I posted this in the SD forum, and got some mixed responses, so I figured I'd come to you all for some advice too. So to the mods, please don't move this one, or at least let it ride for a few days here.

I've ordered some aftermarket wheels for the truck, and I'm attempting to figure out what to torque the lugs down to on the new wheels.

I believe I'm correct that Ford has revised the torque settings for the factory wheels now set at 150-165 lb-ft of torque. And, I believe that this was done to try and cure some of the warped rotor issues they were having.

I've called the manufacturer of the wheels, and they said the torque spec for the new wheels is 125 lb-ft on my truck. The new wheels are lug centric with a tapered seat on the lug nuts, versus the stock wheels that are hub centric with flat faces on the lug nuts.

Now, my concern is if I torque the new wheels to only 125 lb-ft, will I end up with some rotor warping issues? My questions are do the tapered seats tighten the wheel against the rotor with lower torque, compared to the higher torque setting on the flat lugs with the stock wheels? And, is there a difference is how tight the wheels need to be in comparing lug centric wheels to hub centric wheels?

I'm wanting to avoid damaging the wheels or lugs, but I don't want to have problems with my rotors either. I know a lot of you guys have experience outside of the truck world that can probably relate to my dilemma. Any advice you can give would be appreciated.

 

Mine are torqued to 120

 

what kind of wheels did you get? bigger tires too?

 

When I upgraded my rotors, the manufactuer spec'd 125 lbs on the lug nuts. I've followed that for the past 18 months/50k miles. - No problem with the rotors warping.

 

I just asked my local dealer yesterday since I saw a TSB about the change to the torque specs. He ran my VIN # since he remembered something about it as well, but nothing came up. My manual says 100ft lbs and he said the TSB he remembered was a change to 90ft lbs, WTF! Thanks again to my local dealer I am now more confused than before I asked them! It would be nice if there heads weren't up their A#$*$ and they could give an answer based on facts! I now see where the problems with the 6.0 are coming from!

 

I've got some Moto Metal 951's on the way. 18" x 9" The tires I'm putting on it are Nitto Terra Grapplers, 325/60R18, their actual measurements are 33" tall and 12.85" wide. So, a little bigger tires, but not by much as I have 285/75R16 on there now. I didn't want to go to tall, as I still do most of my driving on the highway, pulling a trailer and I didn't want to kill my fuel economy.

Lushman - my service manual specs 150 for the 2000 model years, and 155 for the 2001-2003 model years. Ford has supposedly revised their ratings to be between 150-165. If you're only running 100 lb-ft, I'd be getting some more torque in those things ASAP.

 

That is EXACTLY what i was going to go with, even the same tire size. 18" and 325's. hope you like them, i sure wish i would have moved in with the wheels too. youll love the tires.....

mind if i ask price?

 

Wheels were $775, plus $75 shipping. Got some chrome locking lugs for another $40. All from Supertyte wheels. www.supertyte.com Goofy name, but they had the best price on the wheels that I could find. Those wheels aren't on the website though. You'll have to call them.

Tires were $912 and free shipping, from Discount Tire Direct. Again, that's the best price I could find on them. That doesn't mean there aren't better deals out there, but if they're out there, I didn't search hard enough. Did you find better deals on the wheels or tires?

I hadn't planned on new wheels at this time, but found out I had a couple of bent stock rims (no idea how this happened or how long they've been that way), so I used it as a good excuse to go ahead and upgrade to new wheels. The tires I have now are also pretty worn out, so replacing them was necessary anyway.

 

My manual has 2 different specs for 2 different lug sizes, 100ft lbs for the smaller and 150ft lbs for the larger (I think the smaller is 5/8" lugs and the larger is 3/4" lugs) I will look at the manual again tomorrow morning. I have the smaller lugs (I think) which is why I went with the 100ft lbs. I guess I had better check again. Maybe someone should tell the dealer that 90ft lbs is definitely not enough?? Oh well, once again FTE comes through!

 

You should have the same one's I do. We have the same year and model of truck. 8 lugs, correct? I've been torquing mine down to 165 lb-ft.

 

I have 148 ft.lbs. listed for 99-00 Superduty trucks. So in other words tight. I would think more torque would increase rotor warpage then less torque would. Also, with the amount of mass on these rotors, I would have to really be convinced over or under torquing the nuts is what is causing warpage. POS rotors if you ask me. You are still running the stock rotors right? if so then I'd run 150 ft.lbs. Main thing is to not pull the studd out of the rotor.

 

165ft lbs, Holy Cow ! I wonder how my wheels are staying on!! I had better get tightening those tomorrow. I would tonight but it is raining in San Diego (I know hard to believe we get rain sometimes, blame it on global warming from the gasoline engines)

 

Yes, stock rotors. But, here are my personal observations. When I got the truck 3 years ago, I had was tightening the lugs down to 150, and I had some serious rotor warping issues. I read here on FTE about the supposed revised specs by Ford to tighten them to up to 165. I said earlier that I had used 165, but the more I think about it, the more I remember using 160. Well, after I tightened them to 160, my rotor warping issues have gone down. I noticed a very slight improvement in the rotors I had on at the time. And last spring, I had to replace the rotors due to a sticking caliper slide pin that cause the passenger side to get chewed up on the inside. I've been keeping the 160 spec on the new rotors, and have not had the rotors warp very badly at all. The new rotors made it through all last summer, pulling a 6K trailer all over the mid-west about every 3rd weekend, and still don't show any further signs of warping.

So, my personal observations are that the slight increase in torque on the wheel lugs helped to keep the rotors from warping. I'll eventually upgrade to some Power Slots or ART rotors, but now is not the time.

 

Also remember if your using stock Ford lug nuts with the built on washers. The sent a notice out you should put a drop of oil in between the washer and head of it. So when you torque it it will spin over smoothly and torque out right.

 

Yeah, I knew that one about the stockers, but it's a good tip to remember anyways. But, my concern is with the aftermarket wheels. They should be here tomorrow and should hopefully make it on the truck by Friday. I think I'll probably stick to the 125 lb-ft as suggested by the wheel manufacturer.