Question about nuts and bolts on kit frames

[DogStar]

Hi All,
This just occurred to me.
All the nuts on my Red Trailer Kit are the nylon lock nut type.
But I just realized none of the nuts and bolts use or came with typical washers.

Do nylon lock nuts not need or want washers?

Or is the Chinese manufacturer just being cheap by not including them in the package?

Does it make a bit of difference or should I spend a couple extra dollars and use a washer on each bolt and nut?

These are the kind of questions that can disturb my sleep!

Your friend,
Eric
and his dogs Braveheart the model for my avatar pic, and my brand new puppy Sagan. They will make appearances in my build thread I am sure.

[parnold]

There is no need for washers with Nylock Nuts.

You may now sleep well tonight!

[DogStar]

WHEW!
I was sweating bullets.

Rock on!

There is no need for washers with Nylock Nuts.

You may now sleep well tonight!

[S. Heisley]

[Dale M.]

Actually flat washers are not really a bad thing and should be used to prevent bolt/nut pull through....

Ny-locks (nylon locking washers) just replace actual split ring lock washers....





Interesting site....

http://www.boltscience.com/index.htm

Now something to keep you awake... What is "grade" of bolts supplied with trailer kit?

Dale

[CarlLaFong]

Since all of the bolts are Chinese, the grade is certainly less than what it's claimed to be

[loaderman]

Put some medium strength loctite on the thread before you put on the nuts.

[GuitarPhotog]

Put some medium strength loctite on the thread before you put on the nuts.

Why bother with Loctite when using nylock nuts? It's a waste of material and effort. The entire reason for using nylock nuts in the first place is to eliminate lock washers and thread locking compound.

<Chas>

[Wolffarmer]

With the nylock nuts I would use flat washers and also a nylock is meant to be tightened once and throw away if it is ever taken off. Not like I always do that myself and have never had a problem but if one wants to be annal.....

Randy

[Dale M.]

And for proper tightening of bolt/nut use torque wrench so you do not stress bolt and cause it to snap or threads to strip....

Dale

[Wolffarmer]

Or like on my BMW motorcycle tool kits. There are some wrenches that are of unusual sort length for the size of nut. That is so that if one gives it a firm tug you can get pretty darn close to the correct torque for that particular application. If you used a regular wrench you could damage the camshaft or wheel axles. I did see one guy that broke the end of his camshaft off.



Randy

[KCStudly]

If the clearance between the bolt and hole is fairly precise and the bolted connection is not expected to be disassembled frequently, then no washer is usually okay. If the hole is a bit sloppy for the bolt, or slotted, and/or the joint can be expected to be disassembled somewhat regularly, then the washer becomes more important. They help spread the bearing force to the clamped material and act like a replaceable waster plate that can be replinished if gauling or scoring from a split lock washer occurs.

Don't forget that nylon insert nuts and added washers will often times require the use of a longer bolt.

While it is commonly accepted that nylon insert nuts should be replaced after each use, that is just precautionary and is easier to specify than more subjective criteria. When I worked on submarines (110 souls and 4 billion with a "B" dollars of asset at risk) there were actually service specs that could be used to justify reusing these nuts. For most of the common size regular "finish" nuts what it amounted to was that if the torque value required to turn the nut was less than what you could apply by hand, then the nut should be replaced. If you could not turn the nut by hand then it was okay to reuse.

For self locking bolts with zytel pellets inserted into a blind hole in the side of the thread, the pellets were dug out and replaced each time with out exception due to the significantly reduced contact area of the plastic plug. Spray on patch type bolts were less common because the were not easily renewed and had to be tossed after one use. It was a lot easier to stow a variety of zytel rods on board than a whole lot of spare bolts (size and weight restraints being cumulative on such complex packages).

Ofcourse there was a report written that billed the government for the privilege of reusing their old nut that they had already paid too much for, but that's a different story.