just wanted it fixed so it would move.

I can't even imagine the noise that thing was making not to mention the vibration each time the brakes were applied. Some folks should not be allowed to own motor vehicles.

 

[Aonarch]

I've never heard of a vehicle having different material studs based on steel vs aluminum wheels. At least not in the past two decades.

 

[Icemanhd]

Good thread and glad I found it since I had the same question! I tried looking on Ford parts diagrams online, from what I see it looks like there is only 1 lugnut (#13 in the diagram) for any of the steel or alloy wheels except maybe beadlocks.

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