Are steel wheels dangerous

[RustyNav09]

so what i posted up before is classed as wrong? i put forward the question about the hub rim being same size as the centre hole and they said all steelwheels are made to multifit. meaning they are made to fit toyotas and will also fit all other cars they only difference is the stud pattern. the steel rim will act as a spring on the studs when the nuts are tightened on it the steel wheel pushes back against the nuts holding the rim and wheel on. he also mentioned that you should cheack EVERY nut after about 50kms of driving to make sure the nuts are tight incase of any movement.

 

[tweak'e]

my understanding is the centre hole is simply to centre the rim to the axle. the nuts/studs do not hold/drive the wheel in any way. they simply clamp the wheel against the hub. its that clamping force is what handles all the forces/stresses.

without the correct centre hole it may not line up correctly and put stress on one or more studs. the studs do not handle sideways stress well as they are designed to stretch long ways.

 

[RustyNav09]

i had a look at all most of the other d22 drivers with kings rims or similar and they all have the larger hub centric hole. all of them are held on by studs and yet not 1 breakage or anything! i would think it would be hard to get a rim to fit exactly as it should to any vehicle. from what i know there is a spacer or something u can put in the gap between hub and rim if u want. would this change anything?

 

[tweak'e]

i under stand there is generic spacers available. tho i have never seen them over here. also never seen any breakages due to not having them.

as long as it goes on centered and there is good clamping forces (ie no rust or dust caught between the rim and hub) then theres no problem.

 

[Rich64]

i had a look at all most of the other d22 drivers with kings rims or similar and they all have the larger hub centric hole. all of them are held on by studs and yet not 1 breakage or anything! i would think it would be hard to get a rim to fit exactly as it should to any vehicle. from what i know there is a spacer or something u can put in the gap between hub and rim if u want. would this change anything?

What's going on here is after market rim manufacturers don't want to go to the trouble of making a rim to suit every vehicle, so the come up with a compromise that will bolt on to a range of models. A correct size spacer would in my opinion solve the issue, that's what I used to do on fords years ago, and also used center hole spacers on my race cars with no problems, but trust me, the studs alone are definatly not designed to take all the load, have a look at the standard factory rims, and I'm sure you'll find they mate up with the hub diameter..

 

[RustyNav09]

So where would I purchase a spacer for the rim. I dont want to push the rim out any further from the car. I likt where it sits now. What are my options to fill in the 5 mm gap all-round

 

[Pete22]

What's going on here is after market rim manufacturers don't want to go to the trouble of making a rim to suit every vehicle, so the come up with a compromise that will bolt on to a range of models. A correct size spacer would in my opinion solve the issue, that's what I used to do on fords years ago, and also used center hole spacers on my race cars with no problems, but trust me, the studs alone are definatly not designed to take all the load, have a look at the standard factory rims, and I'm sure you'll find they mate up with the hub diameter..

Guys be very careful in fitting wheel spacers to your cars.......there a two types of spacer available....the first is simply a very large washer that goes over the studs, the second is a sort of false hub arrangement....I believe the former are illegal in all states and territories. I can't be entirely sure but it would be best to check with you local RTA before fitting these things.

 

[Rich64]

So where would I purchase a spacer for the rim. I dont want to push the rim out any further from the car. I likt where it sits now. What are my options to fill in the 5 mm gap all-round

I'm not sure if they are generally available, I always got them custom made at an engineering shop. If you have a mate with a lathe you could knock em up yourself. The type of spacer that sits behind the rim and effectivley alters the offset are as far as I know illegal.

 

[tweak'e]

So where would I purchase a spacer for the rim. I dont want to push the rim out any further from the car. I likt where it sits now. What are my options to fill in the 5 mm gap all-round

RustyNav09 is asking about a centre spacer ie it aligned rim to centre of hub, not an offset spacer.


i would have to go look but i doubt the centre hole actually takes any load at all. if it was machined close enough to be contacting centre of the hub you would have massive problems trying to get a wheel on.
rim centre hole is slightly bigger than centre of hub, therefore i can't be touching and does not take any load.
all load is handled by rim clamping to hub.

 

[raywise]

What do the actual wheel manufacturers state? I'm, pretty sure they could not sell wheels that had the load incorrectly distributed etc, no matter what they were fitted to.

 

[Rich64]

What do the actual wheel manufacturers state? I'm, pretty sure they could not sell wheels that had the load incorrectly distributed etc, no matter what they were fitted to.

Short answer is they can and do, What is ok for 1 application might not be on another, auto stores are full of items that are not nessesarily legal to fit to road going vehicles, you'd be surprised at what items are not "legal" or more to the point suitable for road use..

 

[tweak'e]

i had a look at my rims today on the ute. the centre hole doesn't touch the centre of the hub so it does not support any weight what so ever.