Aluminum wheels surface cracks

[rdickinson]

Three yrs ago the wheels and tires were upgraded to 17.5's. A few weeks ago I notice what I thought to be scratches around the lug nut holes but as it turns out it is the finish cracking. The manufacturer said it is cosmetic and out of warranty.

 

Has anyone else had this issue and what did you do?

 

Buffing the wheels is one thing, 60 - 90$ each, but re surfacing them with laquer or? is another. By the time all is said and done this could rapidly deteriorate into an expensive proposition.

 

What I do know is I'd never deal with this firm again.

 

Any recommendations?

 

Thanks

[Mark and Dale Bruss]

It is a Clear Coat. It is cosmetic.

 

If buying today, I would get the polished wheels instead of the coated ones.

[Alie&Jim's Carrilite]

An option is to take the rims to a powder coat company and have them refinished with a baked on finish instead of a sprayed on. The compay that did all of our marine hardware would do a color base, let that bake then do a clear coat baked. Great finish and durability.

[rdickinson]

Cosmetic or not, I don't spend that kind of money to have a lousy product fail in 3 years. If the manufacturer knew or knows about a problem, they should correct it. I wonder how many other p**sed of customers they have?

 

 

Pulling them off? That is the point things go into a tailspin cost wise.

 

-Trailer has to be in the RV park for an indefinite period.

-Buy jackstands.

-Have a tire firm jack up trailer and remove wheels.

-Remove tires and store...where?

-Wheels on pallets and ship to Vancouver to strip cracked finish.

-Ship back here to refinish. That cost alone is $150 each.

-Remount rubber, new stems, balance.

-Re install 6 wheels plus spare.

-Re torque after 100 miles.

 

I'm tempted to buy new ones elsewhere and post all this on UTube including cutting the rims up on the bandsaw and ship a link to Hitec.

[Alie&Jim's Carrilite]

Honestly.... The rims are made in china or indonesia... looks good in the box, but the bling bling ends when mounted.

Find an American-made wheel

[rdickinson]

Honestly what?

 

I bought the wheels thru a dealer in Calgary thinking they were Alcoa's. At the time there was no reason to suspect there were different finishes. At the time, that was the only profile available to me in Canada. They were a clone to Mark Bruss's profile.

What firm is going to advise a customer, "Well sir' this finish will start to crack after 3 yrs".

 

FYI Jim, After the Canadian economy, I support the American next even if it may cost a little more but often the choice is not there. So don't lay that Honestly stuff on me.

[SIBERNUT]

I have tried polishing my PU wheels & then clear coating them with 2 part body clear. It peeled. 2 options-

1 )my boss just bought a machine that will polish wheel on the vehicle, we're in Baltimore

2) Find a body shop and ask who repairs/refinishes wheels locally, they have stuff that really sticks. We have a few locally, one is "Wheel Worx"

[Star Dreamer]

Hate to say this but if you got three years out of them you are doing good. When I worked for Pontiac, we would get cars in in less than a year with coating issues on the wheels. Under 1 year and 12000 miles they were covered, over and the customer paid big dollars for new ones.

 

We had a custom set of wheels made for our van about 4 years ago, this van has seen under 2000 miles in the last 4 years and no winters in 35 years. On one of the wheels, the clear coat started peeling at the lug nut holes early this year and is now coming off in large pieces on the spokes. In our case I will have to disassemble the center section and have the clear coat redone. We have also had issues with the chrome plating. The Wheel company sold this line of wheels to another group who simply say "sorry".

 

Our trailer wheels are getting worse with this issue every year but they are 10 years old. The cheap and easy fix for them will be to scuff them, mask them off and repaint with a silver metallic paint if we do not get a new trailer first.

[Alie&Jim's Carrilite]

Honestly what?

 

 

Honestly did you believe that you were buying a product that would last for the amount of time you used it without defect?

We live in a disposable society, when it gets ugly, buy new....

Didn't realize your Canadian...... How about buy locally made?

As Star even mentioned, even a custom made set of wheels have issues.

Easier way to change the rim is to haul the rv to the dealer and say "Put those on it"... Just make sure they jack under the spring plate or appropriate location.

[rdickinson]

I'm on Vancouver Island 20 miles south of Geo. This is a big rock like Alcatraz with no, to my knowledge, large industry due to transportation costs on and off.

 

He and I are the only Big Rigs here. I am the only one ICBC insurance has ever seen which initially, threw them into a tailspin to say the least

 

Yes, I expect something lo last longer.

 

When project managing for Millwork firms, my attitude was not" this should last for 1-3 yrs then you will have to replace it".

There is a mobile refinisher here, 60 - 90$ a wheel plus having to jack up, remove and replace and lower trailer. But I don't know if he can remove topcoat. I told him scratches not topcoat peeling.

 

I will look up and or contact your Wheel Worx to get info.

Alcoa has several finishes, one, I think is just polished, not coated.

 

I have spent a lot of money as well as my own time getting things to work right and look good. It may come as a surprise but folks are taking pictures and asking questions everywhere I go. Things that don't work or look good annoy me, so they are dealt with, one at a time but they get done.

 

There have been many occasions where items available in the US are not available here in Canada or the firm won't ship to Canada. Look on EBay for instance.

Some firms don't have the provision to order from the US, the drop down menu has no Provinces nor will it take a Postal code like mine ie V9B 4P6.

 

Sorry to hear others have the same problem.

[RV_]

I had Sam's club put pressure sending units on my alloy rims and they screwed up the finish royally. It was damage to the clear coat AND deep scratches. I called a mobile refinisher who met me in their parking lot and removed the alloys from my car and refinished them with paint and clear coat. Very weird because they are polished aluminum clear coated rims to begin with, but they looked like new when he was finished. They were painted by the refinisher, but did not look painted! They looked like new polished aluminum rims. I have not seen any issues after six months or so. But it cost nearly $100 per wheel. For a car with 16" rims I could have bought new. Might look horrible after a few years.

[G&K]

I'm on Vancouver Island 20 miles south of Geo. This is a big rock like Alcatraz with no, to my knowledge, large industry due to transportation costs on and off.

 

He and I are the only Big Rigs here. I am the only one ICBC insurance has ever seen which initially, threw them into a tailspin to say the least

 

Yes, I expect something lo last longer.

 

When project managing for Millwork firms, my attitude was not" this should last for 1-3 yrs then you will have to replace it".

There is a mobile refinisher here, 60 - 90$ a wheel plus having to jack up, remove and replace and lower trailer. But I don't know if he can remove topcoat. I told him scratches not topcoat peeling.

 

I will look up and or contact your Wheel Worx to get info.

Alcoa has several finishes, one, I think is just polished, not coated.

 

I have spent a lot of money as well as my own time getting things to work right and look good. It may come as a surprise but folks are taking pictures and asking questions everywhere I go. Things that don't work or look good annoy me, so they are dealt with, one at a time but they get done.

 

There have been many occasions where items available in the US are not available here in Canada or the firm won't ship to Canada. Look on EBay for instance.

Some firms don't have the provision to order from the US, the drop down menu has no Provinces nor will it take a Postal code like mine ie V9B 4P6.

 

Sorry to hear others have the same problem.

Yup, there are definitely some problems getting things done here. You can get creative with the US Amazon store but its a lot of work. I some ways I could get US products shipped to Doha easier than I can get them here!! lol

 

Geo

[Guest THE TRAILERKING]

It doesn't matter Canada or U.S................................They all support and flog "Chinesium" junk now a days. That's why the economy is the way it is and the products are the way they are.