Recently saw an advertisement for light weight aluminum lug nuts for the wheels. While an obvious weight savings, are such nuts of high-grade aluminum up to track stresses?
And no, I am not going to buy some exotic titanium lugs. Just need to know if anyone is using aluminum lugs and if they are safe.
Some heat treated aluminum alloys have strengths exceeding that of low carbon steel. The stock lug nuts are soft steel.
Aluminum threads have a tendency to gall when mated with steel threads. Anti-seize would probably be in order along with reduced torque to compensate for anti-seize
Theoretically they will reduce unsprung weight and rotational inertia, but I wonder if the effect is measurable.
You really wonder how much effective weight loss will be realized with the lug nuts being so close to the center of rotation. I expect the material would need to be exotic to ensure sufficient strength.
The difference in weight can't possibly measure enough to matter. It's "in the noise". As Jacob points out above, they're so close to the center of rotation that they really only amount to "dead weight". Rotational Inertia is negligable. Even if the nuts weighed 1/2 Lbs a piece, that's only 10Lbs total additional weight. Much less than a 1% change. A few gallons of gas will make more of a difference.
And you want the materials of the stud and nut to be of similar hardness. Otherwise, the softer of the two tends to get deformed.
Also, for equivalent strength, an Aluminum part needs to be about as heavy as a Steel part. If these nuts are lighter, they're also probably weaker.
I'd stay away from them. Not worth the bother or the risk.
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The difference in weight can't possibly measure enough to matter. It's "in the noise". As Jacob points out above, they're so close to the center of rotation that they really only amount to "dead weight". Rotational Inertia is negligable. Even if the nuts weighed 1/2 Lbs a piece, that's only 10Lbs total additional weight. Much less than a 1% change. A few gallons of gas will make more of a difference.
And you want the materials of the stud and nut to be of similar hardness. Otherwise, the softer of the two tends to get deformed.
Also, for equivalent strength, an Aluminum part needs to be about as heavy as a Steel part. If these nuts are lighter, they're also probably weaker.
I'd stay away from them. Not worth the bother or the risk.
rotating weight is 3x dead weight not worth it IMHO anyway
The difference in weight can't possibly measure enough to matter. It's "in the noise". As Jacob points out above, they're so close to the center of rotation that they really only amount to "dead weight". Rotational Inertia is negligable.
Agreed
Also, for equivalent strength, an Aluminum part needs to be about as heavy as a Steel part. If these nuts are lighter, they're also probably weaker.
I disagree, when was the last time you saw a steel aircraft? It is very easy to increase section properties faster than the delta modulus or UTS. In this case, it is a nut and not reacting much shear, mostly tension which 7075 could do with a little more thread engagement, about 2 diameters.
I'd stay away from them. Not worth the bother or the risk. Agreed, not worth the bother, but it is very low risk.
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