Where to get steel wheel adapters? Or are aluminum not that bad?? (1 Viewer)

[Blade]

I am traveling right now down to Argentina and have so far TWO aluminum rims failures! The rim was supposed to hold 3100lbs, but still did fail! My car is 3.6-3.8tons and the roads are not nice here, although I never hit it very hard. I am really worried about aluminum!
I am trying to sell those rims here and bought steel Nissan rims for my Toyota HZJ75. But the backspacing is totally off and I need an 1.5" adapter.
I have an old steel set, but need another pair. Now I just can find aluminum on the internet in the USA. Where can I buy steel adapters (6x5.5") or are the aluminum ones really THAT good that they can survive yeras of abuse on such a heavy car???

Thanks for any hints!

 

[alia176]

I am traveling right now down to Argentina and have so far TWO aluminum rims failures! The rim was supposed to hold 3100lbs, but still did fail! My car is 3.6-3.8tons and the roads are not nice here, although I never hit it very hard. I am really worried about aluminum!
I am trying to sell those rims here and bought steel Nissan rims for my Toyota HZJ75. But the backspacing is totally off and I need an 1.5" adapter.
I have an old steel set, but need another pair. Now I just can find aluminum on the internet in the USA. Where can I buy steel adapters (6x5.5") or are the aluminum ones really THAT good that they can survive yeras of abuse on such a heavy car???

Thanks for any hints!

Blade,

Can you update your signature with the vehicle specs please? It might help others answer your questions if they had all the info.

Are your broken rims OEM Toyota rims or some other brand? My 80 weighs in at 3.5 tons and no issues on breaking/cracking the OEM rims.

 

[cody c]

I have heard folks say that the aluminum wheel adapters are unreliable or can break and obviously cause problems.

I dont know how bad the roads are in argentina or what issues you are saying, but I can say that I have 1.5" spacers up front and 2" spacers out back on my 80, and had them on my 60 series, though those axles are going under a hilux and not being used at the moment.

I've had them for almost 4 years on my 80 and its a heavy ute, its on 37's and has the a 6BT out of a 91 dodge, aftermarket bumpers and winch on it, I've run trails with it since I've had them on, a few good stucks and some good water crossings, broken a drive shaft and a couple pinions when I was hard on it, but never had an issue with any of the spacers, the aluminum spacers seem to have proven themselves for me anyways.

If your breaking wheels though, either the conditions are quite hard on your vehicle or something else is going on. If your regular driving is hard enough to break wheels, I'd steer clear of them, if it was simply the wheels weren't up for it, then i'd think the spacers would be fine, but usually wheels don't break unless they come loose or your jumping your truck and coming down hard. Are you hitting the bumpstops alot on your truck? What condition is your suspension in?

 

[Blade]

As said, it's a HZJ75 with about 3600-3800kg depending on water & fuel tanks...
We didn't drive hard in Canada and USA. It's a HZJ75 but it's also our house, so we try to take care of it. We did some offroading, but this was more low range first gear driving, that should not really put stress on the rims and then 60mile driving on washboard in Death Valley (low air pressure, never hit a rock or pothole!) , that's it... broke the first M/T rim in Death Valley...

Then now in Honduras I hit 2-3 potholes, nothing major, just a little hit.. even my daily street car would have been ok after that. Next rim broke at the EXACTLY same spot! So I guess i'ts a material failure or flaw! That's not coincidence that 2 rims broke at the same spot is it?

I also met another swiss traveler with a HZJ78 that lost the complete alumium rim in Uruguay and almost had a major accident! The complete wheel broke off! Another brand and more like 4000kg on that car!

The guy at the 4x4 shop in Nicaragua here told me that he saw quite some Toyota OEM aluminum rims break in the past due to little air bubbles in the cast...

So for me it's finished with alu rims! I guess for an expedition vehicle it's steel all the way... also an easy fix. Aluminum is ok for home and toys except Alcoa would make billet alu rims with 6x5.5" like on my HZJ75! Those rims are probably the only alu rims I know that are used on a lot of the 78 series on such expedition cars without one failure! They seem to be super strong, but are also billet and not cast!

Suspension was new when left: OME heavy all the way with 12 leafs on the back... I do hit the bump stops sometimes yeah... but I guess it's because of the weight and I don't have a lot of suspension travel left anymore due to the weight...

Anyway... for me the question is: where can I get steel wheel adapters in the US? Everything I searched are Aluminium and I really am not sure if they would hold... In Europe I can get the steel ones, just can't believe nobody in the US offers a steel wheel adapter in 6x5.5"?

 

[xjaz]

Way too late for the OP, but http://www.motorsport-tech.com offers steel spacers.