17" Konig Six Shooter Wheels - Brand New

Just checked mine and I guess mine is not. Time will tell at this point.

 

lol. I'll take it your confidence is good with these.

i have about 2.5 years on mine with about as hard usage as i could create on road. i have off roaded as well, but nothing more intense than running 50-60 over washboard dirt roads, but that can be pretty hard on the wheels. what i haven't really done much of is putting a lot of low speed high stress like crawling, although I've done some of that on trails too. so, these wheels have seen stress, no doubt. my tires are basically the stiffest tires in the market for our trucks, so they are beating on the wheels daily and i drive a ton of miles.

so where does that leave it? not sure but i think I'm good as long as i don't go increasing the stress on them.

OP I'm in the NW corner of Denton where 35 & 288 meet and i spend half my life on 380. I'm sure I've seen you around. definitely seen an MGM with these wheels although it's been a while.

 

I have done everything from speed to jumping with these wheels. Tons of offroad and washboard. One has been curbed while pulling out a stump, another has been smacked by a giant rock.

They’re tough. So i was shocked when i saw what happened to @Gingerbeard Man because if anyone is going to have trouble with these wheels, i figured it would be me

 

I’m all up and down 380 between 75 and 35 and in Denton a lot at least once a month.

 

And I’ve been the opposite. I wish I had time wheel my truck, but I never have a chance. I was planning on being at Jambo, but backed out last minute.

 

I'll keep an eye out for you. here's my only nice pic after the biannual wash. good luck with everything going forward. ..

 

Things happen, the important thing is, you’re safe, the damages were minor, and everything is getting fixed/replaced in a quick fashion.

 

For sure. Things could have been much worse. The damage was minimum. Just gonna chug along.

 

We must address this issue, and with all due respect, we have to post facts here.

We have sold in excess of 10,000 units of Six Shooters, both the earlier gravity cast version, and the new, state of the art flow formed version. Production figures are split roughly 50/50 between the two, but we now only offer the flow formed version as the replacement for the earlier version. This is the very first issue of this kind that's ever been brought to our attention for either version of the Six Shooter.

The gravity cast Six Shooters were manufactured from 2011 thru early 2015 by a facility in Thailand that also made and continues to manufacture OEM TRD wheels for Toyota. This is a factory that Konig contracted, but it is not owned or controlled by Konig. This is the version of the Six Shooter that @Gingerbeard Man has on his truck. The name of the factory is Li Tai. Many other wheel vendors use Lu Tai. FN Wheels no longer uses Li Tai as a supplier.

In 2015 FN Wheels moved production of the Six Shooters from Li Tai to a different facility completely controlled by Konig's parent factory in order to produce a more advanced, flow formed version. We moved production to a more state of the art facility so that we could offer our customers that no one else was offering at that time : a flow formed truck wheel at a very competitive price. I would like to stress that we never received a claim for a Six Shooter with broken spokes in the 4 years that Li Tai produced them for us, and not in the 4 years since we moved production to our new factory for flow form manufacturing. This amounts to thousands of wheels sold without a claim over a 8 year period.

Since it has been posted here in our thread that other brands of wheels should be considered, and the integrity of our product is being questioned, I felt it is now necessary to protect the good reputation of both my company (FN Wheels) and my long time partner brand/manufacturer (Konig Wheels). This post is in no way intended to attack or argue with @Gingerbeard Man, but we ask that our customers please consider the facts.

Again, will due respect to @Gingerbeard Man, he has had the wheels on his truck for four years. He is currently on his third set of tires (as he informed us). While I'm unsure of the exact mileage of his truck, I think it is fair to say his truck has seen a fair amount of use. I definitely would not and have not ever questioned a customer's honesty or integrity, but I will state, and again this is with all due respect, that in my approximately 20 combined years in the automotive business working at a dealership, working for wheel manufacturers, and running my own stores and brands, I've rarely seen a customer make a claim and admit that they broke a part (be it a blown shock, bent or cracked wheel, plastic part, etc.). Toyota makes an excellent product, as does FN Wheels and Konig Wheels, but Toyota nor FN Wheels or Konig can warranty parts for 4+ years, unlimited mileage and with no questions asked.

@Gingerbeard Man indicated to us that he wanted us to give him a full refund on the set of wheel he has been using for four years. We did offer to replace the wheel for @Gingerbeard Man in the form of a 30% discount on a new set of flow formed Six Shooters as a good will gesture. This works out to be greater than the value of a wheel (25% off would be the value of a wheel). Again, I'm not aware of any other manufacturer that offers this type of discount on a 4 year old / unlimited mileage basis. If someone can tell me of another retailer or manufacturer that offers this I'd like to know.

This was deemed unacceptable by @Gingerbeard Man, and he chose to take to social media and this forum to post images and his story. He even stated here on Tacomaworld that he wanted a full refund.

This particular thread for the Six Shooter wheels has been on TacomaWorld since 2012 (7 years). The Six Shooter wheels have been in production for 8 years. Companies and employees from well known companies such as Fox, Total Chaos, Firestone Tires, Bilstein, King, countless Toyota dealerships, offroad builders, etc. have been using and abusing the Six Shooter wheels for nearly a decade (and other FN Wheels or FN /Konig collaboration wheels for nearly two decades). I have worked hard to build a reputation for myself for for nearly 18 years. FN Wheels as a brand has maintained a stellar reputation for the last 10 years. Konig Wheels has been operating continuously for nearly 40 years and is one of the most respected brands in our industry.

In today's day and age absolutely anyone can post anything on the Internet at anytime, with or without context. We cannot control what's posted, how it's posted or when it's posted. In this instance I can only post the facts and explanation that we have in response. Just like I explained to @Gingerbeard Man when we spoke on the phone - while I am supremely confident in the quality of our product, I have no doubt (in fact I know) that some individuals have broken a wheel or two that I've sold them over the last 17+ years. With offroading, racing, and various other forms of use (and sometimes abuse), it is bound to happen. It's even happened with high end, expensive, forged wheels that I sold in the past. Rays and BBS are two brands of ultra high end, forged wheels that I broke myself rally racing and offroading. However, thousands upon thousands of customers have used FN and Konig wheels for years without any issue. These customers don't take to posting daily updates about their wheels. They just continue to enjoy their wheels.

One complaint after all of these years hardly justifies cause for concern. We respectfully ask that any customers consider all of the facts when reading these posts. A rush to judgement is unfair without first considering all of the facts.

 

Fair enough. Are the
Konig Countersteer Type X wheels flow formed? Also are they 106mm hub centric? And they look like they accept outer hammer on wheel weights?

 

The Konig Countersteer Type X wheels are gravity cast from high grade, virgin aluminum alloy and the Countersteer Type X have been in production and trusted by Toyota enthusiasts since 2007 (over 12 years). They are 106mm hub centric, and if you so desire you can use clip on weights (however, we recommend stick on weights).

 

I’m on my third set of tires, but only at 55k miles. In which not all of those are while on these wheels. I had them on my stock set and then my BFG K02 and now the Toyo.

But I can tell you that I have not and do not beat on my truck. Things happen and products often fall into poor quality during manufacturing process. Only one wheel failed and I rotate my wheels typically every 5k miles as it was free with my tire purchase and Toyota.

I declined the purchase of new FN wheels through you because if I was buying wheels again I was buying something else. I then decided to go directly through Konig, which I’m glad I did because they decided to take care of me after you stated they would not.

Thank you Konig!

I’ll hold off from commenting any further...

 

I prefer hammer on vs stick on weights. I always find the stick on ones missing. It’s getting kinda hard to find alloy wheels that accept hammer on weights.

 

Hi Jared,

Just to clarify, and I will also hold off on commenting any further as well once I post this unless absolutely necessary, Konig agreed to take care of you as good-will, customer service gesture. Neither Konig nor FN Wheels have inspected your wheel and no liability or warranty claim has been acknowledged. It's not that we don't believe you. What has been established is that you have a set of wheels that served you well for four years and at least 50,000 miles, and one of those wheels is now broken under unknown circumstances. We expect (and it's been proven) that our wheels and Konig wheels will perform for an indefinite period of time without failure, however, like every part of every vehicle ever made, wheels are not immune to certain circumstances which may damage or even destroy them.

There have been absolutely zero reports of failures of any Six Shooter wheels (standard cast, flow formed or otherwise) wheels other than this lone wheel that you posted. We (and Konig) denied your original request for a full refund (after four years). You requested that we refund you in full for the entire purchase price of the wheels (without pro-rating) so that you could purchase another set of wheels. We also initially denied your demand for a completely new set of wheels shipped to you free of charge, so that you could sell them to recoup your purchase from four years ago. No wheel company (or even any automotive company that I'm aware of) will issue a customer a 100% refund of the original purchase price for an out of warranty product and without any inspection of the product in question. I would liken this to purchasing a new Toyota Tacoma in 2015, driving it for four years, posting a picture on the Internet illustrating damage to the truck, and then demanding a full refund of your purchase price from Toyota based on the photographs you posted.

I'm not looking to incite a flame war here. I hope that our position speaks for itself in that everyone reading this post knows that anyone can post anything about anyone on the internet at anytime, with any motive, and in any context. We are left to defend ourselves after the fact. We've spent many, many years tirelessly building a reputation for quality in every facet of our business - never cutting corners, and never intending to disappoint any customer. We take a lot of pride in the quality and safety of our product as well as our customer service. When the integrity of our product is in question we take those claims very seriously, as does our supplier/partner (Konig Wheels). However, if we fully refund every customer who makes a claim without being able to verify the validity of such a claim, we will either go out of business or be forced to price our product so astronomically high that it will be out of touch with the market. Quality and safety of our product as well as providing excellent service to our customers will continue to be our highest priorities and are crucial to the success and preservation of our business. FN Wheels was built on those principles and continues to be run on those principles.

 

Understood. The reason you often do not see clip-on weights on most modern wheels has to do with the finish. Clip on weights damage the paint over time from multiple installations and removal. The damage isn't as noticeable on plain, factory style wheels (especially those with plastic covers/hub caps), but the damage from multiple times of clip on weights being removed and installed on dark colored wheels (such as matte black) becomes very noticeable over time. Also, most clip on weights come in only an alloy color, which is a stark contrast on the face of a dark colored wheel.

You might consider having your wheels balanced with a clip on weight on the rear flange and stick on weights behind the front spokes if you're concerned about clip on weights falling off over time. Surface preparation is also very important to ensure adhesion of stick on weights. Most stick on weight manufacturers suggest cleaning the area where the weights will be applied with isopropyl alcohol before sticking on the weight. I also always made sure to wear clean latex gloves (and later instructed my installers to do the same) when balancing wheels with stick on weights to ensure that the adhesive wasn't contaminated. Sometimes installers touch the adhesive with dirty fingers, and that reduces adhesion.

If you have more questions about our wheels or wheel weights just let us know. The Countersteer Type X and the Six Shooter both accept clip on weights, although we still recommend stick on weights for the best appearance.

 

One of our customers recently posted this testimonial on Facebook (thank you Ryan!):

 

I’m just looking for some wheels that will handle 37x12.5x17 and the 4.1 inch backspacing on the 17x8 Type X seem like a good compromise between 4.5 & 3.5 BS. I have 315’s on 16x8 with 4.5 BS and they work well on rubbing everywhere all except the frame rails. The only wheels I can find that are 4.0 BS are Jegs black steel wheels and they weigh 36 lbs. 35’s & 37’s are harder to balance and after I get a good balance with hammer on weights inner and outer I just rotate without rebalancing all 5 more frequently like every 3000 miles with good results. I’m not really worried about scaring up wheels, my truck is coming up on 15 years old and I’m not so nice to it anymore. What do your 17x8 Type x wheels weigh?

 

21LB

 

That’s really light.

 

The 17x8" Six Shooter and 17x8" Countersteer Type X each weigh in at just 21lbs per wheel.

One thing we want to note though is that you're interested in 35x12.50x17 or 37x12.50x17 tires. Most, if not all, tire manufacturers for this size have only approved use with an 8.5" ~ 10.5" or 11" wide wheel. These are really wide and tall tires that you're looking at. Given that the Countersteer Type X is only 8" wide, and the commonly available Six Shooter is also only 8" wide we wouldn't recommend them for use with the tire sizes you're considering.

We do offer (from time to time) a 17x9" -12mm offset Six Shooter. The backspacing is 4.5" though, and I believe you're looking for something a little lower to clear those wide and tall tires. Your particular setup is a little bit unique as far as Tacomas are concerned. Please feel free to contact me directly to discuss in further detail.

Thanks!