Aftermarket Alloys for Snows

[lowsparkco]

I was about one second away from pulling the trigger on a second set of wheels when I came across a series of reviews complaining about bending aftermarket alloys. All of them were lower end less expensive wheels that deformed after a pretty mundane interaction with a pothole. Are aftermarket alloys that much weaker than an OEM alloy?

What do you look for to insure quality? Type of casting? Manufacturer?

If everyday Joe’s are denting alloys mags must be destroying some soft wheels… who’s bent an alloy wheel?

[scmartin69]

FIL dented the shit out of a stock Chevy Silverado wheel by hitting an 8" rock, so it may just be luck of the draw...

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

[jamal]

Well there's a wide range of "aftermarket" when it comes to wheels. From cheap mystery brand to very high end, nicer, lighter, stronger than oem. But I wouldn't worry too much about it.

And tire size matters. Going to be harder to dent a wheel with a big truck tire vs a low profile car tire. On that note it's sometimes nice to size down on wheels with winter tires because it tends to make the tires cheaper and also a taller sidewall and narrower tread gives a little better feedback when there's less traction.

Offset, however, should be the same or at least close to original. Correct hub centerbore or a hubcentric ring is nice too. But with tapered lug seats and proper wheel installation, not absolutely necessary.

[XXX-er]

they can bend from impacts between the spokes if there are not enough spokes,
i just buy steel rims for snow tires

[J. Barron DeJong]

I buy steelies when available, but have probably had three different sets of whatever the cheapest alloys I could get from Tire Rack that fit the car and have never had an issue.

Edit: as Jamal does, I also downsize my wheel diameter as much as possible, and the tread width as well. On the van that meant going from stock 235/55R18 down to 215/65R17. On the car, 215/50R18 down to 205/65R16.

[singlesline]

Random cheap alloys from Tire Rack or Discount Tire/Discount Tire Direct should be fine for the most part. Sport Edition, vision, velox, or other brands like that.

As long as you aren't pairing it with low profile tires (which you shouldn't be for snows...downsize rim as long as it will clear brakes), they will be fine and you shouldn't have any crazy denting issues. My guess is that most of the dent reviews are from people running skinny sidewalls.

Maybe avoid any designs that are too flashy or out there, but something that has a decent spoke density/thickness should be fine. I have nothing to back this up, but I might hesitate to buy a cheapo skinny 5-spoke wheel given that leaves a lot of rim between supports.

Something that looks like this: https://www.tirerack.com/wheels/spor...racite-painted
or this: https://www.tirerack.com/wheels/spor...k-silver-paint (I think I have this, or a predecessor, and it has been fine)

Also think about cleaning/snow clearance. Nice open spoke patterns don't hold snow/ice like steelies, and a lack of fine details/tight gaps makes it easy to wash them.

[singlesline]

Oh, and if you want to make them look better, either try to find an OEM-logo center cap that fits, or do what I have done on both sets of winter wheels since I couldn't find caps:

Measure the diameter of the flat spot on the cheapo center-cap, go to https://3dcarstickers.com/ and have them make a domed sticker that exactly fits inside the lip. If you clean the surface real good (maybe scuff it a little), they will hold up fine for years of winter driving and car wash pressure spray.

[Eluder]

How low of a profile are your tires? I would say that is the first factor in denting wheels. Way less room for error on tire pressure and hitting shit.

I had a steel wheel crack in half once on a desert trip, it could have sucked way worse than it did.

[jmedslc]

i've had success buying OEM take-offs for cheap on our local classifieds. last year when i got the new Tundra, within 2 weeks i found a dude who had some bare stock rims from previous model year, identical to mine, for $250 total. I figure your needs may be a bit more time sensitive, but just gotta poke around.

[plugboots]

I have three sets currently and have had two others in the past. All the cheapest models I could find from tire rack, all performed perfectly.

[lowsparkco]

Thanks for the help everyone.

Summers on the stock wheels are 18” and I’ve been shopping 17”s. They’re pretty tall, like 225/55 vs. 255/45 on the summers.

I’ve done steelies in the past or bought OEMs used for older Subarus as they were pretty easy to find and cheap, looked good. This car wouldn’t look right with steel wheels though.

Dealer makes a winter set for the car, but they’re double the price, so I’ll go back to Tire Rack and pick something out. Appreciate all the input, great body of wisdom in this collective.

[Self Jupiter]

I buy steelies when available, but have probably had three different sets of whatever the cheapest alloys I could get from Tire Rack that fit the car and have never had an issue.

Edit: as Jamal does, I also downsize my wheel diameter as much as possible, and the tread width as well. On the van that meant going from stock 235/55R18 down to 215/65R17. On the car, 215/50R18 down to 205/65R16.

X2 on all of that. Off the top of my head I believe I’ve had 4 sets of Sport Editions and one set of Borbets to date with no issues.

[J. Barron DeJong]

This car wouldn’t look right with steel wheels though.

No car looks ‘right’ with steelies. That’s what makes steelies right.

[frorider]

Read this first: https://www.tirerack.com/wheels/tech....jsp?techid=90

I’ve bought two sets of pressure cast rims for snow tires from tirerack, no problems.

[lowsparkco]

No car looks ‘right’ with steelies. That’s what makes steelies right.

I drove an 85 Westphalia with a super sun faded brown paint job, black steelies with a little rust, and I always thought it looked great with a new set of shoes, usually BF Goodrich AT’s. But, to each their own

[eSock]

No car looks ‘right’ with steelies. That’s what makes steelies right.

I love the look of Steelies on my cx5 during the winter. My brother asked if I got my hub caps stolen though...

[J. Barron DeJong]

Read this first: https://www.tirerack.com/wheels/tech....jsp?techid=90

I’ve bought two sets of pressure cast rims for snow tires from tirerack, no problems.

Should have gone all out and gotten forged BBS/OZ/RAYS.

Aside: I knew an engineer at Pratt & Miller (they run a lot of GM’s racing programs) and apparently they tested 3-piece vs. forged one piece wheels on the GTO race cars, and the one piece were something like a second a lap faster, mostly due to less flex if I recall correctly.

[singlesline]

Konig runlites are sometimes really cheap, in 17” sizes and would be a step above the sport edition stuff.

[Shorty_J]

Steel wheels are a lot heavier than allow and will negatively affect your gas mileage due to the unsprung weight issue.

I have steels with my winters and my gas mileage got about another 10% worse than the year before with alloys. And that's on top of me losing about 10% in mileage switching from summers to winters.

Sent from my SM-A536W using Tapatalk

[J. Barron DeJong]

Steel wheels are a lot heavier than allow and will negatively affect your gas mileage due to the unsprung weight issue.

I have steels with my winters and my gas mileage got about another 10% worse than the year before with alloys. And that's on top of me losing about 10% in mileage switching from summers to winters.

Sent from my SM-A536W using Tapatalk

Going to go out an a limb here and suggest that the drop in mileage wasn’t due to the increased unsprung weight….

[Shorty_J]

Going to go out an a limb here and suggest that the drop in mileage wasn’t due to the increased unsprung weight….

Based on what?

2 winters ago with alloys and snow tires I got around 8 L/100km.

Last winter with steels and snow tires I got about 9 L/100km.

A noticeable difference.



Sent from my SM-A536W using Tapatalk

[J. Barron DeJong]

Based on what?

2 winters ago with alloys and snow tires I got around 8 L/100km.

Last winter with steels and snow tires I got about 9 L/100km.

A noticeable difference.



Sent from my SM-A536W using Tapatalk

So, I’ve never had a job where I really needed to understand effects on fuel economy, but I did have one that required a good understanding of vehicle dynamics, and I just can’t see any way that adding an additional ~1% of the vehicles mass could possibly reduce fuel economy by 10%.

Mass reduces fuel economy mainly because you need more energy to get the additional mass up to speed, and then that extra energy is turned into waste heat when braking.

More mass will also increase rolling resistance.

Both those effects are proportional to the increase in mass itself, and only account for a fraction of total energy requirements of the vehicle.

So, I just don’t see how you get a more than 10x reduction in efficiency compared to the increased weight, even if you assume that unsprung mass has greater affect than sprung (which I think would only make a marginal difference).

Not saying you didn’t see a reduction in fuel economy, just that there was very likely some factor(s) involved beyond just the increased weight of the steel wheels.

[Shorty_J]

^^^ all sensible in general but if you do some reading on unsprung weight, it is said to have an effect that is not proportional to just the weight added.

Sent from my SM-A536W using Tapatalk

[Shorty_J]

Doesn't say anything about fuel economy but says there is decreased "perfomance"... which is easy to extrapolate to fuel economy... if the car isn't performing as well it seems pretty clear it's using the same fuel to get less results.

https://eeuroparts.com/blog/unsprung-weight/

Sent from my SM-A536W using Tapatalk

[Shorty_J]

And this...

https://www.tirebuyer.com/education/...f-wheel-weight

Sent from my SM-A536W using Tapatalk