There is a strong Nothern Michigan / Upper Peninsula contingent here, especially in the Winter (snowbirds). They are joined by a large group from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Utah and Colorado as well, again snowbirds. Likewise many from the Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon and Washington are here, again winter snowbirds. I'm a bit of a reverse snowbird. I spend all winter in Álamos Sonora Mexico... and late Spring, Summer, and Early Fall in Green Valley (of course visiting family on the east coast in July to escape the heat).
Thanks for the info! Nice to make a digital acquaintance. Keep 'keep'n on'
Never used that seller before, but have use Gorilla black lug nuts before and had them hold up well. They don't have the lifetime warranty that McGard does, but they come in the proper size and are closer to the factory nuts in size/shape. Plus, you can get matching locking lug nuts that look very close to the other nuts, rather than sticking out or looking funny.
Nothing worse than your nuts sticking out and looking funny
I think Mt Lemmon is 9100 ft. I live right near it in Oro Valley. When we moved out here Green Valley was high on our list but we are still working and my wife took a job at Oro Valley hospital, so that nixed Green Valley. Beautiful down there though for sure!
I do my own tire rotations every 5k miles, so probably more than a lot of people. I use a battery powered impact but with a socket designed to protect wheels and lug nuts. They have a plastic sleeve on the outside to protect the wheels and a plastic insert to protect the lug nuts. I remove the lugs this way and then when I reinstall them I start them by hand, turn down the impact to spin them down, and then torque with a torque wrench. On the black lugs, doing it this way, I have noticed the sharp edges of the lugs starting to wear a little to where the black looks a little worn off, but not really noticeable unless you really look for it, and no wear on the top of the lug - the most visible part. The set I'm talking about has at least 10 rotations on them. On the same set in chrome, I never noticed any wear.Nothing worse than your nuts sticking out and looking funny
But on a serious note how do you keep tire places from jacking them up with impact tools if you have them rotate your tires?
I visited the Green Valley several years ago for work. I was working on the ANITA array at the visitor's center of Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory at the base of Mt. Hoskins. While working there I stayed in the astronomer's lodging up on Mt. Hoskins. This was during the monsoon season (when the telescope array is normally off-line for yearly maintenance), so the high altitude lodging gave me great views of the isolated thunderstorms that traveled up the valley. From my lodging at night I could look north and see the lights of Tuscon, and look south and see the lights of Nogales.
The number of lugnuts that have been damaged by using wrong size sockets, impact wrenches and wrong torque is truly staggering. Most shops incorrectly put your nuts on with an incorrect 13/16ths socket using an overpressure impact. The correct size is a 19mm with the first thread being by hand to prevent damaging the starter thread and the final 20lbs of torque being done with a torque wrench by hand. That takes too long, so they just find a close fit socket, zip them on as fast as possible and screw up your nuts and you won't find out about it for about a year when they now swell up inside with rust.
