thesilverone
Well-known member
Any suggestions on a new one? My Dad's 30+year old one broke yesterday. From a quick search, Ken-Tool seems to make a quality one. Thanks.
4 way lug nut wrench
- Thread starter thesilverone
- Start date
Wrenches of Death
Well-known member
Ken-Tool unless they turned to the dark side of the force in China. They also make some great tire spoons and a killer bead hammer.
You can get them in standard and metric and in several different sizes. Most of mine have come from NAPA. I keep a metric one behind the seat of my truck with lengths of pipe insulation slipped over each of the four legs to keep from rattling of tearing up the carpet.
WoD
rayzor32
Well-known member
A tire iron with four-way lug wrench.
OP
thesilverone
Well-known member
Ken Tools had MADE IN USA right on their home page on their site
Gregg33
Well-known member
Not sure what to buy for a new one, most are probably made in PRC. I have an old Gray metric 4 way, not sure where it originally came from, my guess is it was sold in Cdn Tire 25 or 30 years ago.
tatra
Well-known member
another vote for kentool, but they are pricy...........possibly for the price of one you could put together a breaker bar, extension and flip sockets to allow all to be kept in a roll........and of course a piece of pipe........4 way cross bars always seem to be a ***** to stow and i always had a piece of pipe to help with them...........
Orangestang
Well-known member
Can it be welded back together?
Farma11
Well-known member
I'd have time sleeping if I thought my wife had to rely on a repaired 4 way lug wrench to change a tire in the middle of no where.
And yes my wife can change a tire.
TAMPAGT07
Well-known member
I just carry a cheap HF breaker bar and a set of Pittsburg two way lug nut sockets in each car. I always hated those four way gimmicks..And a Dewalt 14.4 electric impact in my daily driver, as well as a few cans of fix-a-flat and a small HF compressor...
Orangestang
Well-known member
From the looks of some 4 way lug wrenches I wonder how they stay together sometimes. The welds are stronger than the base material. For me I have no problem trusting my welds, my racecar holds up just fine... now back to the topic at hand....
Wrenches of Death
Well-known member
I think that the problem would be the steel and the heat treatment, if any. I doubt that the weld, if properly done, would break. I'm betting that the wrench would twist and perhaps snap under heavy load next to the weld because of changes to the metal caused by the heat.
You're tight about the cheap ones. I've owned and used some really sleezy ones in the past and twisted my share of cheap ones.
I've had good luck with the heavy Ken-Tool welded ones. I had three of their larger SAE ones. I passed one onto a friend a few years back when I bought my current pickup which uses metric lugs.
When it came time to buy the new metric one, I went with their drop forged metric one. There are no welds at the center. It's got a solid feel. I'd love to see it available in a hard chromed high polish version.
WoD
Wakefield
Well-known member
I wonder if there are horror stories about the original lug wrenches that come with the car twisting and failing when the motorist tried to use them?
I've had this one for several; years and it is a GREAT LUG WRENCH
http://www.samstagsales.com/images/hz705v02x.jpg
http://www.samstagsales.com/images/hz705v02x.jpg
bmxr4life87
Well-known member
HF breaker bar here with most common lugnut size sockets and a 3 and 6" extension in a small case plus a cheap click torque wrench kept in trunk of wifes car with aluminum jack and set of jack stands in wifes trunk. The torque wrench doesn't have to hold its 4% accuracy it will still be closer than someone going balls out on a 25" breaker bar! And yes the factory jack and tire tool are still in there
OP
thesilverone
Well-known member
I ended up purchasing a Ken-Tool 35656. Socket sizes: 17mm, 19mm, 21mm, 22mm.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000P70VS4/?tag=atomicindus08-20
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000P70VS4/?tag=atomicindus08-20
Wrenches of Death
Well-known member
I suspect that only a very small percentage of the general population are OCD enough to tote a torque wrench for changing a tire.
Mine is an old 10-150lb OTC that I bought thirty years ago. The ratchet head finally died a few years back with no parts available. I welded the head to the housing and ordered a new 10-250lb OTC for the tool box along with a spare rebuild kit for the head. With the addition of an extra 5447 Proto ratcheting adapter and a six point socket, the old torque wrench found a home behind the seat of the pickup. It needs to be set a little higher than the actual torque you need. I just couldn't bring myself to toss it after three decades of use.
Another handy thing is that by pulling the ratcheting adapter and socket off, you have an oversize "nut driver" to reinstall those plastic fake lugnuts that retain the hubcap without stripping them.
It's amazing how much stuff you can put behind and under the seat of a full sized conventional cab pickup if you are creative.
WoD
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Wrenches of Death
Well-known member
I like mine. Some extra pieces of scrap pipe insulation and about a dozen of those cheap HF tie straps will keep it from rattling and eating up your interior.
WoD
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whatsitsname
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2010
- Messages
- 162
I hate the 4 way lug nut wrench with a passion. It looks old school and it takes up a lot of space. At least try to get the foldable 4 way lug nut wrench.
Wrenches of Death
Well-known member
Old school can be good sometimes. There are a lot more items in our daily lives that are "old school" than most people realize.
I can't imagine not using one. For changing a flat tire or ratating tires here around the place, I grab one of those and a floor jack and don't even think about an impact wrench. I think that the tightest lugs around here are only pulled down to something like 125ft.lbs.
It's good exercise. It's inexpensive, very simple, very reliable, very fast, and it only has one moving part.
Now that I think about it, the four way lug wrench may very well be the absolute pinnacle of automotive manual wheel removal technology. It deserves a hallowed spot in history along side of the inclined plane, or the pulley.
WoD
Sancho
Well-known member
Im with you! I bought a handful when sears was clearing out some USA made ones around 07 perhaps. I have one in each vehicle and one in the roll box, cant imagine using anything else as efficiently/quickly
Which is the moving part? None of mine have any moving parts. Maybe mine are of an earlier iteration...
Nosferatu
Well-known member
Wrenches of Death
Well-known member
The rotator actuator.
Unless something has changed in recent years, I'm pretty sure that they all still use it.
WoD
relic7680
Well-known member
I work at a farm store here in KS, and we sell about the entire line of Ken Tool tire changing products....made here and I've never heard anything bad about them. I work in the tire shop a this same store and that's what we use when we have to do things "the old fashioned way".