Widening LR Wolf Wheels

[Ray Hyland]

Has anyone here had the 16x6.5" Wolf ("NATO") wheels widened ? I have a set and would like to keep using them, but need to get to a wider wheel...

The Silverline "Blindo" wheel currently being used on the WMIK Defenders is 7" wide, but Silverline are saying that they will soon (December?) have 8~8.5" width available. I like those also, but they are sure to be very costly.

I saw some photos of a Defender with a set of wide wheels built by Stockton and the guy who built the Rover for his customer said he liked the look, but that there was no "beadlock" lip on the rims... I've not read many positive things here about Stockton wheels and Stazworks seems to be a possible alternative, but have no intention of using the wild centers they offer.

Is it possible to widen these steel wheels, yet keep the rim "outers" ? It seems that there are not too many choices out there for having wheels widened, let alone keep the Wolf rim design and I'd hate to waste money and lose my Wolf wheels, too...

Ideas, please ?

Steve at Muddy Oval knows a good shop in California that widens steel wheels, he said they did some nice work for him. You send them the wheels and the width and offset you want and then just wait for them to arrive in the mail. He sent me the contact details a while back, but I think I lost it. You could ask on the Muddy Oval forum or call him at DAP. Tell him Ray in BC told you to call.

Cheers

Ray

 

[ersatzknarf]

Hi Ray,

I think the Mangels are made in Brazil, I got mine in Singapore. You should be able to find an importer in the US pretty easily, they are a huge company.

The beadlocks are OK, they allowed me to run the RFC with the Goodyear MTRs which they are not great for. The RFC is all thick clay, and the MTRs will normally just clog up. But by running them at 3psi they were self-cleaning enough to use. The beadlocks let us run them at 3psi for the full 10 days of the race.

The downside is that they make the tires even harder to balance than normally.

Ray

Thanks about the Mangel info. Thanks also for the downside on the beadlock inserts...

Steve at Muddy Oval knows a good shop in California that widens steel wheels, he said they did some nice work for him. You send them the wheels and the width and offset you want and then just wait for them to arrive in the mail. He sent me the contact details a while back, but I think I lost it. You could ask on the Muddy Oval forum or call him at DAP. Tell him Ray in BC told you to call.

Cheers

Ray

That's good to know. I will look into it. "You send them the wheels and the width and offset you want and then just wait for them to arrive in the mail." That sounds painless enough Thanks, again.

 

[Red90]

In the UK, there are tons of wheels that you can get cheap.

Place in the USA, http://www.trekoutfitters.com/extra/expedition_gear/st_wheel.htm

The best idea: http://www.high-impact.net/wheels/catalog_land_rover.htm

 

[ersatzknarf]

Hi Red,
Thank you for the ideas. Was kind of hoping to keep the strength of the Wolf wheels, just widen them a bit.