my new isuzu cab over has left hand threads on the left wheels. i thought my impact gun wasent strong enough, took me a while to figure out that they were left hand lol. i was a little cranky after that.

i had a guy come nto the shop today with a complaint of brake noise. pulled the tires and each front caliper had only ONE bolt it int! i told him and fixed it, but in my head i was thinkin if it was left handed it would have never came off

problem on light vehicle were solved with deeper taper lug nuts.  in the truck and industrial world, especially off road stiff sprung high vibration environment LH threads are still a viable engineers solution.   Point being there was no conspiracy behind it as that hot rod mag implied.

another sound engineering in wheels on trucks that is often ignored is having the center hole fit tight with the hub, in essence carrying the load with the lug nut.  Since everyone bins the stock wheels for fancy aftermarket wheels and a lift, the number of wheels studs and loose lugs wallowing out the lug holes is not so uncommon.  On a recent 1200 mi ride through rocky nevada roads I saw plenty of chrome nuts many containing broken studs. I'm sure the truck looked cool though.

highmarker, on 22 August 2012 - 07:06 PM, said:

Yup, always makes me chuckle when someone infers that the lug nuts are what hold the load.

Edited by Slackkinhard, 22 August 2012 - 08:25 PM.

davecarrr414, on 22 August 2012 - 05:24 PM, said:

Consider yourself very lucky, if you were using a T-bar or other manual method, you would have ripped one of the studs off before finding out you were turning them the wrong way.

LukeYZ426F, on 22 August 2012 - 05:27 PM, said:

Left hand fasteners under torqued will back off just like right hand fasteners will. The only time the LH/RH thread makes any difference is on the axis of rotating assemblies.
However, if it did require a LH thread, the fastener would have cost three times as much.

Edited by Smacaroni, 23 August 2012 - 04:18 AM.

ehhh  left  hand threads on the left side of the vehicle  don't bother me  what really ticks me off  is if someone happens to do a 4 wheel brake job at the same time  and swaps the hub assembly to the wrong side  when assemblying. Or  puts up the tie bar in the steering backwards " yep needs a left side tie rod end ahh crap wrong one"!.  As far as I know  every left hand wheel stud  hand  an L stamped  right in the middle.

Slackkinhard, on 22 August 2012 - 08:25 PM, said:

In some cases the studs do actually hold the load. The old double nut Budd style tractor trailer wheels that I complained about earlier (that had left handed threads btw) were stud piloted. The center of the rim did not touch the hub in many cases, and a lot of studs would break. The newer style of Budd wheels are hub piloted and only use right hand threads on all wheels. The new style became popular in the late 1980's and definitely made for a lot fewer issues.