Trailer Lug Nut Torque Calculator: Ft-Lbs by Wheel and Stud Size

Trailer wheel nut torque is set by the stud thread size and by who built the axle — not by the wheel diameter every chart sorts by. For the commonest case, a 15 inch wheel on 1/2”-20 studs, Dexter publishes 100–120 ft-lb and Lippert 90–120, reached in three passes in a star pattern. Then re-torque at 10, 25 and 50 miles.

Why every torque chart online disagrees with the others

Because none of them says where its numbers came from. Search this and you get a dozen charts from dealers and retailers, all formatted slightly differently, none naming a document. They are copies of copies, and where the originals disagree the copies inherit the disagreement without the context.

Here is what the originals actually say, read from the manufacturers’ own PDFs. For a 16 inch wheel on 9/16”-18 studs:

Published by	Document	Final torque
Dexter	600–8K Complete Service Manual, p.74	140–170 ft-lb
Lippert	QR-018 quick reference, Rev 08.22.2024	120–140 ft-lb
Lippert	Trailer Axle (2K–7K) Owner’s Manual CCD-0001412, p.24	120–130 ft-lb

Three published figures for one fastener. The Dexter and Lippert bands do not overlap — the lowest Dexter will accept is 140, the highest Lippert’s own manual will accept is 130. There is no number that satisfies both, which is why the calculator above prints none when you tell it you do not know your axle maker. Note also that the second and third rows are both Lippert, five years apart, disagreeing with each other.

The stud size sets the number, not the wheel diameter

This is the column most charts drop, and it matters more than the one they keep. In Dexter’s own table a 16 inch wheel takes either 100–120 ft-lb or 140–170 ft-lb — a 50 ft-lb spread — depending on nothing but whether the studs are 1/2”-20 or 9/16”-18. The wheel diameter is the same in both rows.

The thread size is stamped or measurable on the stud itself. If you are working from a chart that only asks for wheel size, it has already lost the information that decides the answer.

Nut style splits it again at the top of the range. On a 17.5 inch wheel, Dexter publishes 190–210 ft-lb with a cone nut, 275–325 with a flange nut and 150–175 with a swivel flange nut. Same wheel, same 5/8”-18 studs, three answers more than 150 ft-lb apart.

Three passes, in a star pattern, every time

Both makers publish the same procedure, and both publish it as stages rather than one pull to the final figure:

1. Start every nut by hand to avoid cross-threading. Both manuals lead with this.
2. First pass, lightly — typically 20–25 ft-lb on 1/2” studs, 50–60 on 5/8”.
3. Second pass, roughly half to two-thirds of final.
4. Final pass, to the figure for your wheel and studs.

Each pass goes round in a star pattern — always the nut furthest from the one you just did, never the next one around the rim. Between them the manuals print the pattern as a diagram for 4, 5, 6, 8 and 10 lug wheels. The staging is what pulls the wheel up square against the hub; going straight to final torque on the first nut cocks the wheel and leaves the others reading high on a wrench that has not actually clamped anything.

Re-torque at 10, 25 and 50 miles

New nuts and a freshly mounted wheel lose clamp load as everything seats. Both Dexter’s 600–8K manual and Lippert’s axle manual say the same thing: torque before the first road use and after every wheel removal, then check and re-torque at 10, 25 and 50 miles, then periodically.

That contradiction is most of why the forum threads on this never resolve. People quoting “50 then 100” and people quoting “10, 25, 50” are both reading a real Dexter manual.

The chart, for the rig

Everything both makers publish, on one sheet. This is the version worth printing and leaving in the trailer — it is read beside a wheel, with a wrench in one hand, usually somewhere without signal.

Wheel	Studs	Nut	Published by	1st	2nd	Final
12"	1/2"-20	—	Dexter	20–25	35–40	60–75
13"	1/2"-20	—	Dexter	20–25	35–40	60–75
14"	1/2"-20	—	Dexter	20–25	50–60	100–120†
14"	1/2"-20	—	Lippert	20–25	50–60	90–120†
14.5" demount	1/2"-20	—	Lippert	—	—	85–95 (one pass)
15"	1/2"-20	—	Dexter	20–25	50–60	100–120†
15"	1/2"-20	—	Lippert	20–25	50–60	90–120†
16"	1/2"-20	—	Dexter	20–25	50–60	100–120†
16"	1/2"-20	—	Lippert	20–25	50–60	90–120†
16"	9/16"-18	—	Dexter	20–25	50–60	140–170†
16"	9/16"-18	—	Lippert	20–25	60–70	120–140†
16"	9/16"-18	—	Lippert	20–25	60–70	120–130†
16"	5/8"-18	cone nut	Lippert	50–60	100–120	190–210
16"	5/8"-18	flange nut	Lippert	50–60	150–200	275–325
16.5"	1/2"-20	—	Dexter	20–25	50–60	100–120†
16.5"	1/2"-20	—	Lippert	20–25	50–60	90–120†
16.5"	9/16"-18	—	Dexter	20–25	50–60	140–170†
16.5"	9/16"-18	—	Lippert	20–25	60–70	120–140†
16.5"	9/16"-18	—	Lippert	20–25	60–70	120–130†
16.5"	5/8"-18	cone nut	Dexter	50–60	120–125	175–225
17.5"	5/8"-18	cone nut	Dexter	50–60	100–120	190–210
17.5"	5/8"-18	cone nut	Lippert	50–60	100–120	190–210
17.5"	5/8"-18	flange nut	Dexter	50–60	90–200	275–325
17.5"	5/8"-18	flange nut	Lippert	50–60	150–200	275–325
17.5"	5/8"-18	swivel flange nut	Dexter	50–60	60–110	150–175
17.5"	M22-1.5	flange nut	Lippert	50–100	250–300	450–500

Re-torque at 10, 25, 50 miles, then at every service and after every wheel removal. Check cold, before the first road use.

Never exceed the stud. Dexter rates its grade-8 studs to a maximum of 1/2"-20 → 120, 9/16"-18 → 170, 5/8"-18 → 325 ft-lb. For every size, that maximum is also the top of the recommended range above — so the top of a range is a ceiling, not a target.

Star pattern, always. Opposite nut next, never around the rim. Start every nut by hand to avoid cross-threading. Both makers say to use a torque wrench and nothing else.

Dexter: 600–8K Complete Service Manual, wheel torque table p.74 and stud maxima p.75. Lippert: QR-018 Rev 08.22.2024, and Trailer Axle (2K–7K) Owner's Manual CCD-0001412 p.24. Dexter stopped building trailer wheels in June 2004 and directs owners of other makers' wheels to the vehicle manufacturer's figure, never past the stud limit. Your trailer's own placard beats this sheet. Verified 20 September 2026 · rvtrove.com/towing/trailer-lug-nut-torque-calculator/

The top of the range is the stud’s limit, not a target

Read Dexter’s two tables against each other and something falls out that no chart mentions. Dexter rates its grade-8 studs to a maximum of 120 ft-lb for 1/2”-20, 170 for 9/16”-18 and 325 for 5/8”-18. Now look at the top of each recommended range: 100–120, 140–170, 275–325.

For every stud size Dexter publishes, the top of the recommended range is exactly the stud’s maximum. There is no headroom above it. Aim at the middle of the range, not the top — and treat a chart that rounds “100–120” up to a tidy “120 ft-lb” as having handed you the ceiling and called it a setting.

Dexter’s warning on exceeding it is blunt: doing so “can damage studs and/or nuts and lead to eventual fractures and dangerous wheel separation”.

Whose wheel is it, though?

Here is the sentence that every chart copying Dexter’s table leaves out, and it is the first paragraph above the table in the original:

In June of 2004, Dexter ceased production of trailer wheels. If your vehicle is equipped with Dexter steel wheels manufactured before that date, the following wheel torque information will be applicable.

Dexter then says that wheels from other makers must be torqued to the vehicle manufacturer’s figure — while never exceeding the stud limits above. So the most-reproduced trailer torque table on the internet is, by its own author’s account, scoped to wheels that stopped being made more than twenty years ago.

In practice: your trailer’s own placard or manual beats everything on this page. The axle makers’ tables are what you use when there isn’t one, which is most of the time.

Reaching the figure

A torque wrench, and nothing else. Lippert’s manual says to use a torque wrench and “no other method” to torque wheel lug nuts; Dexter calls it “the best method to assure the proper amount of torque is being applied to a fastener”. An impact gun is fine for running nuts down and useless for setting them.

The only real selection question is range, and it is worth doing arithmetic on rather than buying the biggest. A wrench has to bracket your figure at both ends. The 10–100 ft-lb wrench that covers a 12 inch wheel’s 60–75 ft-lb cannot finish a 15 inch wheel, because it stops at 100 and the range runs to 120. Go the other way and a wider range buys a coarser scale: 2 ft-lb increments against 1, and 26.1 inches of handle against 19.1 to swing inside a wheel well.

And at the top of the table nothing consumer-sized reaches. A 17.5 inch wheel on flange nuts wants 275–325 ft-lb; the largest wrench in our records is rated to 300. The calculator says so rather than offering you something that almost fits, because winding a wrench past its rating is the failure this page is about.

Model	Range	Drive	Accuracy	Scale increment	Length	Buy
TEKTON 3/8 in, 10-100	10 to 100 ft-lb	3/8 in. drive	Within ±3% clockwise and counterclockwise	0.5 ft-lb	15.6 in.	Check price(opens in a new tab)
TEKTON 1/2 in, 40-200	40 to 200 ft-lb	1/2 in. drive	Within ±3% clockwise and counterclockwise	1 ft-lb	19.1 in.	Check price(opens in a new tab)
TEKTON 1/2 in, 40-300	40 to 300 ft-lb	1/2 in. drive	Within ±3% clockwise and counterclockwise	2 ft-lb	26.1 in.	Check price(opens in a new tab)

Mistakes that cost studs and wheels

• Torquing to a chart without knowing the stud size. A 16 inch wheel is 100–120 or 140–170 depending on it. Guess wrong downward and the wheel works loose; guess wrong upward on 1/2” studs and you are 50 ft-lb past their rated maximum.
• Aiming at the top of the range. It is the stud’s limit for every size Dexter publishes.
• Skipping the re-torque. It is the single cheapest thing on this page and the one most often left undone.
• Going round the rim instead of across it. The star pattern is what pulls the wheel square; sequential tightening cocks it.
• Finishing with an impact gun. It cannot set a torque, and Lippert says in as many words to use no other method than a torque wrench.
• Greasing threads that should be dry. The published figures are for dry threads unless the row says otherwise — Dexter’s clamp-ring row is the one that specifies greased. Lubricant on a dry-spec thread produces far more clamp load than the wrench reads.

Questions worth answering