1/2" BSF wheel nut for caravan - and stud?

Are you sure its not UNF?

I'd be temnpetd to take the wheel off, and repalve ALL the studs with whatever you can find to fit,

it's 99% definitely BSF, Leominster Engineering had a kind of feeler gauge, I bought some 1/2" BSF nuts one bay and they fit. But because they have flat ends i think they would deform the wheels and be impossible to remove.

Agreed

These people may have them - and studs ..

SteveW

That's the first I found as well, but

SteveW

Oh bugger, just spotted that the link that got me there had the wrong title and they are UNF :(

SteveW

Ignore that, wrong link.

STeveW

Are you absolutely sure that it's BSF and not UNF? Have you counted the threads on an inch of stud? If so, what was the result?

By the 1960's the UK motor industry and - I think - caravan industry had moved to unified threads.

Do you know who made the chassis for your Sprite? Was probably either B&B or Peak. B&B is now part of Al-Ko, and Peak still exists in some form or other. A call to the chassis manufacturer may clarify the spec (if anyone can remember!) and may even point you to suitable spares.

Are you a member of the Caravan Club or Caravan & Camping Club? they both have technical departments which may be able to help.

thanks NP, i've ordered one... but what to do about the bent stud? could a blacksmith straighten it?

For the nut:

Find a local model engineer and ask him to make one. A traditional small garage may be able to do it.

A bit of hex bar, drilled on a lathe, the taper turned down, and a thread the hole.

If you pay a garage, it won't be cheap but not silly money but a model may do it free or at least for 'a beer'.

Stud:

Likewise a stud could be made, perhaps by modifying a bolt. Again, a model engineer could do it.

Removing old studs is 'hit and miss'. Sometimes the come out relatively easily. Others.........

I assume you've tried a caravan breakers ?

You could use your Ebay nuts to protect the thread and try 'tapping' it. Support the hub, to protect the bearings.

Presumably it isn't that bent or you could fit the wheel.

Two nuts, drill out the threads of one and turn, or at a pinch file, a suitable cone on the outside and then use an ordinary nut outboard of it.

Come to think of it, owning a caravan like that you *must* know an old fart with a Myford or Colchester who would make you a proper one for beer tokens. Someone who has old British bikes or a Lister engine.

Or just a Myford lathe. ;-)

Funnily enough, I recently turned a new 'cone' on the faces of some trailer wheel nuts because they looked like they were for a different pattern of rim to the replacements I found.

Given these wheels are typically 'lug / stud centric' I assumed the nut should match the profile of the conical holes in the rim and these didn't. After a bit of Googling I think I found 60 Deg was a typical / likely angle so that was what I set them to (and they certainly seemed to match / locate better than the nuts as they were).

Cheers, T i m

What I *meant* was that you might not necessarily know if an acquaintance has a Myford in their shed. But, if they do bike or steam ralleys then even if they don't have one, they will probably know someone who has.

:-)

Yeah, I got it ... I was just saying ... you could either know someone who might have a lathe, or one of their friends *or*, have one yourself (as I do). ;-)

As you say, whilst you can 'shape' say a cone on a flat faced nut with a file and I would in an emergency, any of that sort of stuff is much much easier (and more accurate / repeatable) on a lathe.

I'd put my ML10 'up there' along with the Lincoln MIG welder, the 6" metal cutting bandsaw and possibly the 10 tonne hydraulic press as things that would (now) be difficult to live without, even though they are quite expensive considering their utilisation (which is probably a fraction of a percent / year).

Cheers, T i m

If you start with a 1/2" UNF wheel nut, it will already have one conical end. So just drill out the threads and then put a plain 1/2" BSF nut behind it.

Good thinking!