Bridgestone has developed a free app giving the correct torque settings for a wide range of commercial vehicle wheel nuts.
Based on more than 10 years of data gathering from, truck and trailer manufacturers the Retorque app will offer the correct torque settings on all vehicles, free of charge to any user, on a mobile phone or tablet. Bridgestone plan to develop it further to include van data in the future.
Correctly torqueing wheel nuts is essential to minimise the risk of wheels coming loose. Over-tightening is equally dangerous as under-tightening, as this can cause studs to crack and wheels to become loose.
Bridgestone’s product and marketing manager Andy Mathias said: “Since 2005, we have been collecting re-torque data from all original equipment manufacturers which we have historically supplied to our Bridgestone Partners in a manual which was always in high demand. We are now delighted to be able to offer a user-friendly, simple e-solution.
“We decided to make it free of charge because the security and safety of commercial fleets is more important than creating revenue.”
Mathias added that the industry had been in need of a solution like Bridgestone’s re-torque app - available from Google and Apple stores - for a number of years, with up to 12 people being killed on roads each year through detaching wheels.
