gaRam

i've heard that an aluminum alloy (not forged) wheel might be likely to crack under a 3/4 ton truck and especially with a load. this makes me wonder if the aluminum alloys on my truck will crack later on down the road. i looked at some steel wheels the other day and found a set that i liked better than the current ones i have and am looking to justify buying them. i know my truck came stock with chrome steel wheels so should it have steel wheels on it now? i looked at the load rating on the wheels i was looking at and it said 2200 lbs. while weld's forged aluminum was advertising their wheels at 3200lbs. is a forged wheel stronger than steel? whats the difference? why do i have stock steel wheels? and whats the width on a stock steel wheel?

Wilson

Steel is cheaper and can rust, but unlike Aluminum it will bend rather than crack but if you dont offroad much it probably wouldnt be an issue. I think any of the aluminum wheels wheel hold up to anything you can reasonably put in your truck.
I believe the stock steel wheels on a '99 were 16x7.
I have also heard that the stock wheels Dodge used up until '99 or so were not balanced very well and could lead to some vibration.

phox_mulder

I offroad often, so I opted to spend a little more money and get the Welds.

The cast alluminum will probably be fine for daily driving.

Steel rusts and doesn't look as nice as the aluminum.
Many hard core offroad only trucks go with steel, as it is inexpensive and doesn't have to look pretty.
Break a rim, you don't want to have to shell out another $200 plus to replace it.

Forged aluminum has the strength of steel (perhaps more) and the nice finish that doesn't rust away.
(well, after one winter, mine aren't looking to good, dang salted roads)
Mine is my offroad rig as well as my daily driver, so I needed strong and pretty.


phox

Cowhand

Personally, I prefer aluminum over steel, but not for aestetic reasons. You can typically see a crack in an aluminum wheel. With a steel wheel, a bent wheel wouldn't be obvious unless you could see it rolling. I don't like what a bent steel wheel does to bearings and front end parts.

phox is right about serious off roaders using steel wheels, but from what I've seen, it's mostly the rock crawler guys using steel. If I was scraping the bead over rocks all day, I'd want steel as well. The racers all use aluminum alloy wheels, partially because they're lighter (reduces unsprung weight) and partially for the heat dissipation that comes with aluminum. But then again, we're talking racing here, so if they break a rim, there's two more on the race truck and 4 or more on the chase truck.

The reason why your truck came with steel wheels is because they are cheaper than alloys. Alloys are typically a $600-800 option.

Check the load rating on your rims, typically it is stamped somewhere on the back side of the rim, or you can go to Ultra Wheels web site and check the load rating on your rims. I'm running the American Eagle alloys on mine, and I believe the load rating is around 3000lbs per wheel. My tires are rated at ~3340 each. That means I'd have to be right at the GCVWR to get close to exceeding the load rating for my wheel/tire combo. That means roughly 12K sitting on the tires.

So to finally answer your question, if the steel wheel you want are only rated at 2200 lbs each, your rated load is only 8800 lbs. The GVW for a 3/4T 4X4 is 8800 lbs. You're right there on your weight rating. With the forged aluminum wheel, you're rated at another 1200lbs per wheel, and theoretically (wheel wise) good for over 13Klbs.

Look at the sticker on the driver's side door jamb. This will tell you what the load rating is for your axles, what size tire/wheel was originally on the truck. Your truck has a Dana 70. Gross axle weight rating is 6084 with a 16X6.5 rim, 245 tire at 60 PSI. That would mean that your wheel/tire combo needs to be good for at least 3000lbs per wheel to meet the GAWR.

Also, make sure you run at minimum a load range D tire. I ran load range C's before Swamper came out with the E's, and I separated the tread on five tires.

gaRam

so my stock steel wheels were a 16x7 or 16x8? and does anyone know the load rating on those?