I almost bought the protective sockets, but couldn't figure out the point of having a protective sleeve on the outside making the socket even bigger in OD, which defeats the purpose of not making contact with the wheel. On new/nice chrome lug nuts, I just use a thin wall 6pt socket, and break them loose by hand, and use my cordless drill, with a low clutch setting to run them off, and on. Not much more you can do. It's just a lug nut.