how tight should wheels be?

[fusen]

I just put in spacers on my board, how tight should I tighten the nuts for the wheels? should the wheels still jiggle?

when i didnt have spacers I let my wheels be able to jiggle

[Metalhead8290]

i tighten it till its snug, then lossen it about 1/8 of a turn.

[SteveC]

Ultimately wheels should be quite tight.
However. in reality we usually need a little play for the bearings to run true.

[oldskool]

my experience with leaving the wheels too loose was that one popped off while i was carving. tighten the wheel till the wheel starts to slow down a little then loosen a TINY bit.i usually compare the spin time to another wheel that is loose, then you can get just the right amount

[BetterSense]

34.2 ft-lbs.

No, I don't know, but they should be tight. Cranked down. If cranking them down binds them so they don't spin freely, make sure the bearings are seated by smaking the wheel around a bit, and if necessary put a thin speed ring (or more as needed) inside with the spacer.

The whole point of spacers is to be able to tighten the nut arbitrarily tight without binding the bearings. Due to variations within wheels and spacers this doesn't always happen. When I had access to a machine shop I would custom-machine spacers matched to each wheel. Now I just do the speedring method.

[Paipo Jim]

If your wheels don't spin freely after they are tightened down then your spacers are too short. Unfortunately 90% of all setups are like this.

I use spacers that are three or four thousandths over but I consider myself lucky if I get good results for even one or two wheels in any given set of four. As PVD has said, you can really only get a decent fit if you cut each spacer for each individual wheel; and for that you need your own machine shop.

With a few exceptions (Radikal comes to mind) the wheel and truck manufacturers still build stuff to "toy" tolerances as that is how they really see the skateboard "market". The fact that even the average skater will go faster with straighter axles and carve harder with truer wheels doesn't enter into their economic equations.

Until skaters demand and are willing to pay for better equipment, voodoo back-off schemes will continue. I do it myself.
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[BAD_S197]

I tighten mine down till the wheel no longer has any play on the axle.

Then every time I go ride I just check the wheels for play and retighten.

dont know if i'm right or not but it seems to be ok.

[Dante Sly]

I usually tighten to the point it is quite tight with spacers. Then untighten the opposite way no more than 1/8th a turn. Usually enough that it gives from its tight position and thats it. Spin both front wheels to compare. Then spin right side to left side to compare. Adjust accordingly but never leave your wheels loser than 1/4 an unloosened turn. Some say it should always be as tight as possible. After 5 years of street skating, i dont abide. However, i literally check my spin times and tightness at the end of each day.

[nicotine]

I tighten mine until they can move back and forth only very slightly.

[andrew_cruise]

get builtins and crank or you can use regular bearings and buy nicespacers. i found the most precise set i have now are some ones i took off a vintage board. they are thicker than usual too and dont get crunched like regular ones do after heavly slides/ drifts.