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Thread ID: 147658	2019-02-24 19:21:00	Alloy Wheels vs Steel Wheels	bk T (215)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1458514	2019-02-26 20:59:00	With alloys, you want minimal brake dust to prevent regular cleaning. Also the less spokes the easier to clean. So the wide 4-5 "star" patterns, or thin bar patterns are easier to clean, My Honda has 20 spokes to clean, and is a pain. The original ceramic rear brake pads produced minimal brake dust. But the vastly cheaper semi metallic produced dirty mags every 3 weeks (50 km daily driving). I just clean with cheap wipes and tissues.. Also need to be careful when parking against high kerbs - I avoid parallel parking and reverse parking sometimes, and then adjust the side mirrors downwards to view the kerb.	kahawai chaser (3545)
1458515	2019-03-01 17:41:00	Stock steels seem to be OK - but just barely - but I've always had a sweet tooth for a wheel called ASTROs - in that it has rather oval/triangular slots and lots of deep chrome. Astro Supremes are rather old school, but then again so am I. The Astros below are 3/4 Ton style, and they are very thick where they need to be. These are 33x13.00R15 tires. 9395 Strangely, stock steel GM Rally rims on their performance vehicles are pretty tough and once you go to six or eight lugs, they increase the thickness of the steel to accommodate what they believe to be heavier loads and dynamic usages. These I tend to protect with a vengeance since they are getting rare in the auto-world right now. They fell outta vogue with the Next Gens, but are currently making a strong comeback. I own maybe five complete sets - thinking here --- yeah, that's right --- a 5-count if you include the spares (my sets DO!)- and they are going up in value faster than Crypto Currency. I've cracked not just a few rims on both my Isuzu and my Blazer. I like to corner and the first warning of a failing and busted rim is the chrome showing deep cracks and running rust from the wounds when the base steel is exposed to water. Alloys are best served with some beefy spokes for me if they want to survive. Mickey Thompson's were good at the drag strip, but failed very quickly on twisty roads with a two ton truck pushing them sideways on a sharp turn or crashing into berms. I had these 5-lug rims on 6-to-5 adapters and they were exactly on center, so they didn't hang out and get my dynamic off-axis, high pressures any different than normal, and the adapters never failed - just on the wheel themselves: the spokes where they attached to the steel rims. I really REALLY hated destroying a set of vintage Mickey Thompsons! Gack! They looked so go-o-od! Once Thompsons crack, they wobble and then shuck the outer rim and you're on spokes! BT-DT! Currently, here in Montana I run pretty much my fav Astros on my Isuzu, These are 31x10.50R15 tires here: 9397 .......but I have a set of Radar Turbines for my 35 and 37 inch big tires for my Blazer or the Amigo when I go off-road and need a little reduction of pothole shock and corrugated washboard relief from vehicles tearing up the road during Spring thaw-put. Right this moment, I've got some nice 2001 Chevy/GMC 4wd alloys on my Blazer: These are 275/75R16 tires here. 9396 These require an adapter to keep these very shallow late model factory offset rims from contacting my calipers and the 4wd spring mounts. They are currently set on exact center of the normal running position for a 1986 Blazer. I've got over 23,000 miles on these rims/tires/adapters and that's with pulling a 10,000 lb trailer over 3000 miles multiple times, loaded-empty-loaded-empty-loaded back and forth from California to here in Montana and never had any failures of the adapters. They never even worked loose. Last wood-gathering season, I hauled four loads of 13,000 lb freshcut (sappy) trees out of the forests here for my heating fireplace, and even with that much extreme weight, my Blazer rims and adapters never whispered a sound. So much good news about adapters! Right? Both my Isuzu and my Blazer are 6-lug wheels and they are interchangeable. My wife's Astro Van has the factory GM Rallys on it and the spare too. They look sharp with their soda-bottle caps and the beauties, all chromed up so deep they appear tinted black to the eye. I have never - at street-level driving - experienced any differences in brake fade with any design for a wheel. On the track - yeah --- get something really spoke-y to mix in a lot of air to cool the brakes.Otherwise ...................... nah. My final is this: Rims are not just rims. Some are pretty but weak. Some are pretty and strong. Some are strong and ugly. Your job is to try to find something that works without sacrificing your internal aesthetics and self-preservational* need for reliability. * I made up a new word. My Spelklunker isn't working, :badpc: ...so forgive me any typos and misspelling.	SurferJoe46 (51)
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