Steel versus alloy

[wvuboy44]

Anyone running steel rims? Where did you get them? I'm having trouble finding much in a 17x8ish, 8x6.5 BP. Yeah, I guess even offroading alloys don't break much and you'd have a spare, so if I'm wasting time with steel, tell me. Thank you

[Jack K]

Originally Posted by wvuboy44

Anyone running steel rims? Where did you get them? I'm having trouble finding much in a 17x8ish, 8x6.5 BP. Yeah, I guess even offroading alloys don't break much and you'd have a spare, so if I'm wasting time with steel, tell me. Thank you

I have 17" black powder coated steel rims with BFG LT285/70R17 T/A KO2 tires. Made a point of specifying steel as part of the conversion at SMB West. Reason being that if the rims get damaged, you can pound them back into shape, as happened to me in Anza-Borrego when one of my tires went flat. Can't do that with alloy wheels. Don't know where SMB sourced the rims, you can try giving them a call.

[deserteagle56]

My van came from Quigley with Pro Comp Series 97 black steel wheels, with an 8 x 170 pattern. I'm sure they make these with the 8 x 6.5 pattern also. No problems at all with mine in 13 years of off-road use.

[wvuboy44]

Thanks, folks. I should have mentioned I'm looking for a silver or grey finish in those specs. Apparently they are a unicorn

[TheLetterJ]

My experience with steel wheels has been that they bend LONG before a cast aluminum wheel would break. I have hammered a steel wheel "straight" (enough to hold air) trailside, but it was still junk and needed replacement ASAP. Forged aluminum wheels are typically much stronger and some of them can be hammered straight too, but they'll still usually need to be completely replaced or at the minimum sent out for repair (which will cost more than buying a new steel wheel.) I have broken the lip off a few cast aluminum wheels too and obviously had to change to the spare before hitting the highway. That was the driving reason for me switching to real beadlocks (not due to the bead unseating) on my offroad toy, but I strongly recommend against that for road going vehicles. I've surprisingly had good luck with a number of faux beadlocks that everyone sells these days, the fake beadlock ring does a nice job of reinforcing the outer lip of the wheel, which has always been my point of failure otherwise.

If you genuinely see this as being an issue, you may be better off with steel wheels, but you may also find yourself needing to deal with trailside repairs more often. Maybe 2 spares would be the better solution? I personally would vote in favor of an aluminum wheel with a reinforced lip.

[wvuboy44]

Thanks J. I'm not going to spend that $$ on forged. Sounds like you feel it would be ok to do some moderate 4x4ing on alloys with faux beedlock. This is my daily driver. I'm not familiar with the faux bl. Will research. Thanks again

[arctictraveller]

I'm currently running a set of custom steel wheels from Stockton wheel, Stockton Wheel They are super heavy duty, and I'm sure they would make what ever you are looking for.

[BroncoHauler]

Originally Posted by arctictraveller

I'm currently running a set of custom steel wheels from Stockton wheel, Stockton Wheel They are super heavy duty, and I'm sure they would make what ever you are looking for.

I didn't know they were still open. I remember looking them up years ago, but I thought they had closed since. Glad to hear they're still an option, so please let me know what you think when you get them.




Herb

[This old va]

Steel, while I understand what you're saying is just so old school.
How many Baja and race off-road race vehicles of just about any kind, do you see with steel wheels?? The modern alloy rims are super strong and rugged. And are able to withstand quite an amount of abuse
The post above is fairly accurate I've been able to pound steel and aluminum back to hold air when I didn't have a spare but that was when I was frankly a idiot not to carry a spare and I have 2 spares on a van.
Either way they need to be replaced or repaired.
Last rim I bent was an aluminum one which I hit a rock at 40 mph ... It was just lip damage (deformation) which would have crushed a steel rim I was able to sledgehammer it enough to carry air. But that was 35 years ago and I've never had a damaged alloy rim since I'm a lot more careful.
I'm just talking about your average steel not the big military conversion setups that some have done that's a totally different story I don't think you can bend those outside of a cannon attack.

[Steve Hunt]

Might not be on your pro/con list but the first thing I thought of when reading this thread was how heavy my 270/70-18s with aluminum rims were when rotating the other day on nice smooth flat concrete...I would not want these things any heavier changing one offroad, in the uneven dirt.