Ok I need new wheels (in order for me to wheel). But I don't know if I feel like forkin over 100 dollars a wheel just so I can go offroad.

But these will be my normal wheels for dd as well, and I do a lot of highway driving. So from the ppl who have the rockcrawler rims, how well are they on the road? A lot of vibration? Or just really heavy? I have 4.88's so I think I might be able to move them fine without affecting gas mileage too much.

 

Rock Crawlers are all we use. Balance great, not too heavy, "cheap" IMO.

 

The stealies I had sucked beyond no end. I must have got the cheap ones.

 

the 4wheelparts ones are OK. they balance OK, and weigh about 48# each if I recall correctly. they balance OK, but they're just heavy...

 

if you use your truck off road in the rocks and rough stuff...steel wheels are the only way to go..I've got a ton of rock rash and dents in edges of my rims and it doesnt matter at all...with aluminum rims it would be a different story. If you drive ALOT on road..and will be bashing your rims on the rocks then get 2 sets of wheels for each purpose...for roughly $50 a wheel its cheap and you get the best of both worlds.

 

I like my black rims. They are the American Racing ones... i Dont know if there are really and differences between any of them...but, they are fine.

They are a little heavier of course, but, they look good hehe

 

yea but how do they ride? ANd did they affect mpg at all?

Also can steel wheels be dented to the point where it kills the wheel? While alloys will take more of a beating?

 

Mine rides great. As far as added weight and MPG, I don't think you will be able to measure it because it really isn't that much more. Something else to think about....if you are out wheeling and bend it you can always pound it back to somewhat round at least enough to get your tire back on and aired. You can't do that with alloys. They just bend or break off and there is no trail fix for that.IMO

 

Rob-

Let's put it this way, I put Steelies on at the same time I put my headers on. They ended up cancelling each other out. Rotational mass is not your friend.

 

i just switched out my stock alloys for some steel rockcrawlers. much better look, and it didn't affect my mpg at all. They don't balance as well as the alloys, but it's worth it in my opinion. I got my rockcrawlers for about $65 each.

 

Just bought new 15x8 black steel wheels from Discount Tire. "Unique" is the brand, I believe. The ride isn't bad compared to the stock aluminum ones I've been riding on. In fact, it smoother and quieter, but that likely has as much to do with the new tires as it does the rims. I'm not sure what kind of results you'd have if you mounted the same pair of new BFG TA K/Os on various wheels, but on my steelies they are plenty round and smooth for my tastes (which admittedly isn't too discriminating).

Not sure about the gas mileage. I don't think it has affected it much, if any. I have noticed a drop in power, but keep in mind I just went up a tire size, so I'm not sure what to attribute to the heavy wheel and to what extent the performance is affected by the larger tire size. Their combined affect doesn't amount to much in my book. It was well worth the trade-off.

Ed

 

seeing that most trucks up until recently came with steel wheels as the base model, they're not bad. it cracks me up to see people say that you can't balance steel wheels

 

I have the Tech 1's..I couldn't agree more. Mine are nearly impossible to balance with my BFG AT's. But hey, they were free! I feel much better scraping up crappy wheels rather than nice alloys.

 

Yup, steel wheels have been coming factory pretty much since they started putting air in tires.

Ill never run any kind of aluminum rim offroad again, unless its something i already have laying arround. So, in other words i would never buy a set to wheel. Steel wheels are fine, and are much tougher than aluminum, are cheap, and can be cheaply beadlocked later if you desire. Buy the steel wheels, and enjoy your ability to abuse them on rocks all you want.

 

Steelies rock...no pun intended.

I got mine for about $53/each from 4WheelParts.

Yeah they are heavy, but nothing to balancing them unless you get an idgit tire jockey doing it.

Wheel or bling, can't do both!

 

so as for vibrations on the freeway and stuff, I should be fine? (for some people)

 

35s on steelies and I was going 70+ mph for 5 hours...no problems if they are balanced properly, just like any other rim/tire combo.

 

and isn't it true that a set of steel wheels(like my chrome wagon wheels) and a comparable set of alloys(e.g. outlaw ii's) are within about 5lbs of each other?

 

hey waskilly, what size do you have on yours?

 

Actually, according to the Mopar Performance Chassis Book (I know it's not exactly a 4x4 publication but I call it my 'New Testement', and the info still applies), in many instances a comperable steel wheel can actually be LIGHTER than alloy, since alloy is more porous, and requires more material to be made air tight. And regardless of weigh, if you're going to be wheeling steel is a MUCH more forgiving material.