Bent wheels

Rockroaster

Active Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2011
Location
Charlotte
Apparently, I have 2 bent wheels on my truck. Bought the truck back in March (used), had new tires put on in April, and just put them through their first rotation a couple weeks ago. After the rotation, it was shaking a bit at higher speeds, so just figured it needed a re-balance. Took it in, and they told me 2 of the rims are bent. Odd because I've never hit anything significant enough to damage them; maybe they were bent when I bought the truck, and never noticed it... I dont know. They were still pretty out of balance, so they re-balanced them, but its still pretty shaky.

Anyways, anyone have a recommendation for a place that can straighten them? They are 20" Fuel wheels, apparently a style that is no longer available. Would hate to have to buy all new wheels, so straightening is my first option.
 
Are the aluminum or steel, and if they're aluminum are they cast? If they're cast, forget about it. Too dangerous to straighten without cracking. If they're forged aluminum, should be able to do it. They'd have to be pretty expensive wheels to be forged though.
 
People do fix bent cast wheele s it just depends on how deep it is in the barrel it will likely Crack but they will just tig it back up I just had a forged raceline fixed you could put your fist between the tire and rim local guys said no way sent it to raceline and the fixed it and stiffened it for 50 bucks
 
It just depends how bad it is there are 10 shops that make there living in raleigh by doing nothing but alloy cast wheeles every day ride by any body shop you will see a guy in a trailer doing several every day I don't think you can fix anything bad but a bent lip I would get fixed with no worries
 
It's a really low quality wheel though (aren't the Fuel 20s like sub-$300 each?), and not worth the risk for a really cheap casting of unknown alloy and unknown manufacturing quality, and you know they aren't heat treated for that price.

Plus, you can only weld what you can see, and that's a lot to ask for a cast part. Subsurface stress cracks can't be welded, because you can't see them, and you don't really know what's going on inside a cast part that's been bent and then bent back. There's just a lot of safety concerns for trying to straighten a really cheap cast wheel.

Fail a $300 repaired wheel, and possibly write off the entire truck?

Honestly I'd feel better about it if it was an OEM wheel, because they're a lot higher quality and usually built for more abuse, and use better grades of aluminum alloys. An OEM wheel probably wouldn't be bent right now though...
 
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Ok I see your point I was not aware that they where a cheap wheele for 300 bucks I would definitely get a new wheele most local repair places are going to chare 120 plus 75 if it needs to be welded
 
Fabrik8 said:
It's a really low quality wheel though (aren't the Fuel 20s like sub-$300 each?), and not worth the risk for a really cheap casting of unknown alloy and unknown manufacturing quality, and you know they aren't heat treated for that price.

Plus, you can only weld what you can see, and that's a lot to ask for a cast part. Subsurface stress cracks can't be welded, because you can't see them, and you don't really know what's going on inside a cast part that's been bent and then bent back. There's just a lot of safety concerns for trying to straighten a really cheap cast wheel.

Fail a $300 repaired wheel, and possibly write off the entire truck?

Honestly I'd feel better about it if it was an OEM wheel, because they're a lot higher quality and usually built for more abuse, and use better grades of aluminum alloys. An OEM wheel probably wouldn't be bent right now though...
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Blah blah blah, we're all going to die, blah blah blah. Let me guess: You're an engineer, and you know about the science of metals?
 
Are you sure it's the wheel that's bent and not an axle flange?

Bent several ford 8.8 flanges that other people said were bent wheels.

What part of the wheel is bent? The barrel or the face?

Detailed Pics would help this considerable.
 
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To be honest, I never even felt anything until I did the rotation. It rode as smooth as anything. But when I did the rotation, it started shaking, which made me thing it was bad balancing. Went to get them re-balanced, and the guy at Discount (which who knows, may not even know what he is talking about) said 2 of them are bent. You cant physically see anything. He said the only way they noticed was it was shaking on the balancer...

He said they were still able to get them to balance a 0, but it would still shake, which is does. Its weird though because I rotated in an "X" formation. He said the ones that are bent are the driver rear, and passenger front. But if thats the case, wouldnt I have felt it from the start, based on my rotation pattern?

I dont know much about Fuel wheels, cheap or not. They were just on the truck when I bought it.
 
put them back to their original positions where they didn't shake. Better yet, bend the other side to they are balanced! I got nothin' useful here.
 
Sounds like a shitty tire shop. Good balancing machines have attachments to measure runout. I watch a lot of race tires get balanced, and they all shake on the machine before they're balanced.
Once they're balanced, they quiet right down... ...because they're balanced.

It doesn't take very much compliance or bearing play in the machine, etc., to get the tire shaking on the machine before it's balanced.

So now I'm questioning whether they're balanced badly or whether they're actually bent.

Find a shop with a Hunter GSP9700 (just call them and ask) and have them check the wheels, then have them pull the existing balance weights and check again. The 9700 is pretty much the industry standard for proper balancing now, and is the best you can get as far as I know. The 9700 will usually come up with different weights because it uses different sensing and algorithms, but it usually uses less weight and with better results because of that. It also does road force balancing.
 
I've had bent aftermarket aluminum rims on a car. I just kept them on the back. I guess the guy I sold the car to eventually found out and had to do the same. I never saw the bends but the steering wheel shook when they were on the front. I assume that it wouldn't take that much to bring them back around if they are bent in the same way. Probably no risk in them cracking with the small amount they would have to be bent to get them back to spec. Youtube has lots of videos showing all kinds of repairs of bent rims. Most of them required lotsa work and some welding.
 
Rim gaurd extreme in Charlotte fixed two wheels for me about a yr ago. Wasn't too cheap but better than buying more wheels. Side not 2 were bent and one of them was cracked. They straightened them and fixed the crack.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions guys. Think I will take it somewhere else for a second opinion. It never shook with the old tires, or even when I put the new tires on; and now after one rotation, in an X format, they shake. Doesnt sound like its bent to me either, more that they just didnt balance them properly. Ive never hit anything that would bend them; they are 33"s, on a 20" rim, so Id have to hit something fairly noticeable to bend them I would think.
 
What x pattern did you use? If you switched both front and rear in an x pattern then try just swapping the side they are on just to see if it clears up since you didn't see the problem before you swapped sides.
 
Buddy of mine says to rotate front to back. Something to do with the belts are stressed when slung the opposite way when you do an x pattern rotation. Idk if it's true or not but he was a tire shop jockey for a few years.
 
YotaOnRocks said:
Buddy of mine says to rotate front to back. Something to do with the belts are stressed when slung the opposite way when you do an x pattern rotation. Idk if it's true or not but he was a tire shop jockey for a few years.
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Yeah, no. Tires have no problem doing that. Deceleration and braking are the opposite rotational force direction as acceleration, so the tires are constantly changing direction when it comes to belt stress. They're made for that.

If they're not directional tires, and they're not studded snow tires, you can rotate them however you want.
 
What kind of tires are they?

Find the date code, how old are they?

First and most important questions, spin the tire and wheel,

Are they both round?

And do they both spin true?


This is just an example: May not be your problem just an example of a tire issue.

If one tire has a broken belt, the area of the broken belt will be slung outward onto road surface due to centrifugal force, while at highway speed.

This area will wear faster than any other part of tire.

When you are stopped, this area will be "lower" than surrounding area, because it will have worn faster.

I'm giving you this example, because a tire like this is nearly impossible to balance well, and will not spin round and true when spun at highway speeds.

If a wheel is bent, or doesn't spin true, and/or a tire is not round or not true all will cause the tire to shake at speed, no matter how much you balance it.

You need to spin them and verify the run out of both the tire and wheel, but be certain to do so in a safe manner.

It will be easy to accelerate with the truck off the ground on jack stands, so do so very very slowly as to no cause damage to transmission or axle. There is no load on the vehicle so be careful.

The same is true for deceleration while on jack stands. Let off the gas and let the tires and wheels slow down very slowly.

Then start to apply the brake very very slowly once it's back down in first gear. This will keep from slamming everything to a dead stop from highway speed.
 
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