What is the setback to using a steel wheel? I really want some steel wheels because when they get bent off-road they can be hammered back with a rubber mallet.

They are also a hell of alot cheaper.. I know steel wheels weigh around 35-40 lbs and alloy between 15-20. Does this huge jump in weight of the wheel effect anything major?

 

its heavier so it puts more stress on the drivetrain, requires more power to compensate for the weight....

depending o nthe year of the vehicle, a 15" steel wheel may not fit if the vehicle came with 16" alloys due to the larger break calipers, some grind down the calipers, thats assuming this is the case

a steel wheel is stronger and does bend but is heavier, but a alum wheel is lighter and cracks if impacted hard enough

 

the vehicle came with a 16" wheel so Im going to go with a 16" steel, aftermarket wheel from either MB Motoring or the Pro Comp Rock Crawler wheels (the street-lock series).

The vehicle will be geared shortly after getting the 305/70/16s fit on with the steel wheels so I'm thinking maybe I can go up one extra ratio for the heavier wheels to compensate for lost power?

 

i would say a 4.88 for that tire ...

 

If you want to find more information, do a search for "steel wheels" because this topic seems to come up a lot ...

Good luck on the search!

 

Steel wheels will bend. I bent 3 out of the 5 of mine, one to the point of being unfixable and barely drivable. Sure you can hammer them back, but Aluminum does not bend. If you are wheeling hard enough to trash AL rims, then it would have destroyed the wheel regardless.

Now I have AL beadlocks. They are light, true, strong and light. Money well spent.

 

im going to have to save up even longer for some steel wheels.. damn

 

steel wheels are cheap... hell you can get 17" steel rockcrawlers for $60 each if you have to have the bling

 

What wheels do you have Flygtenstein? Are bead locks street-legal?

 

OMF locked American Eagle.

No, but they are not illegal.

 

steel wheels can be bent back, but only so much, you will never get them 100% true again. i dont like steelies because they bend too easily IMO, i have seen street driven cars bend steel rims. my dad had a dodge ram that bent a steelie on the street. sure it would still balance out, but then the treadwear was irregular, so to ebay we went.

im still using the stock toyota alloy's on my rig, because i didnt want to deal with bent steelies and i couldnt afford alloys right now. my next set of rims will be like flygenstein: alloy beadlocks.

the cheapest alloys i found were these: http://www.jtoutfitters.com/product/ONSALE1