In most cases, people who tend to change their original equipped wheels usually end up replacing the lug nuts to fit the aftermarket wheels and improve the performance. Since the lug nuts are critical components that are used to secure the wheel to your Hummer EV, how to keep them safe becomes very important in your wheel upgrade. If you have replaced your Hummer EV lug nuts, you need to check out carefully whether you are using quality lug nuts and tightened properly. When driving in hard condition, even if a broken lug nut can cause vibration, or worse, making your wheels fall off the hub assembly. It may seem like a simple matter to ensure that your Hummer EV lug nuts are properly torqued before driving, but even this simple maintenance act is so often overlooked.
Using Quality GMC Hummer EV Lug Nuts
When figuring out the thread and seat type of your Hummer EV lug nuts (Previous article), then you get to the material selection which is one of the important things to ensure safety. BONOSS offers high-quality forged Hummer EV lug nuts that are available in a variety of colors to suit your style preferences. Although many stores claim that they are selling Aluminum lug nuts, but they are not made by the forged process. In fact, they are cheap casting lugs. Forging provides higher performance Hummer EV lug nuts than casting. It further enhances the hardness and toughness. With the same material and cost, the strength and safety of forged Hummer EV nuts are far higher than casting ones. BONOSS provides forged Titanium lug nuts (Tensile Strength≥1,110Mpa), and the forged 7075-T6 Aluminum lug nuts (Tensile Strength≥572Mpa), they are fully SGS TUV ISO standard test reports certificated. And the Tensile Strength of the cheap alternatives is approximately 125Mpa below. When facing bump and impact loads, higher tensile strength can bear greater forces without breaking.
Torqued Your Hummer EV Lug Nuts Properly
When you finally get the new Hummer EV lug nuts and are ready to install, properly torqued them are extremely important. Wheel lug nuts are designed to fasten your wheels with a clamping force. When torqued to the manufacturer-specified spec, they will make a strong mechanical connection to the threads on the vehicle hub. Here is the reference tightening torque for BONOSS Hummer EV wheel lug nuts:
- M12: reference 113NM (83.3 Ft-tb)
- M14: reference 140NM (103.5 Ft-tb)
- 1/2-20UNF: reference 130NM (95.8 Ft-tb)
Besides, it is also critical to ensure your lug nuts’ thread is enough for the proper thread engagement. At the minimum, thread engagement length must be equal to or greater than the diameter of the fastener. Generally, the minimum number of turns and the locking torque for different threads are as follows:
- M12 x 1.50 = 6.5 turns = approx. 10 mm of load bearing shaft length
- M14 x 1.50 = 7.5 turns = approx. 12 mm of load bearing shaft length
- 1/2″ UNF = 8.0 turns = approx. 11 mm of load bearing shaft length
It is very important to ensure the Hummer EV lug nuts are torqued to the correct specifications. Even if there is only one lug nut that is undertorqued, it can continue to loosen itself through the vibrations while driving at high speed. As a result, it will unseat the wheel from the hub and create additional vibrations as it spins erratically. This can put pressure on the lug nut itself that it was unable to handle, leading to eventual failure, even though the nuts haven’t slid off first and the rim hasn’t separated from the hub completely yet. Over torquing your Hummer EV lug nuts can have similar effects. Stretched lug nuts can lead to warped brakes as loads are distributed unevenly across the hardware. The previously-mentioned cracking and shearing can also separate the lug nut from the hub, and potentially lead to catastrophic wheel loss.
