Nightowl

Anyone have pictures of the H2 rims on their truck? I like my stock aluminum ones but I have found a number of aftermarket rims that I like as well. I'm thinking of upgrading soon and I would like to see this setup first.

THURENfab.

The ballancing machines I've seen run the cone on the front....


Another point, which has probably been beaten to death so shoot me...


"IF" you decide to try and keep your wheels "hubcentric", then the holesaw-file-anglegrinder-sandpaper-router technique is NOT precise enough(router is probably pretty good though). So, you have to remove some extra material as to make sure they are are NOT hubcentric. Remove extra material and now you have more chance of screwing up the taper...

I dunno.... Paying a machinist 80 bucks to mill em' out seems like a nobrainer..

Once the wheel is screwed up, and the material is gone you can't put it back..

Nightowl

Never mind about the pictures. I just did a search and that look is not for me.

Raspy

That's it exactly. If the hole saw is used it comes in from the front and is held on center by a recess on the front side. If the router is used it comes in from the rear and removes only a small amount of metal out to the recess diameter on the front side. When the wheel will clear the truck hub there is still about 1/8 inch of surface to ride on the balancer. The only risk to balancing is if the hole was cut out way too far. Maybe an extra 1/4 inch or so, and that mistake would be hard to make with the hole saw or router.

Wetspirit

Raspy

As I've said before "machining is a perfectly good way to go". And since these wheels are NOT hub centric (oh my God, here we go again!) that is not an issue.

Wetspirit

PEAKSTRYDE

Do it the way YOU want to

jtjr77

okay so now i am confused i have an angle grinder and want to save my cash so i want to do it at home, can someone show me or tell me how much i need to take off? I am gueseing it has somehting to do with the lip on thw wheel as you look at it form the front, if i take an 1/8 of an inch will that be enough too much, not enough? help me save my cash

way up north

My son and I did 4 GM rims he wanted to use on his 96 Ram for studded snow tires. He has a snow-way plow on the truck
We discovered that a 4 1/2 inch grinding wheel off an angle grinder fits in the hole in the rim. Then we found an arbour that fit the disc. Then we took my Craftsman radial arm saw and put a chuck on the brake side of the motor. Tightened the arbour in the chuck. Raised the arm quite high, rotated the motor to put the grinding wheel parallel to the table. Put the rim, tire and all, on the table, and lowered the arm to put the grinder in the hole. Turned the saw on and by gently rotating the hole around the grinder wheel we took out about 1/8 inch. First at the top of the hole, then lowered the grinder for another pass until the hole was all the same size. Tried the rim on the truck. Didn,t fit so we did some more. Took an hour to do the first wheel, 15 minutes to do the 4th one.
The truck never achieves any great speed in winter, but he has noticed no shimmy. I don't know if I would advise anyone to do as we did if they are doing highway speeds, but this method worked just fine for what we needed to do. We celebrated our achievment with high fives, and a shot of good Canadian whiskey.

Raspy

This has really been beat to death. If you do a search you'll get all the methods and you'll find the one that works for you. I recommend doing it yourself if you are comfortable with a router or Hole Hog drill. The router method is probably the best for at home work. Either one will give you very good results.

Wetspirit

THURENfab.

You are missing my point sorry...

BTW the wheels that came off my 04.5 CTD ARE hubcentric(OMG!). BUT, I am not saying they need to be in anyway. Just that the factory wheels were...

What I am saying is this..

"IF" you decide to hack the wheels and run a hole saw through them, be sure and take out enough material so that they do not still "try" and be hubcentric. wedging a hole saw through the lip may make a 4.77 hole. Is that hole center? NO.... Make the hole 4.8"ish just to be sure that the wheels are centering on the studs. OH, don't mess up the thin tapered lip..

THURENfab.

I ran a brand new hole saw through one of my wheels before getting them machined. Just to see..... I work with metal quite often, am very familiar with a drill press, and I would never call what I got "very good results"...

Raspy

Thuren,

The results can be evaluated in a number of ways. If you simply want clearance holes, and you want to save time and money, the router or hole saw method is fine. If you want a mirror finish inside the holes (even though you can't see them while in use) that's fine too and machining is the way to go.

The fact is, this is not rocket science and the center of the wheel does not carry the weight. It's not a function of how close the center hole fits, the centering is mandated by the eight lug nuts getting torqued down into tapered holes. That is what calls out where the wheels get centered and that is where the load is carried. As soon as the center hole has enough clearance to fit over the hub, machined or not, it is not centering the wheel. It is getting it close but only close enough for the lugs to come down and take the load. And there must be no conflict with the center hole and the lug nut center or a severe strain will be introduced. They are centered on the lug nut circle, not the center hole. This type of modification has been done for as long as there have been wheels to interchange with different vehicles. And many or most of the aftermarket wheels pay no attention to the center hole except to give it clearance. It's a non issue.

I'm glad you machined your wheels. That is a good way to do it. And there are other good ways to do it to. But I am confused as to why everyone must, apparantly, do it your way or be wrong. Or why a silly argument about centering or "hacking" is used to support that decision. Laugh all you want, but I don't consider it a hack job if a lathe is not involved. And neither do many others who have found creative ways to modify their wheels with perfect success and enjoy many thousands of trouble free miles. Relax.

Wetspirit

danram11

You might as well give up Wetspirit. It doesn't matter how you explain it, some will never believe you're method works. I opened my H2's up myself after reading about your method. It's been 2 1/2 years and they're have been no problems as a result of using holesaw method. I even put new Nitto's on them 6 months ago, and the guys at Discount Tire never mentioned anything about them. They balanced perfect and ride great.

Raspy

Yep. Oh well.

Fisherguy

If I could get them machined for $80 that's the way I'd go. The shop in my area that does it wants the tires off to do it, works out to about $300 all in.
I've been watching chrome H2's with BFG AT's on Ebay, if the right deal comes along (keeping in mind I'm in Canada) I'll go the router route.

It's only making the centre hole in a wheel bigger, it's NOT rocket science!