TRD Forged Wheels as a Performance Upgrade (1 Viewer)

[Heritage 2020]

Greetings All,

I enjoy learning from the LC community and notice that upgrading our vehicles is a passion.

As a mechanical engineer and an avid motorsports/cycling/motorcycle enthusiast—anything I can do to lower rotating mass without compromising strength is a priority focus. Trust me, you feel it when pedaling a bicycle or riding a motorcycle due to relativity low horsepower and less sprung weight (rider and platform).

Adding weight to sprung (vehicle chassis mass above the suspension) is inevitable as we add armor, accessories, and stuff.

My HE came with TRD forged BBS wheels, but my other performance vehicles also receive lighter forged wheels if I’m going for overall performance before doing anything else.

Bottom line: Through wheels one can achieve lighter weight without sacrificing strength. Of course my LC is a tub of “functional lard”, but most of it is sprung weight. Of course I give some of the performance advantage back due to tire selection.

Unsprung weight includes the following (copied from various online public domain sources):

• Tires
• Wheels
• Control arms and assemblies.
• Wheel bearings and hubs (the parts the wheels rotate on)
• Brake assemblies (on most cars)
• On vehicles with a solid drive axle, sometimes called a live axle, the axle assembly (including the differential) moves with the rear wheels and is therefore unsprung.

Of course on my LC, I added rotational mass by going to LT 285/65-18 BFG K02 vs P-metric or lighter tires. The heavier tires are functional to me, but the lighter wheel certainly helps offset tire weight gain. I’d rather have heavier LT tires and a lighter stronger wheel—but that is just my preference.

We all know that “real” forged wheels are stronger and weigh less, but I wanted to share this for those who might consider upgrading to lighter wheels—without compromising overall strength.

NOTE: I believe the forged BBS wheels weigh 27lbs each and don’t know how much cast alloy wheels weigh. I am not saying that the BBS Forged Wheels are the only option, but one option for upgrade consideration. The TRD Heritage BBS wheels aren’t cheap—nor are any true forged vs. “flow forged wheels”

Have a good day all and thanks to all for the shared knowledge!

All About Wheels - https://www.toyota.com/racing/trd/news/2020/all-about-wheels#:~:text=The%20end%20result%20is%20a,and%20precisely%20manufactured%20in%20Japan

 

[bloc]

Good stuff. As for your question on stock weight, I’ve done a bit of wheel weight research over the years.

Stock US market 18” cast aluminum wheels are typically close to 31 pounds.

Someone else would need to speak up for LX 20” weights, but I bet they have a lot to gain here by moving to the BBS forged wheels.

The 5-lug Toyota steel wheels so many love the look of are 40 pounds, IIRC.

Lastly, 5-lug TRD forged Rock Warriors take the cake here at around 24 pounds. They are truly impressive wheels.

 

[Heritage 2020]

Good stuff. As for your question on stock weight, I’ve done a bit of wheel weight research over the years.

Stock US market 18” cast aluminum wheels are typically close to 31 pounds.

Someone else would need to speak up for LX 20” weights, but I bet they have a lot to gain here by moving to the BBS forged wheels.

The 5-lug Toyota steel wheels so many love the look of are 40 pounds, IIRC.

Lastly, 5-lug TRD forged Rock Warriors take the cake here at around 24 pounds. They are truly impressive wheels.

24lb Rock Warriors wow! Had no idea they were that light—and a true forged wheel (densely pressure forged vs flow forged).

40lbs for a steel wheel is about right, but my guess is the steel wheel crowd isn’t too concerned about unsprung mass.

It would be interesting to note how much the most popular aftermarket “upgrade” cast aluminum wheels weigh.

Given the intricate (heavy) designs of some aftermarket cast wheels—I’d guess a lot more than some imagine to achieve sufficient overall strength due to less dense parent material, while not likely as strong as a Toyota OEM cast wheel.

I’d bet that some aftermarket cast wheels weigh as much as steelies to compensate for the lower strength of cast aluminum.

My motivation for sharing was my observation that some obsess over tire weight without considering the weight of the entire tire/wheel setup. Give me the heavier/more durable tire on an optimized wheel—any time vs. the lighter tire on a heavy wheel.

NOTE: As you know, flow forged (marketing hype) is not true forging.

 

[Yossarian]

This has been covered here before, but like most things on mud, buried in older threads.

The TRD Rock Warrior rims were available early on as an add-on option on the LC's, but came stock on the TRD Tundra's. It was a hot upgrade for those in the know, and could be had cheap 2nd hand. I got my 1st set of 4 for $500 off craigslist, and have 2 spares as they are very difficult to find now.

Also to your point about rotating mass, I'm within 2 lbs. of the stock wheels with the RW's and BFG K02 LT C's. If we ditch the ridiculous beauty ring, we'd be under stock.