Rickson to start building Fuso wheels!

[justduck]

Now that I finally have an FG, I'm ready to order wheels. I wasn't happy with the thought of dealing with Stockton Wheel (Google them, nothing but bad expereances), but they are about the only builders in the US. However seeing the pics of the powder coating flaking off of Lehel's new wheels, showing rust under the coating, and Stockton refusing to deal with it, I decided to look elsewhere.

I called Rickson http://www.ricksontruckwheels.com/. They have been building 19.5's for domestic PUs for years and have a solid reputation for good work and customer service. I talked to Dan Richter and explained what was needed and he agreed to setup to build Fuso wheels. When asked if they would look the same as Stockton's he said no, that he doesn't like to use flat disk centers as they have to be excessively thick to have the same strength as a curved center adding unwanted weight.

He is going to research offset, center shape etc and workup a price and get back to me. He thought they would come in at less than Stockton's price. It looks like we are going to have an alternative to Stockton. If you are in the market for wheels, let him know that there is interest in him building them.

Disclaimer: I have no connection with Rickson other than the call I made yesterday.

Earl

 

[westyss]

stockton wheels

I have just recieved my order from stockton for the second time. The first time they were delivered stockton didnt bevel both sides of the bolt holes, I sent them back and 3weeks later got them again and noticed a couple of new stickers on them; 1st ;" NO WARRANTY ON POWDER COATED PRODUCTS"
2nd ;" NO REFUNDS ON MOUNTED WHEELS, TEST FIT PRIOR TO MOUNTING"
And yes they took a long time to get, but really the only game in town. BTW they are the same as Lehel's wheels; 19.5", getting them mounted with Michelin XDE2+ tires. Anyone have experiance with these tires??
Yves

 

[lehel1]

19.5 rims

hello earl

thats great news. i'm looking forward to seeing your new wheels.

we did not do a 19.5 spare when we had our wheels built to save alittle money, but now have changed our mind and difinitly would like to do one, but not with stockton. please keep us posted

looking forward to following your build, we will have a group of us on the west coast soon it appears. time to plan a event ; )

we are planning to go to the overland expo in apr, perhaps we can get a few of us to meet there ??

cheers lehel and laura

 

[lehel1]

tires ?

hello yves

we are running the yokohama ty303 and they are great so far in all conditions and wear. the michilens are very close in rating and build and i expect you will see very similar results with those as well.

if it helps, we use our truck dual purpose, so we run 85 psi front and rear with the camper on, and up the rear to 95 psi when i haul for the store which is ussually close to the max 14000 gvw.

you will absolutley love the way the truck handles and rides witht he bigger tires. we are running the balancing beads instead of weights, and did have to remount one tire to be able to balance (very easy to feel thru the steering wheel, the fuso seems to be very sensitive to this)

enjoy, cheers lehel and laura

 

[westyss]

wheels

Thanks for the info Lehel, I was also wondering what all the SRW converters havedone with their original wheels and tires, mine have a grand total of 1000km's on them and I dont have any plans for them, what has everyone else done with them?

Yves

 

[Bajaroad]

No Bevel

I have just recieved my order from stockton for the second time. The first time they were delivered stockton didnt bevel both sides of the bolt holes . . . .
Yves

That is what happened to me too. I had no time to send them back so I had to chamfer one side of the wheels myself. I sent them a copy of the bill for the expensive chamfer bit, but they never did anything about it. How pathetic that they continue to make the same mistake.
On the bright side, mine were under $1K delivered.

Rickson looks like a much better organization. I’d be interested to know what the Fuso wheels cost. I saw on their website they had some 17.5’s for a Ford on sale for $2.9K

Brent

 

[whatcharterboat]

I'd be interested to know what the Fuso wheels cost.

Hi Brent, It's probably not relevent (and I'm talking in Aussie Dolars), but here a new Fuso 16" split rim is about $650. Ridiculous. Same price as you used to pay for most custom made 19.5". Ours are more than $200 less. Also our 4wd Fg run slightly wider rims than the FE. IIRC from a long ago chat with Kerry that US FG and FE are the same. Anyway because the beach operators used to go through so many standard 4x4 rims from running them as SRW on the beach, they would buy them off us or rather we would organize them to buy the rims off a customer paying for a new SRW using the 19.5"s. So that used to work out well for everyone. Otherwise it would be hard to unload the rims.

It would be good if you could sell your old tyres to say, a council running a fleet of FE's. Our Australian FGs run Bridgestones. Not bad tyres actually. The Isuzu's run Michelins. We're still stuck with a pile of original FG, NPS and FSS wheels and tyres here. Now if I can just work out how to fit them to a Subaru .....................

 

[westyss]

new wheels and rims

just got my stockton wheels mounted with michelin XDE2+ tires, very nice change to the ride, very smooth and not lumpy like the original yoko's. The size of the tir initialy freaked me out, I wasnt sure they would fit, but they did. i am going to try posting some pics.

see if it worked.
Yves

 

[westyss]

wheels tires

Hmmm, how did I get those attachments on there?? well I guess it sorta worked. A couple more http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=38539&stc=1&d=1268329897
size difference, crap that didnt work , sorry.http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=38540&stc=1&d=1268330814 try againhttp://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=38540&stc=1&d=1268330814:ar15h well, I was trying for before and after pics but now give up.
Yves

 

[haven]

Westyss, you're still running dual wheels in the rear, correct? So
the change of rims was to get a better tire selection on 19.5 inch
rims?

The new tires look to be 2 to 3 inches taller than the stock tires.
Have you noticed a decrease in power or mpg? Do you find the
sweet spot for cruising is now a couple of mph faster?

 

[DzlToy]

please post tire differences front to rear on the XDE's along with wheel offset, etc. Front seems to be a wider floatation tire and rear are skinny due to dual configuration? (as shown in the leaning tires picture)

many thanks

 

[westyss]

Westyss, you're still running dual wheels in the rear, correct? So
the change of rims was to get a better tire selection on 19.5 inch
rims?

The new tires look to be 2 to 3 inches taller than the stock tires.
Have you noticed a decrease in power or mpg? Do you find the
sweet spot for cruising is now a couple of mph faster?

Hi Haven, I need to clarify what you see, I was attempting to post some pics but it didnt work out as planned, the pics with snow are the before pics with duellies, the night pic (from last night cause they finished mounting them in the dark) is now with singles. I went with the larger rims for a taller tire as the little ones made using 1st and 2nd gear almost obsolete and to lower the rpm's for better highway performance. I am now using 2nd gear to get moving now and I know that my speed is greater than before but have not GPS'ed it yet. The power available is hard to determine as I dont have much milage on the truck and what I do have is miles while lightly loaded. It sure feels much better. Lehel speaks highly of the taller tires and so far I agree.

DzlToy, not sure if thats meant for me but the tires are the same front and back. The pic you saw is after the rear duellies were taken off and I leaned the new tire up against it. Offset looks to be exact, front to back.
Yves

 

[DzlToy]

ok, so you are running XDE singles front and rear using wheels with different offsets so the tires line up front and rear?

New wheel and tire size and what size were the ones you took off?

thanks

 

[westyss]

ok, so you are running XDE singles front and rear using wheels with different offsets so the tires line up front and rear?

New wheel and tire size and what size were the ones you took off?

stock wheels were removed, 16" wheels , tires, cant remeber, new rims 19.5x 8.25 with 285 70 R19.5