I take responsibility for inviting the poo flinging on alloy vs. steel because it's an old sore spot of mine (like 10 years and running).
The thing is - people are always coming on to forums and then telling what they perceive as a n00bie to ditch their alloys and go to steel wheels because they are "tougher". This attitude, for 10 years, has annoyed me to no end and there's almost never anyone to call people out on it. In just about *every* case, it's someone that brings up a picture of a wheel they destroyed on some kind of rock crawling trail and then use that as high evidence of their great wisdom. JSQ and Musky certainly aren't the first to post up pictures of bent or destroyed alloy rims. They were floating around LRO years and years ago, from some east coasters, as I recall. The Series guys laughed at us, too, as I recall.
All parts will break under heavy abuse. Wheels are no different.
In my opinion, there's not a lot of wisdom to be had in the first place to head out to places like Moab or the Rubicon with skinny tires on already heavy trucks with heavy loads, then complaining about the resiliency of their wheels after they tater one of them. Look around! Maybe there's a reason all those jeep and toyota guys are running 35's and 37's with Walker Evans beadlock alloys on the same trails, eh?
Anyway, when these photos and the stories get used as an example of how bad "alloys suck" and is brought down to the newer guys as gospel - well, I get a little hot under the collar, so paint me guilty for stirring up the whole debate. In 10 years of wheeling with my own 2 trucks and alongside friend's trucks, on plenty of rocky trails, I have not seen a damaged alloy rim. If a big rock stood up and clobbered JSQ's rear wheel that is truly unfortunate. Once, a big rock stood up and nearly removed the entire rear 1/4 of my friend's Disco II by wedgeing itself up next to the fuel filler between the tank and the inside of the body work. That doesn't mean that disco's suck. I broke a 3" lift coil spring in half once. I'm the only one I know personally that's done that, and I am not about to swap to leafs
If I broke 3 alloy rims running the trails I want to run, you betcha I'd swap to some steel wheels to try something different. That doesn't mean that everybody else should, too, just because I thought I was hardcore for doing so and that, by god, you should be too!
For the record, I last ran nato rims, because the 1-ton drive flanges I had installed on my RRC wouldn't fit on the alloys. they were brush painted OD green and certainly looked the part. I'd have just as soon had alloys.
Also for the record, running tubeless tires on for-tube rims (natos) can lead to flipped trucks on their lid and huge impressions in the pavement of where the wheel catapulted a 5k truck end over end into the ditch after the tire rolled off the bead in a panic stop. i was there and that sucked. alot. we didn't figure it out until later, when the p/n's for the rims wre looked up and it was learned that the rims were meant to be used with tubed tires.
So the moral of this story, especially with the older LR wheels, is to be very careful in what you recommend on public forums and throwing out p/n's without stating what they are. For people looking this stuff up, make your own conclusions and do the footwork. The tires and rims aren't something to ****** around without knowing exactly what they are.
cheers,
-grumpy
