KMC XD Addicts in the winter or run OEM?

Hi Guys, I have heard conflicting stories regarding wheels.
Am I ok running my XD Addicts all winter in snow and salt or should I put on my OEM off road rims and save the XD wheels for better weather, spring summer and fall?
Thanks for your input guys.

 

Bump, anyone???

 

Well there going to get chipped a little either way, but I would run them anyways. How cold does USA, Earth get in the winter, cold enough to damage them?

 

I've always heard that the mag chloride they put down on the roads during winter is murder on alloy wheels. I don't personally have experience with this issue. A guy at my work changes his wheels seasonally for this very reason though.

 

Around here (Newfouundland), our winters are quite harsh, though mild. That results in a lot of freezing rain, sleet and slush, in addition to the snow. Because of this, they use a lot of salt (both granules and brine) in the city to keep the roads as ice-free as possible. This can be murder on alloys, especially when they get little chips from sand (used on roads outside the city) and the salt gets inside and corrodes the aluminum. In fact many people take off their summer alloys and buy cheap, black steel rims to use in the winter to protect their alloys, which I did for the 4 banger car I last had. Its very common to see cars and trucks here ripping around town in those black steelies all winter long.

I've been running the 16" steel wheels until now, as I have a set of moto metals on the way. At some point during the winter there's a good chance I"ll probably take the motos off and put the old steelies back on with winter tires. Although, I'll have Duratracs on the motos, so I'll probably see how they handle our lovely winters for a little while, anyways.

I've only had the truck for 2 winters, and already my steelies are starting to get little rust spots. Pretty corrosive environment, to say the least.

So yeah, it couldn't hurt to run your OEMs during the winter, in order to protect the Addicts, if you don't mind possibly corroding your OEMS. Alternatively, you could sell the OEMs, get cheaper steelies and make a few bucks in the process.

 

salt and chrome don't mix, all I can advise is keep'em clean.

 

My oem alloys are 8 years young and still shine when cleaned .

Prevenitive maintainence has kept both truck and wheels looking new...BUT for conveinence I am looking at a second set of wheels/tires .....Keep my AT's for long mpg trips and MT's for winter/off-road..