Spare (steel) wheel nuts vs. Alloy wheel nuts?

It worries me that you don't appear to know if the spare wheel is steel or alloy. Dont rely on words in the manual - you don't know what's been shuffled around.

Steel wheels will have conical seats for the nuts.

Some nuts are dual purpose and will work with both steel and alloy wheels - they look like a nut for an alloy wheel but have a conical 'nose' to mate with the conical seat in the steel wheel. They don't look very pretty fitted. These may be the spare wheel nuts, though. Don't attempt to use alloy type nuts which do not have the conical nose to mount steel wheels.

If this is a Disco 1 and you do have a steel spare the nuts for steel wheels from any Range Rover classic and all Defender-shaped Land Rovers from about 1971 will fit. The smaller nuts from the Disco 2 and Range Rover P38 will not fit.

The owners manual says, and I quote, "All Land Rover vehicles fitted with alloy wheels have a steel spare wheel." "DO NOT use the spare wheel securing nuts in place of the road wheel nuts."

The nuts that were holding on the alloy wheel DO have a tapered or "conical" nose on them. Sounds like they are the dual purpose nuts you are talking about. The taper seemed to fit the tapered seat in the steel wheel fine, and like you said, look pretty bad fitted.

I guess I was asking if the spare tool kit was supposed to include different nuts or if you are supposed to reuse them alloy nuts. Looks like you can with no issues?

I should add that this Disco has been in the family since new, so the spare and associated hardware are original and nothing has been "shuffled."

Yes, you can, and yes, they look odd. I asked the very same question on this NG about 2 years ago.

In message , snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com writes

I seem to remember reading somewhere that you can use the alloys nuts on the steel wheels but you should not use the nuts for steel wheels with alloys. I think it was to do with surface area rather than angle of taper.

Don't panic dear boy (or girl as the case may be). It's perfectly okay to use the wheel nuts from your alloy wheels to mount your steel spare. Obviously LR didn't expect owners to drive very far on the spare before getting the road tyre replaced so they didn't supply steel wheel nuts ... but cut a nice taper in the end of the alloy ones to fit into the steel wheel.

Just be aware that you are driving with wheel nuts that poke out a bit further than normal ... a bit like having knife blades on the wheels of a chariot :-)

You can't get the steel wheel nuts down the holes in the alloy wheels. Alloy wheel nuts don't rely on the taper to locate them into the wheel that is done by the (fairly) tight fit of the shank of the nut. The tightening effect of the alloy wheel nuts is via the flat flange just below the nut head.

Other than the 'banned' (material strength considerations, probably) dual purpose spare wheel nuts there may be two normal nuts for alloy wheels in circulation with one being a dual purpose design. If your normal nut for alloy wheels fits the chamfer in the steel wheel you will be OK. If you have my combination where the nut cannot engage the chamfer in the wheel, don't do it!

Sounds like it's all cleared up then. My alloy nuts definitely have a tapered end. I didn't realize that the alloy wheels were not located by the taper, but by the flat flange on the shank.

Thanks for the help

On or around Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:49:39 GMT, SteveG enlightened us thusly:

steel nuts on alloys is a definite no-no - they chew into the alloy at the top of the hole. For the same reason, locking nuts for steel rims can't be used on alloys. I've not had occasion to use the alloy nuts to hold on a steel rim, but they do have a chamfer on them and provided that's enough to locate in the chamfer on the hole then they will be OK.

BTW, the thing about the spare-holding: the spare *should* (if it's a steel one) be held on by 3 normal steel wheelnuts, then the plastic cover, then 3 thin nuts which are only there to hold the plastic cover.

There's no objection I can see to using the normal steel nuts, except of course there aren't enough of them.

Completely agree with you Austin :-)