Spline drive lug nuts

[67sport]

I've recently ordered a set of tires and wheels online. The wheels came with spline drive, small diameter lug nuts, which until I opened the box I didn't even know were a thing.
They don't look like they belong anywhere near a truck wheel, but reading about them it seems they get used on aftermarket wheels quite a bit.

Anyone have experience with these things? My plan is to put them in my junk bin and buy some new normal ones when I have the tires mounted, unless there's a good reason not to.

Thanks.

 

[jamesroney]

I've recently ordered a set of tires and wheels online. The wheels came with spline drive, small diameter lug nuts, which until I opened the box I didn't even know were a thing.
They don't look like they belong anywhere near a truck wheel, but reading about them it seems they get used on aftermarket wheels quite a bit.

Anyone have experience with these things? My plan is to put them in my junk bin and buy some new normal ones when I have the tires mounted, unless there's a good reason not to.

Thanks.

All depends on what wheel you bought. The majority of newer wheels are a high strength cast aluminum, and require a thicker hub section. In order to use a lug nut on the thicker hub section, the hub is usually counter-bored deeper and smaller diameter than you are used to. So the recess that the lug nut sits in is smaller, and you can't get a normal lug nut socket on it. So they either use reduced diameter lug nuts, or a spline drive nut.

I opted to use the spline drive nuts that came with my wheels because my impact socket wouldn't fit in the hole.

 

[67sport]

All depends on what wheel you bought. The majority of newer wheels are a high strength cast aluminum, and require a thicker hub section. In order to use a lug nut on the thicker hub section, the hub is usually counter-bored deeper and smaller diameter than you are used to. So the recess that the lug nut sits in is smaller, and you can't get a normal lug nut socket on it. So they either use reduced diameter lug nuts, or a spline drive nut.

I opted to use the spline drive nuts that came with my wheels because my impact socket wouldn't fit in the hole.

They're just 17x10 steel Daytonas. Certainly nothing special. I gave up on a few nicer wheels after really long or undetermined lead times.

 

[Yeller]

I hate them. Just one more tool to have to have. I put 3/4 hex drive, bulge head lug nuts on everything. 1 socket fits every thing in the fleet except the dually, not much I can do about that

These are my choice

 

[nvrstuk]

Just an FYI that even "name brand" lug nuts can be crap and cause an all day problem.

I bought some name brand lug nuts for my 914 build years ago. Put anti-sieze on all the studs, like always and everything was good till about 2 yrs later and I slapped the impact on a lug nut and it just spun. Couldn't get the wheel off. Took about 4 hours with welding a nut on the back side in the 1/2" of space I had (lucky I had discs- drums and I would have had to cut the drum in half while the wheel was still on-THAT would have been fun. Anyway, the welder and some dinking around and I got it off. The lug nut was not cross threaded and anti-sieze was used.

I have since gone to a much more expensive name brand and continue to (for decades) put 3 full turns on by hand before I use an impact.

 

[67sport]

Thanks for the input guys. I can see using them where required, but given these are old style steel wheels, I think I'll pick up some old style lug nuts.

 

[.94 OR]

I ordered a set of slots from WH and the splined nuts showed up with them. Not something I was used to and attempted to bolt them up. One had a stamping issue and the socket wouldn't fit. I contacted WH and they were backordered but I was on the list of many... I ground the deformed edges down and marked with red fingernail polish so I could find it again and ran it until the replacement showed up. Jury is still out for me.