Emergency vehicles are some of the heaviest vehicles on the road today. With water, aerial devices, and various types of equipment, some emergency vehicles can weigh 80,000 pounds.

This massive amount of weight rests on the tire and wheel assemblies of these vehicles, which are held to the axles by several wheel-attaching nuts, more commonly know as lug nuts. Having something so small, in comparison to the overall size of emergency vehicles, to keep critical components attached to the vehicles is quite impressive. It takes all of the lug nuts working together at the proper torque to keep the tire and wheel assemblies attached to the vehicle. Read More.

This article originally appeared in Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment, February, 2015.