Why you NEED to research your aftermarket wheels before purchasing

For anyone interested, here is the article/analysis I'm referencing.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11668-017-0297-0

 

Live and learn. I just need to stop telling myself I'm finished it's always something coming up. Now it's time to drop some serious cake on some quality forged beadlocks and 35s. Need some more cushion for the pushin'

 

So frame it, not wheels fault, but buyer's fault.
Regardless of wheel manufacturers statement, buyers bear responsibility. Right?

 

This whole thing wasn't ever about blaming KMC. It was to share my experience for others to learn from and to make sure others are doing their due diligence while shopping for wheels.

 

Hub rings aren't necessary if the wheel is correctly made and installation is flawless. I do run hub rings just so that I have an easier time installing the wheels myself. With hub rings, I just make sure when I fully press the wheel against the rotor and all the edges sit flush, it's good to go and I can then install the lug nuts knowing the wheel is centered. Without hub rings, there's just too much room for movement for the wheel to travel out of center during installation.

 

And also that KMC is not the choice for serious abuse.

 

I don't know why Toyota decide not to make the new Tundra 106mm bore
Otherwise, the BBS forged Tundra wheels on 2022+ Tundra TRD Pro would be the 100% true hubcentric wheel for our Tacomas/4Runners.

Unfortunately that's not the case, and there's no mass-produced 100% true hub centric forged wheels currently for us.

One can always go custom forge route, but that's like $3k per wheel starting

 

18" wheels on a Tacoma

 

and TEXAS is closed

 

Great read, here is my takeaway from it:

• buy quality wheels for their superior structural strength and machining precision.
• torque the lug nuts to spec.
• re-torque after a few days or a few hundred miles of driving.
• rotate tires every 5k miles, not just for tires, but to have a chance to check on the wheels, studs, nuts situation.

I think that should be enough to largely prevent any catastrophic failure.
The stuff mentioned in the paper, such as wheels falling off, there must be a great deal of neglect and sensorial ambivalence leading up to those things.

 

My biggest takeaway, after defining what is lugcentric and what is hubcentric, is this....
Conical nuts suck at clamping things.
Does 83 ft-lbs provide the desired clamping force when you change from flat to conical...and after repeated use?

"...it is found that approximately 50% of the applied torque is consumed in overcoming nut-to-wheel friction, approximately 40% in overcoming thread friction, and only about 10% is actually realized as bolt tension or clamp force."

"Other tests on 9/16 bolts and conical nuts showed a reduction in clamp force in excess of 40% between the first and the sixteenth installation."

 

what about those conical nuts with floating seat? The floating seat in my opinion acts like a washer and I would assume loses less torque and thus retains just as much clamping force as the washer style lug nuts

 

That would overcome frictional losses at the lug seat. Flat still have the edge, with surface area of engagement surfaces and usually greater thread engagement.

 

Great conversation on the rim differences. The part about torque gets tricky. Like you mentioned you get friction from other sources, but how to avoid? Using lubricant is out, if it gets on the threads there goes torque specs all together.

Maybe wheels should go to some sort of lug with castle nut and cotter pin set up.

 

What does the number of miles have to do with any of this?

 

that's why

• re-torque after wheel installation, the most amount of "loosening" happens within the first 24 hours or so, and it'll just slowly gets "loosened" overtime continuously.
• 5k mile tire rotation, gives a chance to start it over again

The paper cited an experiment I remember the wheels fall off after 11k miles or so. So if you do 5k tire rotation, the lugs should never get too loose.