Lightweight Wheel Nuts: Worth it?
 

Yo,


I'm looking to drop a C note on some Volk Racing lugnuts:

http://www.upgrademotoring.com/wheels/volk_lugnuts.jpg

Rays Engineering, the maker of Volk Racing Wheels, has released a new line of performance lug nuts. Made from Duraluminum, these lug nut are extremely strong and light (the Rays lug nuts are 0.8 oz. each compared to 2.1 oz. for the stock pieces). In addition to the performance aspects, the Rays lug nuts also feature one 7-sided nut per wheel. These heptagonal nuts look stock from a distance, but can only be removed with the specially designed socket that comes with the set. Available in anodized red, blue, or black. It's a great way to protect your wheels! Sets are sold in packs of 20 pcs only

Also Kyokugen and Zenki make these "lightweight wheel nuts." My buddy had some of the Rays, he bought a special socket from Griot's Garage so they wouldn't mar so badly.

Now, I'm running some of Gorilla's spline tuner nuts and they aren't /that/ heavy...but are these lighter than light nuts really "All that and a bag of chips"?

If I got some of the Rays I would probably get the blue anodized for the bling factor.

What is your take on these things?

Kevin
1989 GTUs "Real, or BS?"

No fucking way would I spend that much money on lug nuts! An ounce doesn't mean anything.

holy shit there is no reason to spend money to loose not even a pound for lug nuts. you gotta be nuts to buy those.

actually with five lugs each savin an ounce, that would be 5 ounces per wheel, four wheels, rotational is seven to one... so you're saving 140 ounces, thats 8.7 pounds... more than a carbon fiber hood is worth :)

actually its 182 ounces saved (thought it was 1 ounce each, not 1.3), then thats 11.4 pounds :)

Rays has at least two styles now. Upgrademotoring.com has pics.

Kyokugen also makes lightweight lug nuts, and they are usually less than half the price of Rays nuts (heh :) )

Unless you've got a good reason to drop the weight, I'd suggest getting regular steel nuts of good quality.

Ha, those are the numbers I was just running.
The least detrimental rotational mass is in the center though, so If you're really trying to save rotational mass, the tire is most important.
I'd buy em' just because I like candy. They're also 7 sided (I think), so they act as semi-anti-theft devices too. Still double the price of a set of locks and splinedrives. There are other lugnuts with a similar weight for less too.

EDIT: I wouldn't recommend Kyokugen since I've seen multiple posts about the keys rounding out - mine included - never used air tools on them.

Re: Lightweight Wheel Nuts: Worth it?
 

Unless you're trying to shave off that last 0.01 seconds off your best lap time ... I'd say not worth your hard-earned cash. Got the bling, bling factor though .... :rlaugh:

when putting out 2500 for some volks whats another bill. not to mention you can't use a stock lug nut on aftermarket wheels.

Who dat? RAAAAAYS NUTS!

Lightweight lug nuts are of no performance use unless you are so perfect you can drive your car to the nearest .003 seconds everytime. The lug nuts are very close to the hub axis, so their inertia does not count for much in the system. The tire weight at the outside completely overwhelms any improvement you would hope to gain from lighter lugs.

Yo,


Speaking of "light" tires, what do you recommend? I am thinking of going with the Yokohama AVS Sports in 215/45-17. I know the Falken Azenis are a notoriously "heavy" tire, any other ones I should worry about? And if you are one of the people responsible for wheelspecs.com...thanks! I use it all the time.

That would be me. I am that perfect.

;)

Kevin
1989 GTUs "I am Marcus Gronholm."

Ive got the polished kyokugen ones for like 65 bucks and they seem to work just fine.I wouldnt use an air gun on them as they do look like they would strip easily.But its not really that hard to take them off manually.Plus when I get new rims they will give me some slight peace of mind.That and they are all seven sided lugs not just one like the rays.

You need to send some of that my way then :p:

I got some of the Kyokugen ones for my car. It's nice that they are relatively light, but the other reasons I was interested in these were the septagonal shape that would seem to offer some theft protection, the fact that they are open ended (not sure why this is important, but some there seems to be a preference for open ends in racing circles), and because they are available in black.

I was using a lot of cheap auto parts store ones that seem to be of lousy quality. Deformation from repeated installation and removal, chrome chipping off, and some were 19mm and others 21mm -- I didn't have a full good set of a single size. I wanted to try something better.

-Max

I was having these same problems constantly until I put a little anti seize on the studs. You can FEEL the difference it makes when putting the lugs on. Have yet to have any chrome or galling issues since.

i bought the kyokugen ones because the stock ones wouldn't fit in my advans. i can't tell the difference in performance, but they look cool

I've got anti-sieze all over the place (wheel pad, studs, sometimes even the lug mating surface) but the cheapies still seem to get beat up. We'll see how the Kyokugen ones hold up after a while. I guess I just think the auto store ones tend to be soft metal, and I think the Kyokugen ones are harder. I got two sets for when I start messing up the Kyokugens. :) I always use a torque wrench, but I sometimes re-torque when hot (trackside brake bleed, or swapping the street wheels back on to go home), which seems to mess up the cheapies.

-Max

You can also get Kyokugens with closed ends, if you like that sort of thing :)

is it ok to use antiseize on lugs? i have it on my car, someone told me not to, i can't remember why.

Anyhow those 7 sided lugs are all the same. If someone wanted your wheels bad enough they would just get a 7 sided socket and off they go

It's safe to use on the threads themselves, but you don't want it on the lugnut seat of the wheel.

I had a set of the Volk Lug nuts for about two years on my Si before it was stolen.

In all honesty, they are a poseur item. They made no difference in performance that I could tell while autoXing for two years.

And the finish on them gets beat up really quickly. Even with using the special lug nut sockets from Griot's garage they got to look pretty ratty in no time at all.

Save the hundred bucks for more Dyno time, or put it towards your next set of race tires. Both are going to be a much better investment in performance.

Yo,

That's why I MUST HAVE THEM!!!

*grin*

Cool Paulie, I was gonna email you about 'em.

What size tire do you think I should get? 215/45-17 or 225/45-17?

Oh, and I also have the option of going with a 17 x 8 wheel instead of a 17 x 7. The Kosei website says the 17 x 8 weighs /less/ than the 17 x 7! Heh.

Thanks for your input!

Kevin
1989 GTUs "Dual Valve Stems."

Two of the lightest street tires I found were the Toyo T1S and the Pirelli Pzeros (the T1Ss were just slightly lighter, 1lb, in the size I wanted). Michelin pilot sports are a little heavier, and the Bridgestone Re750s and S03 are what I would consider to be on the heavy side. From what I remember the difference between the Pirellis and the S03s in 255-40-17 was something like 22lbs to 28lbs..and this obviously contributes A LOT to the tire/wheel moment of intertia. This is just a general trend I noticed, and it would probably be prudent to check on weight in the particular sizes you want.

Yo,


Well, looks like I will stick with 215/45-17 tires. Now get this:

Yokohama AVS Sport: 23.37lbs

Kumho MX: 20lbs.

A savings of over 3.37lbs! So if you do the 7:1 formula of rotational inertia, I will be saving over 23.59lbs per corner!!

Now the only question is: is the lack of refinement on the MX worth that weight?

Thoughts?

Kevin
1989 GTUs "AVS Sports or MX?"