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That’s what those little plastic arrows on the wheel nuts are for.

Have you ever woken up in your own hospital pool on the pavement of a big city bus stop and rolled over until you came face to face with the wheels of a city bus? Also, when you look at this wheel, the body hurts, there is no purse, and it’s cold, cold, have you ever noticed a lot of weird little plastic arrows on the wheel nuts? What the hell is this? why are they there what are they doing? How will I get home? I am here to answer some of these questions for you.
Those little plastic arrows are indicators of loose wheel nuts, and you probably figured out how they work before you even finished reading this sentence.
Wheel-Check is one of the manufacturers of these things and one of the companies that claims to be the “original” manufacturer, although other videos such as this one make similar invention claims:
Now I don’t want to dive into the muddy waters of who first destroyed these plastic gizmos, especially after I saw an absolutely brutal fight over this at my local fastener pub, The Brass Wingnut, and at the end of the fight, one of them spat out a handful of industrial pins.
But let’s get back on track: see how it works? When you first install the wheels and properly tighten all the nuts, glue the small plastic arrows to the nuts, making sure the arrows line up with each other.
There seem to be two main schools of thought on how best to do this, and I didn’t see those names anywhere, so here’s what I did:
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I think some vendors refer to affiliate systems as “peer-to-peer”, but I wanted to come up with a name anyway.
In the chain method, the arrow points to the center of the next nut, and so on, creating a continuous, flowing chain of arrows. In the buddy system, which only works with wheels with an even number of wheel bolt holes, pairs of nuts mate with their arrows pointing at each other.
Either method provides an easy and quick way to check for any loose bolts, as you can see here:
These inexpensive bits of plastic allow a bus or truck driver to take a quick walk and immediately tell if any important wheel nuts are loose, a huge safety benefit without the need for complex checks or complex electronics. It’s so stupid and simple, it’s pretty cool.
You will notice that they also come in different colors. Usually green or yellow are the main indicators, orange is usually used for high temperature applications and red is used to indicate that the wheel has been replaced but the nuts have not been officially tightened to specification. This seems to be informal advice, so I can’t guarantee it will always be like this.
Looking around a little more, there seems to be another school of positioning, I’ll call it Sunburst, which you can see here on the right:
In fact, as long as you remember some sequential pattern, I guess it doesn’t matter how you set up the arrows initially, as long as you can easily tell when the arrows are out of order.
By the way, if you’re more of a fashionista when it comes to truck or bus wheels, I’m happy to report that there are several thinner chrome versions of these indicators so you don’t have to mess with the look with Day-Glo plastic. .
There is another variation that takes a more active role in preventing wheel nuts from loosening rather than sounding an alarm when it does.
These variants have dial gauges but are also connected to each other and provide some physical restraint to prevent the wheel nuts from loosening with a plastic spring or strap between the two collars. But of course, if you have an odd number of nuts, it won’t work for everyone.
All of these devices somehow circumvent the question of why a wheel nut—or perhaps any nut—looses at all.
There are many factors at work here, not the least of which is the constant vibration and movement of the nut, as well as all the entropy trend that the Universe is throwing at us.
However, more specific reasons, according to Torque Tight, one of the manufacturers of such wheel nut indicators, are as follows:
• Excessive twisting. Users often over-tighten wheel nuts on the basis that the tighter the better. However, excessive torque can actually stretch the stud or thread to the point where it is unable to respond. This can also lead to nuts cracking, seizing or misalignment and wheel cracking.
• Thermal shrinkage occurs when the nut is installed at factory temperature in cold conditions. Clamping force disappears as the nut and bolt cool.
• Incorrect mating surfaces. This includes uneven mating surfaces, damaged or bent hubs and wheels, and worn or elongated bolt holes.
• Dirt, sand, rust, metal burrs, and paint on the threads or on the mating surface between the nut and the wheel surface can create “false torque.” When force is used to overcome friction without converting to downforce
• Excessive braking. Excessive braking can cause temperatures to rise (particularly in heavy vehicles), causing the wheel bolts to expand and contract as temperatures change. This causes the wheel nuts to lose grip on the bolts, resulting in a loss of torque.
• Age. Over time, wheel nuts and bolts wear out and the clamping force weakens to the point where it may not be enough to hold the wheel properly.
Of all these problems, I wouldn’t be surprised to find that excess torque is the most common problem, since the combination of powerful pneumatic tools and the odd human drive to always think bigger is better, we all seem to be dealing with this.


Post time: Jan-13-2023