Cheap wheel opinions

[kcdehart]

Hey all, question about wheels.

I'm seeing a lot out there, new, for stupidly cheap prices (see: the Level 8 wheels on DiscountTire). Coming from sports cars, I've learned to avoid cheap wheels (typically gravity cast) because they're known for cracking under high stress.

I'd assume this isn't as much of an issue with trucks because of the size of our sidewalls? Is there any major reason to avoid cheaper wheels, other than that (and maybe weight)? The cheapest decent set I could find for my car when I had it was ~$800. So seeing sets for trucks for $500 or even less sometimes is sketching me out, even though people say they're good.

Thoughts??

 

[O.B.A.K]

My thoughts on cheap wheels are they are cheap until they fail.

I trust oem, higher level brands and steel. Steel will probably be the best option if you have a chub for cheap wheels. Plus if you like oem you can find oem steel for cheap and tough.

I don’t really agree with the sidewall protecting you from major failure. Runners are heavy by nature, and the stress generated off road, especially side to side, could potentially ruin your day.

Wheels for me are in the same category of liquor, if it’s cheap your gonna end up in a heap.

Cheers.

 

[kcdehart]

My thoughts on cheap wheels are they are cheap until they fail.

I trust oem, higher level brands and steel. Steel will probably be the best option if you have a chub for cheap wheels. Plus if you like oem you can find oem steel for cheap and tough.

I don’t really agree with the sidewall protecting you from major failure. Runners are heavy by nature, and the stress generated off road, especially side to side, could potentially ruin your day.

Wheels for me are in the same category of liquor, if it’s cheap your gonna end up in a heap.

Cheers.

You bring up a good point with the side-to-side stress. I usually think about impact protection with wheels, but I'd imagine a cheap wheel might not be made to withstand the twisting forces put on it by crawling over something at an angle.

I'm not really looking into wheels, as I'm typically a function > form kinda person, but was just curious.

 

[eldude]

You bring up a good point with the side-to-side stress. I usually think about impact protection with wheels, but I'd imagine a cheap wheel might not be made to withstand the twisting forces put on it by crawling over something at an angle.

I'm not really looking into wheels, as I'm typically a function > form kinda person, but was just curious.

Level 8's are fine. I've never read or seen that a set of cheap wheels failed on their own on this site. I've seen plenty of broken wheels in accident posts but nothing where the wheel just gave up. There will always be two crowds though, one that says they're fine and another that says they will probably fail. Usually the people that say they're fine are running them, so take that into consideration.

Coming from a sport car back ground myself (s2000 + WRX), I've seen a handful of wheel failures on the track and they were on high end, stock, and cheap wheels. I did not notice any greater occurrence of wheel failures coming from cheap wheels then either.

Also, in regard to you mentioning the tire being a factor you are correct, the amount of rubber does reduce/cushion the stress the wheel takes. FWIW I run SCS wheels and would run and almost did run Level 8's.

 

[Codyb504]

Not to try and jack your thread, but I have been looking at changing the rims on my 98 to the 17/18 year wheels. My thoughts were the same as OBAK though. Cheap aftermarket wheels never seemed to hold up in my experience. The way I see it, Toyota has a guy, one guy or a team, whose only job is to design this wheel for this vehicle and for it to be perfect. How can you argue with that. However, i cant seem to find the thread i need to see what I need to do first as far as lift/spacers/trimming i would have to do to get those to fit.

 

[O.B.A.K]

Not to try and jack your thread, but I have been looking at changing the rims on my 98 to the 17/18 year wheels. My thoughts were the same as OBAK though. Cheap aftermarket wheels never seemed to hold up in my experience. The way I see it, Toyota has a guy, one guy or a team, whose only job is to design this wheel for this vehicle and for it to be perfect. How can you argue with that. However, i cant seem to find the thread i need to see what I need to do first as far as lift/spacers/trimming i would have to do to get those to fit.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/224715-will-2016-toyota-4runner-rims-fit-3rd-gen.html

 

[Nooga_Rock]

Hey all, question about wheels.

I'm seeing a lot out there, new, for stupidly cheap prices (see: the Level 8 wheels on DiscountTire). Coming from sports cars, I've learned to avoid cheap wheels (typically gravity cast) because they're known for cracking under high stress.

I'd assume this isn't as much of an issue with trucks because of the size of our sidewalls? Is there any major reason to avoid cheaper wheels, other than that (and maybe weight)? The cheapest decent set I could find for my car when I had it was ~$800. So seeing sets for trucks for $500 or even less sometimes is sketching me out, even though people say they're good.

Thoughts??

A lot of people seem to like the Pro Comp rock crawler steel wheels (Series 51/52 and 97/98). I plan on getting a set of the 52 myself.