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Using H2 / Aluminum Wheels?

B_to_C

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What lug nuts are you using?

I began using lug nuts meant for a 1984 1-ton chevy pick up, but those are meant for steel wheels, and after some research I'm really confused. Do I need different lug nuts for these aluminum H2 wheels? My roomate showed me his tacoma with aluminum wheels and these funky lug nuts that i've never seen before that have a sort of washer on it. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? (it's late I'll come back tomorrow and calrify if you need it)
 
I am using the big long chrome ones, alittle pricey when you have to buy 40 of them, but they look nicer than stock steelie ones.
 
Well after waking up to these enlightning replies this morning I took it upon myself to find out exactly what the deal was with these wheels and lug nuts...

-For anyone who doesn't know, stock H2 lug nuts will not work because they are for a 14mm stud, while our 14 bolts and dana 60's have 9/16's studs.

I talked with people from NAPA, Car Quest, and the best tire shop in town. The tire shop manager was most helpful. Very planely he said I would not be finding a 9/16 lug nut with a washer type deal on it. He said "What you need is a kick-ass 9/16 lug nut" He noted that the current lug nuts I had on there (stock ones) did not have a big enough shoulder to seat in the wheels properly, here's a pic of the 7/8" hex lug nut

L1E.JPG


You can see that when the nut was torqued down there were six points that connected the lug nut to the wheel, NOT a uniform round circle like a conical lug nut shoud create. Through some research (this guy at the tire shop was bad ass and dug through bins of lug nuts looking for one like I needed) he figured out that the closest thing to what I needed came off of an 80's ford F-250...

So I headed off to car quest to aquire some of these lug nuts... Turns out they are exactly the same as the ones I had on there already, so Carquest guy brought out the catalogues and after a while we came up with a lug nut (Car Quest PART # DOR 611-058) which was exactly what I needed for the H2 wheels. Here is a shot of the nut after I torqued it down ad took it back off...this has a 1+1/16" head (9/16 -18 thread of course)

L2E.jpg


Notice the complete circle around the shoulder of the nut, that's a good thing :deal:

Here's a shot from above comparing the two nuts
L3.jpg


And one from the side
L4.jpg

Hope this helps someone else who is looking for information on this topic and doesn't want to accept a couple pics with no accompanying explanation :thumb:
 
I was going to say, why wouldn't 1-ton dually lugs work, those are some pretty good sized units...

I have had no issues with my chrome ones yet, i am not running any sort of center cap either though, maybe i will have to run a stock type lug when or if i get around to getting some Chevy caps for them.
 
Last edited:
4xcrazy said:
I was going to say, why wouldn't 1-ton dually lugs work, those are some pretty good sized units...

NO, bad idea. Dually lugs use a special plate and a different taper angle than standard acorn lugs. Those plain old normal lugs you see every body run will work fine. Aluminum wheels don't need special lugs just because they are aluminum. Some aluminum wheels are a mag style. Some where in the 80's tom selec probably called some normal aluminum wheels mag and since then all aluminum wheels get that name. It is like a blazer to a bronco. Simlar purpose but completly different designs.

The biggest problem I run into at work is the wrong lugs on rims. It is appauling how much misinformation there is on that. Istalling tires is my job. I oversee every car that leaves my bays. We sold nearly 180 tires yesterday and worked on nearly 150 cars. That is my normal routine.
 
B to C. You have those dually lugs I was talking about. Look at that picture. The taper in incorrect. You can use any normal 9/16" lug and yes bigger is usually better. If you want the beefiest lug look for a 95-200 Dodge 2500. Those have the correct taper and are huge.

See pic below

cn5.jpg


The two lugs on the left are tapered at a standard 60° while the two on the right are a ball seat for hondas and acuras. The look real similar but work differently.

Notice the shoulers. You can get them with a smaller shouler or a larger shoulder. The taper is the important part
 
Also, now that I've spent $100 on lug nuts over the past two weeks, will running the nuts with the wrong taper do damage to my wheels?
 
B_to_C said:
Also, now that I've spent $100 on lug nuts over the past two weeks, will running the nuts with the wrong taper do damage to my wheels?

Or will the stock ones that were on my truck already?
 
The lugs won't do any more damage just being on there. They don't fasten the wheel properly and will cause damage during normal removal and install. I am not saying that there will be a firey crash but better safe than sorry.
 
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