Carrying a torque wrench...?

[Umarth]

not sure if this is the write place for this post, but anyway,

I'll soon be leaving for a 2-3year RTW trip on my little orange thumper.
Tool set preaty much all figured out, except for one thing: the torque wrench.
The main reason why I'm concidering carrying one is that I'm rather ham fisted when it comes to torquing.
And I would HATE to strip something while in the middle of nowhere because I over torque it, or loose a bolt cause I was affraid of over torquing. Also to note, is that I plan on doing all maintenance and most repairs myself.

I know I know, it's getting close to bringing the kitchen sink, but this item I see as insurance...

My question is, for the odd men that do carry a torque wrench; which one do you carry? I'm looking at one from AC delcon, 2-39 ft-lb. at 12" long I think I could live with that. On my ktm, 40+ lbs of torque is rather rare and I'm not so scared of over torquing those any way. I saw another one that was 0-50 ft-lbs but bulkier.
Price wise, I'm good to up to 250$ for one.

[blues]

Not a torque wrench per se but perhaps use a small, 1/4 inch drive, much tougher to over do it with a short handle. Some thing with a 3 to 4 inch handle. I use them all the time in my garage. Easy to try one.

[WormShanks]

Originally Posted by blues

Not a torque wrench per se but perhaps use a small, 1/4 inch drive, much tougher to over do it with a short handle. Some thing with a 3 to 4 inch handle. I use them all the time in my garage. Easy to try one.

That's what I carry as well.

[devo2002]

Weight matters on a rtw trips especially and torque wrenches are heavy. I'd practice getting a feel on bolts before you leave, compare a today wrench to what u will be bringing

[db-89]

you could bring the torque wrench but youd have to bring the manual to have the torque measurements

[bemiiten]

Torque everything before you leave and make a index mark with a dab of paint. If something needs service on the road, all you need to do is realign your marks.

[rtw02]

On our RTW I carried a small (12") norbar brand torque wrench.
I can't remember the exact scale but it was good for most of my 1984 R80RT BMW.
Made valve adjustments easier on the mind and tightening up the oil filter cover was never a worry...
It was borrowed by many bike travellers doing their services in remote locations when stripping a bolt would have been a bit of a problem.
I had the room in the toolroll and it did not weigh all that much.
However, when I used it, I set it for about 5NM less than specs (I had a chiltons manual too) and worked my way up from there, as I was never too sure what all that dirt, vibration and rattling around in the panniers did to the calibration.
All in all I was glad I took it.

[Umarth]

Originally Posted by bemiiten

Torque everything before you leave and make a index mark with a dab of paint. If something needs service on the road, all you need to do is realign your marks.

how reliable is that? cause that sure would simplify life

[bemiiten]

Originally Posted by Umarth

how reliable is that? cause that sure would simplify life

Plenty reliable. Give it a try. A couple lbs for a torque wrench doesn't sound like much, but when you start to add up everything you need, every ounce will count. Besides, you would likely need two torque wrenches to cover the range of fasteners.

[aftCG]

We've gone through an exercise at work (We make seriously expensive stuff and 99.99% safety record would leave craters all over the country).

Bolts can be accurately torqued by "running them down to touch, plus 1/4 turn" or something in order to arrive at a predetermined torque. This was brought to us by a supplier and we had arguments for months over it. We lost and the supplier is right. Warning: that 1/4 turn works for a specifc torque value and is obviously not universal. More in a minute...

It's certainly a lot more accurate than anyone's reasonably priced chinese, non calibrated torque wrench.

I'm at home and just did a quick google search and came up empty, but I'll look for the documentation at work that gives a really good idea of what to do in order to arrive at a predetermined torque value.

The concept put forth of marking all your bolt assemblies with paint is friggin genius, and would work as long as you are putting the same components back together. If you replace one of the components and the thickness is different then it would have an effect. It would still beat the heck out of just cranking it pret'near and hoping for the best.

[SpeedySteve]

Check these torque sockets out! We use these at work for noob installers. They always overtorque this fiberglass mast, so we give them one of these torque sockets. They act like an extension essentially, but click when the predefined torque has been met. unlike a torque wrench, they will not continue to spin after the set torque has been met.

They work great, you can set them to any torque, and unlike torque wrenches they are not shock/vibration sensitive.

[Umarth]

I'm gonna test the 1/4 turn thing and the paint marks to see if it all adds up after multiple loosen/tighten.
if it pan's out, i'll be leaving the tw home.

that would be f'n cool!

[Banjax]

If you understand the principle of how a torque wrench works,pound/feet etc,you can easily make a torque wrench using something like a fishermans spring scale (small and light) and a tommy-bar (you will probably be carrying this anyway) marked to one foot.
Simply hook the sping scale around the tommy-bar at the one foot mark and pull the other end of the scale until it reaches the desired weight,say 20lb,to give a torque of 20ft/lb.
If you applied the same 20lb to a two foot tommy-bar,you get a torque setting of 40ft/lb while 20lb applied at 6 inches (half a foot) would give a figure of 10ft/lb..
All you have to remember is torque is the product of a mass at a distance.

[JerryH]

I wouldn't leave home without a centerstand and everything needed to fix multiple flat tires. 9 times out of 10, when I have a problem, it's a flat tire. I don't carry a torque wrench, and in fact do not even use on on my bikes other than for some internal engine bolts. I don't use one on the axles, sprocket bolts, or even the valve adjusters if they are screw and locknut. I did recently use one on the clutch basket nut when I installed a kickstarter on my XT225.

I have found that for most bikes the manual specifies too much torque for the rear axle. You don't need 100+ ft/lbs. on most chain drive bikes 60 ft/lbs is plenty. I have never had a rear wheel move in the swingarm at 60 ft/lbs. This is easily within the range where you can do it by feel and get real close.

[dnrobertson]

Originally Posted by db-89

you could bring the torque wrench but youd have to bring the manual to have the torque measurements

Or convert (or obtain) the manual in PDF format and put it on your phone ?? I have my KTMservice and spare parts manuals on my iPhone and use Goodreader.