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Alloy wheels and seat taper

Hi all

Sorry if this is the wrong group. But the question concerns differing tapers of common alloy wheels and nuts and it seems to me to be an engineering aspect.

Where alloy wheels have a tapered seat I commonly see these fastened with nuts/bolts having seats of a different taper or even with the rounded seats used on steel wheels!

Seems to me that if an engineer has designed a wheel with a particular angle of taper there must have been equivalent tapered nut/bolt. For example a standard tapered nut usually has a "steeper" taper than most wheel seats resulting in contact only being made with the wheel for a very small depth.

My Honda dealer even told me that when fitting alloy wheels they use the standard steel wheel nut (with a rounded seat). This too contacts

the wheel over a very small area.

Doesn't anyone design a nut or bolt to match the seat of the wheel? Otherwise I cannot see how (from an engineering point of view) it is safe! What's the point of fixing wheels with one angle of taper with nuts of a different taper?

Thanks

Reply to
Plato
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Alloy wheels take different nuts from steel wheels. The steel wheel nuts are too hard often and wear the alloy leading to them, well, falling off...

Reply to
DanTXD

The wheel nut taper should match the taper on the wheel nut seat, if you need some try Demon Tweeks.

Reply to
Homer

If you have alloy wheels, then would it be correct to assume you need wheel nuts made of lead or some other material softer than the wheel?

k
Reply to
ken

If you want to deal with clueless numptys and pay 4 times as much as anywhere else, then give Demon Tweeks a call.

k
Reply to
ken

or save a few quid on the call and talk to ken on here as he's just as clueless but more a f****it than a numpty

Reply to
Vamp

Indeed. Mismatch increases the chance of the bolt breaking (although the vertical load should be taken by the hub). Bit about it (in regard to bike cranks, but similar ideas) in the last para here:

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Reply to
Doki

They provided me with a set of Spax springs for my car which were cheaper than pattern springs from a local motorfactors. They were the right ones for my car and the guy knew straight away what I was talking about when I called them.

How does this make them expensive, clueless numptys?

Reply to
Abo

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