Show Off Your Steel Wheels

i think Tundra 17” spares are the same dimensions and specs as FJ 17” steel rims- might help in your search

 

FJ steelies came in the mail today. I've got a question for those of you that have had them on for a while, any paint issues or rust? The steel wheels I've seen on other vehicles are always rusted out and look like crap, I'd like to avoid that.

Any extra protection anyone has added to them before having them mounted?

 

That’s one of the nice things about steel wheels. They are easy to repaint. If your 17’s are anything like my 16’s I wouldn’t worry about the finish. Mine had a pretty heavy coating that I had to scuff good before applying the 1H5 base coat. So I guess my wheels have 3 layers because I finished with satin clear coat. I guess you could do the same, a clear coat if you think it would help.

 

Those look slick. I’m gonna go the same path. What rubber ya wrapping those in?

 

BTW As people have stated, spare steel wheel/tire is deemed 'for temporary use only' because lug nuts made for alloy wheels must be swapped out for conical or 'acorn' style lug nuts. The lug nuts made for Tacoma alloys have a flat seat and are not meant for the steel wheels lug surface. I just remembered this looking at this photo.

 

Been running Cooper ST Maxx 255/80r17 since 2018 and just ordered a new set.

Also got the center caps for the steelies from PureFJCruiser.

 

Do you have pics? Appreciate the tire info too, thanks again.

 

Right on. Thanks for the info. That was just to get to the tire shop, had to buy a new one, that sucked. Thanks though for the lug nut info though. I didn’t know that but I’ll buy correct lug nuts when I officially cross over to the steel side.

 

Those are awesome, great angle! Appreciate the pics.

 

the factory lugnuts ARE conical at the face and specifically designed to seat against the spare steel wheel with the same 60 degree profile as an “acorn” steel wheel lugnut.

 

DAMN that looks good.

 

I’ve always been a HUGE fan of M/Ts on steelies. Not very practical at 7” wide but I’ve made worse decisions in my life

 

This thread explains lug nuts pretty good:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/lug-nuts-for-pro-comp-wheels.777871/#post-27807981 Look at post# 3 in the thread. It shows mag style lug nuts on a steel wheel.
Tacos with OEM alloy aka 'mag' wheels used an entirely different type of lug nut that are not design to work with Toyota (or any I'm aware of) OEM steel wheels. Yes they will work in an emergency. You can see in the picture @TuesdayTaco76 posted the lug nuts are not down on the 'flats' of the nut.

 

I ran a single steel wheel for a short time once.

 

Sold her but I thought she was real purdy

 

The factory lugnuts (which I’m not running) have a flat “mag style seat with a washer, AND a 60 degree tapered end to use for your spare -Toyota is NOT going to provide an improper fitting lugnut on 235k trucks a year.

I did however buy the proper 60 degree lugnuts to run the OEM spare wheel

 

Yes Toyota is a totally altruistic company.
Pay no attention to the 1000’s of frames that rotted out from under all those Tacomas.
And there are all kinds of warnings in the owners manual about driving with the 'temporary' spare mounted on the vehicle. Which is only to be used on the front of the vehicle BTW. If you have a flat on the rear, the manual instructs you to replace the rear flat with a good front wheel/tire, and put the spare on the front. I wonder why? We can go back and forth all day. I'll never buy it.

 

Kind of ironic then that the majority of 2007-2010 FJs are out there running the same spec steel “spare” wheels for 15 years but in a 17” , how are they not all dying a horrible fiery death then Captain Internet Nay-Sayer Know-it-All???

moving on now, enjoy your day.

 

Its not the wheels that are unsafe. It’s using the wrong lug nuts on said wheels that make it unsafe. You're in the wrong thread Einstein. Just checked the 'ignore' box. Have at it.