I have a front wheel drive car and drive 30 to 40 thousand miles a year. My front tires wear out much quicker than the rear. I have never really rotated tires, because I just don't want to spend the time at a garage getting it done. This new car has 20 inch tires that are about $200 each. This last time the rear tires were barely worn and the front were done in.

I have decided I will do it here at my place, but have been looking into seeing how to properly retighten the lug nuts. I have an M18 Milwaukee impact driver with enough power to massively overtighten the lug nuts.

I did a little looking on the internet and some recommend using torque sticks.

Any recommendations would be appreciated.

ZIp them on in a criss cross pattern with the impact, but just barely get the nuts touching the cones. Then go around in a criss-sross pattern and give them just a little tap with the impact. Then put it on the ground and use a torque wrench on each. For a car with 7/16' lugs and steel wheels, I usually go 70 ft/pounds. 1/2" I go 80. Aluminum wheels are thicker so I go about 10 lb tighter. Or see if you can look up the factory specified tork in the manual or on line.

I hand tighten them with a torque wrench. Honestly for me, I have not seen much benefit in rotating tires vs just replacing the worn out ones when needed.

I use a torque wrench. 78 pounds no matter the vehicle, (cars suv, Jeep for me). Been doing it that way for 40 years.

Our recent cars, the '13, '15 and '16 all call for 130 lb ft. I used to use 70 lb ft for 7/16 studs and 90 lb ft for 1/2 studs. 130 seems a crazy amount of torque to me for a 14mm stud.

I use an impact gun to take them off--but never to put them on. Spin on by hand and torque wrench to final torque.

I don't trust torque sticks but that's just me.

I don't trust them either. Seems all the shops used to use them, now nobody does. My local tire shops went back to Torques Wrenches.

I do a straight 100 ftlbs unless it is a large vehicle with thicker studs like a 1 ton then I look up the torque specs.

The bottom line is that there IS a torque spec for the vehicle in question. Find out what it is, and go with that. Overtightened lug nuts can cause the wheel studs to be fragile and break unexpectedly. Under-tightened can obviously come loose. Many get away with just tightening them with a star/lug wrench forever. You probably could too. But for something so easy, why gamble?

use factory specs if you can.
i have been using 80lbft on everything i have for over 50yrs.
1/2" [12mm] studs, aluminum or steel wheels, chrome or standard nuts.
i also add a dab of copper hi-temp anti-seize to the threads. [like the add usta' say : "a little dab 'l do ya !"]
i do NOT like, or trust, those torque stix.

just my opinion, your mileage will vary.

Impact gun is a no go for me. Had tire store flunkies cross thread some wheel studs once, and they won't pay for it once it leaves their parking lot.

We don't know the vehicle so just throwing torque specs out is useless and possibly dangerous. Look it up and use a torque wrench!!! Over torqueing newer wheels can cause issues with studs, wheels, rotors ,etc. Under torque...we all know what happens. Torque sticks are unreliable...most shops won't use them any more....too much at stake with big $$$ wheels/rotors and liability. 70-80 ft lbs is way short on many new cars/trucks....my F150 is 120!....the wife's little Fusion is 100!

i am a autobody tech in a new car dealership.
i have been using torque sticks for over 30 years without problems.
i am pretty sure every tech, both autobody and service department, in the shop uses them also
i am pretty sure most automotive flat rate techs use them without problems also.

they work great on solid lug nuts.
on lug nuts with chrome caps using them long term can damage the caps and destroy the lug nuts.

Torque sticks come in different ratings. Match the sticks to the factory specs.

But, you better have a gun that can hit the sticks hard enough to work. A gun with 150 lbs won't run a stick rated at 250.

That said, sticks are for high production shops, not really worth it for homeowners. A torque wrench is a better value.

LOL
I bought a multiplier and use a fish scale on the handle.
9 lbs pull is ~450lbs torque...
I only torque the outer Budd nuts to 400lbs though.

I use an impact for off and on but do the final tighten by hand. The problem is when people use impact and wail on them until it stops moving.

If I'm not using air for anything I use an electric one and it never over tightens unless you sit on it. I can always get a bit more out of it by hand.
With air I only do it till it stops and again it's never fully tight at that point and needs a bit more by hand.
The p

You can tell we are having record cold when you get this many responses to a lug nut tightening question.

There's some stuff I'm really questioning here. 20" tires at about $200 each? What size and brand? I've yet to see a really decent set installed for less than $1k. The last 3 vehicles ive owned all had 20's on them, I had a similar yearly mileage. I made it a point long ago to have my rides properly aligned when new rubber is installed, and also rotate every oil change. It does make a difference. Ive had 30k mile tires go past 45k miles with this kind of care. The last few sets of tires I've purchased were general rt43's-- an outstanding all around tire.

Torque sticks work fine, but not worth the cost if they don't contribute to your income.

It takes less than 3 or 4 minutes for a tech to rotate tires on a vehicle, whats really the deal man? Do you no longer have that patience? If your tires are abnormally wearing, have someone inspect your suspension components and maybe consider alignments an annual thing.

Heard that. And never would have thought that torque wrench operation would have gotten past so many on THIS forum.

I stopped off at a tire place today ....

Torque wrenches and sticks ? ... fiddlesticks!

Just a impact gun ... appeared to be skillfully applied !

I know a few shops/managers/owners that are now requiring more than 1 person check wheel torque before the vehicle leaves....NONE are using impact guns OR torque sticks!!!! WAY too much at stake!!!