Thread: Do I need new wheel studs for 130 rims?

it's probably more about torque than the nuts.
i am sure mr lr uses quality nuts and different wheels shouldn't matter- as long as the cone on the nut matches the countersink angle of the wheel.
you state you have thread showing so the stud/nut combination is ok.
check the wheel nut torque as recommended by lr and learn how to tighten them to that when cold then go out and drive around untill the wheels are hot and recheck the torque.

Blah Blah Blah Bo**cks

Soory but i have used all sorts of wheels on land rovers and not had problem. I even put Alloys on a 71 rangie which even land rover say is a no no. You just have to make sure you check the nuts every now and again


You can get longer studs from Land Rover which you can put on if that makes you feel better. I had a set of 35" simex on a 90 for years with no problems . And they had no thread exposed out side the nut. In fact the were a couple of threads left to turn on the nut (if you understand that ). I was going to get longer nuts but never got round to it and they never caused a problem, even with the crap i gave them as a winch challenge truck

I belive most of the problem with this truck you menton was poor mantaince, and not check wheel nuts and doing normal stuff you do to chack your car. I have had a front wheel fall off and beleve me you know somthing is seriusly wrong before it happens. I was only doing 60kph at the time and the front end droped and hit the deck and i watch as a 750 tyres and rim shot up the road and hit a fench at the end of the road . The front disk dug a grove 40 foot long in the road (whoops). this was in my dads car that had just come out of a dealership ( i was on my way back to the to complain about the noise coming from the front). who had not done the wheel nuts up. I just put the tyre back on and drove off (after i had take a nut off each of the other wheels ). then tried to show my brother ,who was with me , how to shove a 110 up the dealership service managers backside

Defender wheel studs are thicker and on a wider circle (and hence less load) than any comparable vehicle. In view of this I find it impossible to believe you could put on a wheel heavy enough to break the studs. Only way I can think of that would be likely to break the studs is overtightening.

Too short is possible, but if the nut has all its threads engaged there is no advantage in having them any longer - and it is worth noting that Landrovers had been in production for twenty years before they made a wheel nut that left any thread exposed on the stud.

On the other hand I suspect that as Harry pointed out, the shoulder on the nuts for alloy and steel wheels may be different - and this may well cause the wheels to come loose, although not to break, if the wrong nuts are used.

as the other fella's said, bollocks.

What causes the 130HD rims to come off is insufficient tension of the nut.

Land Rover issued a TSB on this as wheels were coming loose and the revised nut tension is 120-130lb/ft
Have no idea what that is in NM's except lots

<edit> OK, it's TSB 60/04/97/EN dated 30/07/97 and it says 163-173NM or 120-130lb/ft

I havnt read the article, but ,agree with previous comments, also it is possible that someone sat on the end of a rattle gun and over torqued the nuts, stretching and ultimately causing them to break under normal loads

Once had the nuts on the LH front wheel of my Defender all come half undone but none fell off about 300 km after a mate had repaired a puncture in it. Would not have expected an ex truckie to not do them up tight enough. Probably combination of large M16X1.5 stud threads and short standard Land Rover wheel spanner.

I was in Melbourne when the problem occurred. Sensed something was wrong - probably wheel wobbling. Found it after stopping for the third time to have a look.

Have had rear wheel come off an old Falcon ute. The studs take the load. It damaged the threads on the studs and chewed the stud holes on the rim out large enough to make the rim unusable - before all the nuts were lost and the wheel finally came off.

On classic Range Rover rims, which fit on Defenders, the studs also take all the load. However with the Series, County and Defender rims the flange will still carry much of the load if nuts are loose. The near mishap I had cause minimal damage to the studs and rim even though all five nuts were half off. So it seems having flanges is a good design feature.

Thanks All,
Valuable feedback as always!
I learnt from a cape york trip to regularly check wheel nuts - and every other nut/bolt I could get a spanner to . I must admit I've never used a torque wrench to do it, just use the "nice and snug" theory - I s'pose it's about time I got one!

Doesn't everyone stop after twenty minutes into a trip and check hubs and tyres for temperature and wheel nuts for signs of movement? (don't have to actually check the tension, if they are coming loose there will be traces of rust or metal dust coming out of the join between wheel and nut)

John