Techtip4

TECHNICAL TIP – No 4

Wheel spanners

Have you ever had the experience of trying to remove wheel nuts with the little wheel
spanner the manufacturers usually supply with a car? These spanners may work under perfect
conditions - like when the car is brand new, but once you’ve had new tyres fitted a couple
of times and the wheel nuts tightened by those very special chaps at the tyre shop, add to
this a bit of age, dust and rust and rounding off of the nuts you invariably have no chance of
loosening the nuts with the spanner provided. A suggestion is to carry a telescopic wheel spanner.

As a comparison, the handle of the wheel spanner supplied with a 1964 Sunbeam Alpine is 15cms long
whereas the telescopic ones are 30 cms long extending to 50 cms – so much easier to use. Apart from
the added length, the telescopic spanners are much stronger, are slightly offset to clear the wheels rim,
and have a decent rubber grip on the handle. They come with a variety of metric sockets usually
from 17 to 23mm and as they use a standard ½ inch fitting good old imperial size sockets can be
used if need be.

These telescopic wheel spanners are freely available from most accessory shops. The one I’m
looking at is made in Germany and came from Midas. They sell for around R85.00 but are often
offered on “special” at around R45.00. (Shows the profit they make)

As they use standard 1/2” sockets - in addition to loosening wheel nuts they are ideal for heavy work
like loosening cylinder head nuts etc.

Conclusion – a worthwhile investment - especially when you’re sitting on the side of the road.