From a purely mechanical & physics perspective, i.e. not considering corrosion issues, etc., metal to metal threaded fasteners should be lubricated and torqued to spec. A threaded fastener is intended to produce a clamping pressure on the joint - if the fateners are dirty, rusty and poorly lubricated, a greater portion of the applied torque goes into overcoming the rotational friction of the nut and less goes to the clamping force, i.e. holding the wheel on. So somewhat paradoxically, lubrication increases the clamping force (which we want) for a given level of torque. As in the earlier message, it's very true that one should be very careful when allowing poorly calibrated air guns near your wheel nuts. I always re-torque my lug nuts by hand after having my car serviced (but then I'm a nutty engineer!) Andre -----Original Message----- From: chbenneck@juno.com To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com Sent: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 13:01:17 -0400 Subject: Re: M_Boats: Trailering Terror Hi Steve, I put water pump grease on the studs of my M15 Trailrite trailer. The automobile people are against doing that because they say then mechanics with air guns can over torque the wheel nuts, which could lead to stud failure. My rational is, I want grease in the threads because I'm submerging the wheels in water on launching and retrieving, and I don't want water in the threads while the trailer isn't moved and used - or has the lug nuts removed - to keep rust from forming there. My new Shellback trailer had been immersed in water since new with no protection, and the lug nuts were totally unmovable. It took my welding shop's air tools plus welding torch heat to get them to loosen up. I had tried for days using KROIL and other penetrants and got absolutely nowhere. Now they too are covered with water pump grease. Checking the tightness of lug nuts should be done before each trip - and during a long trip - but when I want them to loosen, without calling in King Kong for assistance, I'll rely on a bit of grease on the threads. Another thing to consider is to use tallow, but that is hard to obtain, unless you make it yourself (rendered suet). I used to use tallow on all my stainless turnbuckle threads on the Tripp-Lentsch - standing rigging and life lines - and never had a galling problem; ... and they always worked. Connie _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats