U-Bolt Torque Settings

Most of us have seen it happen - people fiddling with their oar towers or other fittings on their boat because they won’t stay put. On the flip side, many of us have stretched our u-bolts by overtightening them. Is it time to bust out the torque wrench? Not necessarily.

Personally, I will do everything I can to avoid having to deal with set screws which commonly come loose, or over stress cast fittings causing cracks to form. Using U-bolts allows me to tighten things down so they don’t slip or rotate, and they’re easy to adjust. U-bolts tend to fail gracefully, by stretching when overloaded instead of breaking. Our u-bolts are made with 304 stainless, which yield a lot before breaking, making it highly unlikely to leave you stranded.

I pack a small socket wrench in my boat toolkit, with a 4” long handle that only allows me to tighten to about the max recommended torque (15ft-lb or 20Nm). So long as I’m using that little wrench, I know I can get those bolts as snug as I can without breaking or stretching my hardware. Though it’s tempting, I don’t recommend just going to town with an impact driver when assembling your frame. Longer handled wrenches may require less effort for a given torque, but make it far easier to over torque things, causing stretched u-bolts that will need replacing. Stick to a short wrench, and you can tighten them down really well without causing any problems.

It might make sense to calibrate yourself when you have access to a torque wrench. Get a feel for how tight those nuts should be on the u-bolt, tighten them accordingly, and trust your gear.