Serrated vs Lock Nut for Wheels

[Holeshot]

What type of nuts do you use on the wheels? Serrated or Lock Nut?

[beale]

Locknuts are good but the nylon wears so eventually they will come loose, never had it with serrated though so won't go back

[Holeshot]

Thanks for fast reply. Will order some serrated with next order and see how they go.

[Al3xis007]

The nyloc ones do wear out eventually, the serrated ones are good but if they're a bit loose they will fall off.
I now use serrated nyloc ones I found on ebay, these babies are awesome 💪

[mattr]

The serrations do eventually wear out/off.

But you've usually lost the nut by then anyway.

They also chew up the wheel (a bit) but tbh, you'll more than likely have ditched the wheel before it causes a problem.

[DCM]

If you go on ebay you can usually get 10-20 for the price of 4 from an rc manufacturer, as long a you don't mind it not being anodized.

[Zippy G]

I had a different issue to all of the above, EOS this year my boys wanted colour coded wheel nuts so we bought brand new ones from the shop at the venue, put them on the cars but they didn't get the axle thread coming through the nut but just upto the outer edge of the nut so it was on. Car went on the track after 3 laps the wheel came off. We have since gone back to the serrated ones FOR GOOD. There are anodized colours available as I bought blue ones recently

[Holeshot]

Don't most 1/8 buggies just use a nut don't they? No nylon on there.

[mattr]

1/8th use a massive serrated nut, M10 or M12 thread or something like.

[MrMagoo]

Serrated Nyloc nuts from EBay, and change them every few races just to be sure... they're stupidly cheap so you might as well!

[DCM]

Only time I have replaced a serrated nut is when I have lost one, otherwise never.

Nylow, you should have 3 threads showing and replace every time.

[mattr]

Recommendations from the manufacturers (depending on a few factors) are usually somewhere between 12 and 20ish uses (tightening to recommended torque) for a small steel nyloc nut, to guarantee that they stay on.

You can get away with more uses, but the manufacturers aren't sure the nut will meet end load/torque/retention targets.
FWIW, on my RC cars (and push bikes) i just keep using them until i decide its time to change. Probably 2 or 3 times the recommended number of uses. At work we tend to bin after a single use as its really not worth trying to work out how many times they've been used. Not when we probably pay less than a penny per nut.

Not dealt with aluminium nylocs, but i would expect about 2/3rds of the durability.

[SlowOne]

Aluminium locknuts are very variable. IME the plastic of the locking device can often push its retaining aluminium wall outwards and be useless after the second time they are tightened. For anything other than 12th scale front wheels, I would avoid aluminium locknuts.

Serrated locknuts should form their own indentations in plastic wheels creating an effective 'ramp' that the nut has to overcome before it can come off. Adding in the resilience of the plastic it should perform better than a locknut until, as pointed out above, the serrations wear. Since it is easier to see that than if the plastic in a locknut is worn, the best mechanical engineering solution would be serrated faces on the wheel nuts. HTH :)

[jimmy]

Serrated nuts CAN come loose easier (much) than nyloc-type nuts when used on the front wheels. It mainly applies to cars running smaller hexes since the torque can move the wheel very slightly and the nut follows - so the wheel can move more and the nut loosens more until it all comes off dramatically. You would simply not get that with a nyloc type of nut as it's not locked to the wheel.

Think left wheel on a Durango 410 as it hammers on the brakes. I lost so many right wheels on my one-way equipped Tamiya TRF buggy that it was just not funny.
Bigger hexes and decent wheels are far more important than a wheel nut. Imo.

[i4n]

I lost so many right wheels on my one-way equipped Tamiya TRF buggy that it was just not funny.

I had that on my old Durga and also with my SX3 which I converted to run hex on the front to use up my old Tamiya wheels, only mine wasn't running a one-way (but it was still the right wheel all the time).

The solution I found was to use serrated nuts and also a bit of threadlock as well, this worked well for me.

[Ralls Racing]

answer rc do a lovely serated and nyloc m4 nut in a variety of colours so you can have the best of both;)