I bought a brand new 30' toy-hauler trailer 2 years ago with aluminum wheels and tapered lug nuts. Torqued at the factory and the dealership, so I didn't bother, even though the instructions said to retorque. 800 miles later I had the left side of the trailer sitting on the brake drums in the middle of the night, half the studs sheared off, one wheel floating down a river and the other so torn up that it had to be replaced.
I retorqued at 2 miles, 5 miles, 10 miles, 25 miles, 50 miles and 200 miles and 500 before they stopped loosening up. Two wheels, two tires, torn up trailer, 24 hours of lost time, created a traffic crisis, could have killed people with the flying tires, could have ended up off the road and into the river with the truck and trailer... Thank God it was the trailer and not the truck.
That was all great preparation for my wife spinning out the whole thing 2 days later, destroying the two tires on the other side and almost rolling the truck and trailer down a steep embankment.
Every time your rims are removed, they are supposed to be torqued then driven a given distance listed in the owners manual, and retorqued.
Yeah, I'm now a big fan of regularly reefing on my nuts with a torque wrench. The pain is worth it.
