No worries, we all step in it sooner or later! I've done it more than my share of times....
you guys will have to forgive me; i've been hitting expo to distract my mind off solitary confineme.. errr, work and going on about 2hrs of sleep each night this week. been a long one.
I'm curious as to why?
Personally I do not like the typical black "Rock Crawler" wheel, but that is purely a cosmetic thing combined with a dislike for their massive weight more than anything else.
There are a lot of things one can find lacking with Land Rovers, but the factory wheels are one of the great strengths of these trucks. In just about every case, the factory made steel and alloy wheels are better made, have thicker centers, and are arguably much more durable than any of the popular aftermarket wheels.
the short of it:
* heavier built. nearly all of the stock LR steel wheels are heavier than the common aftermarket steel wheels available to us. that's basically two: the procomp wheels and the american racing wheels.
* secondary bead retainer - the LR wheels incorporate a secondary bead retainer on the rim, so that if you blow-out the bead will catch on the secondary lip and not roll off of the wheel. I can testify to the safety of this having had a blowout at 75 and barely noticing!
* nicely chamfered lug-nut and mating surfaces to stay trued up. all the genuine lug nuts are high quality items and the tapered surfaces ensure that the wheels are centered properly on the hub.
In the case of the older pattern wheels, NATO/Wolf rims are actually about twice as thick (if not 3x as thick? it's impressive) in the centers compared to anything else aftermarket. they are beefy suckers used on UK MOD trucks and NATO LR vehicles, hence the popular name. If you want a steel wheel that could likely survive a mortar hit this is it.
Aside from the nato's, just about all of the LR steel wheels as supplied on the coilers are great. They're well built and in most cases (if not all) heavier than the procomp or AR wheels that get sold. There's a 5 spoke "disco spare" steelie available that looks fantastic, I think:
The early Rangie wheels also have a distinctive look and are quite strong. Sadly these are hard to find in the states, but are in abundance pretty much everywhere else that has RR's
After these, there are two other good steel wheels - the almost solid Defender steel rims, and then the completely solid steel rims.
Likewise, the new shape rangie (P38) and Disco II genuine steel wheels are very solid, but there is only one model of them and they are spendy. The examples I have seen (unmounted) did look much stouter than a set of procomp "xTreme" steel wheels I'd ordered, and various other sets of the usual steel wheels I've seen on friend's rigs. I ended up selling my procomps after mail ordering them brand new. For reference these are LR part number ANR5829. I had a pic but can't find it now. maybe later i can update.
cheers
-ike
