TOPIC: which side do left hand lugs go?

I hate to keep bothering you guys,but I have another question. This gator trailer has left hand lugs on the left side hub of the axle and rights on the other,is this correct? Seems like it should be the other way to "supposedly" keep the lugs from getting loose.The Wesco trailer under the Aristo is right hands on both sides. And naturally I had to buy individual bearings and races for the hubs on the gator..no kits. Advance auto wanted $120.00 for the bearings,races and seals!! That didn't happen

I had a 16' Izuzu box van style truck and it was set up as you described your trailer.Both the tires are spinning in the same direction so no matter what side you have them on, the other side according to your theory will always be wrong.Not sure why they went with the left/right hand set up, maybe to see how many people bust a nut trying to remove the LH ones before they see the LH engraved on the stud.Like I almost did one time

Can't you just interchange the hubs?

Frank

PC1000 wrote:

Can't you just interchange the hubs?

Frank

Well yeah ,either hub will work on either side .What I guess I'm asking is do the lugs need to go on the side that the lug nuts will remain tight with the hub rotating going down the road or what I should say is do the lugs need to tighten up in the opposite direction of the hub/wheel rotation which is what I figured these stupid left hand lugs were for in the first place.

Do not worry about rotation in either direction. Just torque them to about 100 ft lbs and re-check after about a 50-75 miles and you will be good to go.If still worried throw some medium locktite on them.Direction of wheel travel does not have any bearing on them falling off.Mine never loosened up and again one side was LH and the other was RH soooo it defeats the opposite rotation falls off theory.Think about it for a minute.

Yes, I know the left hand lugs are useless. Just wondering "in theory" which side they were supposed to go on.They will get torqued. Thanks

Another trick is to just change the studs out to whatever thread you desire. I have done that many a time for one reason or another.

Frank

Left hand threads go on the left hand side. Chrysler products used this system until about 1970. I have never seen it used on a trailer, but the theory would be the same.

Thanks Jim.That's what I was wondering. I'd heard about the Chrysler lugs years back.That's how I'll run them, great.. jim

I remembered my 64 Barracuda had them Jim, but I couldn't for the life of me remember which side they were on!

MarkS wrote:

I remembered my 64 Barracuda had them Jim, but I couldn't for the life of me remember which side they were on!

Probably on both sides Mark, but that's just a guess...

Frank

Please don't say "it doesn't matter". I had a 1963 International Truck with LH threads on the right front wheel.

It does matter because of a few reasons not mentioned here. Back in the day, metallurgy was not what it is today. This is manifest in many things. Truck transmission gears now have smaller teeth so they run quieter. In fact the whole dang transmission is smaller, yet stronger. In the 1960's truck tranny's sung out loud and clear. You can still hear the whine of a rear end dif on an older vehicle when it is warn. That's because of large teeth. The lugs were larger "teeth" too, called "course thread", so they did have lug nuts backing off while the vehicle was in motion. You have to remember that most roads were dirt and thus "washboard". Vibration does nasty things to a vehicle.

In the case of lug nuts they have gone to a finer thread too. If you can find a bench grinder to look at you will see that the wheel nut on one side is reverse. Grinders have a course thread shaft and nut. In fact all rotating tools like circular saws, by law or by common sense (I'm not sure which), have reverse nuts.

Go stand at the front of your car. Pretend you are looking at a twin wheel bench grinder. Picture the wheels going forward, toward you. The reverse/left hand nuts are on the right front wheel, that way both sides of the car have the nuts tightened AWAY from you. Opposite from the rotation of the tire.

An easy way to remember is that the tires roll forward, so the nuts tighten against rotation. Then you wont get confused on the R-side/L-side issue.

Newer cars have stronger metal and can have fine thread, making LH threads obsolete. Make no mistake, if you have LH threads on your vehicle and they are on the wrong side or you don't follow tightening patterns, nuts can loosen up on the road. If you need thread lock liquids to drive your car, something is very very wrong. That's like saying you don't need a windshield gasket, just use duct tape. This isn't Daytona; com'on guys! Fix the thing proper and you will have a long lived pride and joy.

On the trailer, I would venture to guess that a mechanic or probably a previous owner pulled the wheels to clean and grease the bearings and switched them. The LH threads go on the right side of the vehicle, front or rear... or single axle trailer. Also MOST reverse thread "studs" have an L or LH stamped on the end... not all.

Here is a link to a site to back up the correct wheel. I'm sure the folks above me that said Left wheel meant as you looked at the front of the car. Being a mechanic, I use the shop terminology of right-hand and left-hand side of the car, even when standing in the front looking back. Driver's side and Curb side is out since there are members from those strange countries like England, Japan and Australia that have misplaced their steering wheel on the wrong side and I'm not sure some here would understand Starboard and Larboard

Left Hand Threads