Technical By careful with US Wheels mounting

I purchaed 4 smoothie wheels. When I tighted them it felt spongie. The wheels do not have flats that contact the rotor at the holes. Rather it is raised on the id and od as shoen in the picture. This creates a bridge that bends and buldges the hole but never goes flat against the wheel. So I called the. They said there should only be a slight gap. If a latger one is present you have to place spacers. I didnt want individual washers and could find no spacers small enough to fit in this narrow annulus so I made them. Becareful. I can’t see how these wheels would mount flat on any drum or disc. Especially if you used the outer bolt pattern.

 

They should probably supply spacers with the wheels, or at least make people aware that they may be needed.

 

That's dumb. Who would make wheels like that?

Don't use smoothies.

 

I forsee legal action in their future.

 

I don't see this ending well. There should not be any gap between the wheel and the mounting surface. Unless that spacer is against the hub cap ring, it looks like all the contact is on the bevel of the lug holes if I'm seeing this right. A normal wheel, steel or aluminum will have a mounting pad between each lug hole that fits flat against the drums. I wouldn't trust those wheels.

 

Yes I see that they have correct mounting. I also see their series 12 are exactly like mine??? I dont understand why anyone would do this. There must be some explanation of why?

 

A lawyers delight when the wheel doesn't spin right.

 

then it's defective, send it back, get some other wheels.

 

Between the wheel not fitting and all the weight they have on them it looks like a terrible set up.

 

This is going to sound pretty stupid but are you putting these on backwards? Apologies if Im wrong. Are the weights on the outside when they are on the hub? Looking at the picture that is the backside of the wheel. How can they bend out like that, or is that how you got them?( That style wheel should not have stick-on weight's )

 

The lug holes don't seem like they have any crown at all, they look like they're just holes drilled into flat steel. Are you sure these were manufactured correctly? Can you post a pic of the lug hole area from the front side? Something seems wrong here. No way I would run these on a car, even with a spacer to help them bottom out.

 

That picture is hurting my eyes.

That appears to be the backside of the wheel.
Weld bead and not quite fully chromed.

Not to be an ass, Malibu406.
A 'reversed' smoothie is not flipping the wheel and mounting it backwards on the car.
Hoop is removed from the center section and then that part is flipped and re-welded back on, thus the 'reverse' means a reversed hoop on the center section so we get the smoother deeper backside of the hoop facing out.

But you know that... right?

 

I'm glad someone mentioned that.

A picture taken from more of an angle, might better show what's going on.

 

I was thinking the same thing ... did the lug holes miss a stamping operation?

 

He has installed them inside out .

 

The other side is chromed and this is the backside with the specified back spacing. Im at work, but here is a picture from the US Wheel of the frount side of the same wheel, but just not chromed. Yes, this is the front side of the wheel and you can see the taper for the lug nuts. Yes, it does seem backward. No, I don't fully understand the history Mad Mike mentioned, but thanks as this is my first foray into pre 65 cars. Wheel Vintiges Series 12 look the same as this, but the other series do not have this feature. I am not trying to justify the wheel or my spacer, rather I am just warning people that may, like me, unknowingly purchase wheels like this that they should be cautious in the mounting of them. If you aren't comfortable with the spacer, these may not be the wheels for you. If I hadn't bought them 2 years ago or noticed this before I mounted the tires, I would have returned them and got the more traditional series with flat mounting. I think I will call them again and ask them some more detailed questions. I am sure they have an answer, or a spacer, or some other justification to safely provide these wheels. Thanks all and I hope this thread helps somebody else understand what they are getting.

 

Thanks for the picture of the wheel from the front...I thought that's probably what it looked like, but the back of a chrome wheel can be confusing.

There are two areas on the wheel that need to contact the brake drum. The inner circle, and the outer circle. If both of them can sit on a flat surface, then tightening the lug nuts to proper torque (65-75 lb-ft with 7/16" lug nuts) should make everything fit.

If the drum or hub does not have material at the outer circle, then a spacer might be needed, but it would need to be wider (larger ID and OD) than the spacers you made.

 

Thank you squirrel, that is what I did. I sized the thickness of the spacer to be just shy of filling up the entire gap so that the outer buldge and spacer are in contact.

 

From what I can see, the spacer is way too narrow to contact the parts of the wheel that are designed to seat on the drum. It would need to extend all the way to the red circles in this modified picture

 

Like every steel wheel, these wheels have specific contact points and are supposed to only contact on that inner and outer ring, no spacer is needed. These wheels have been made for 30 years and are on 1000s of cars. The softness you felt when tightening them was probably the "crush", the inner ring is a few thousandths higher and bends very slightly, but it's not supposed to bottom out the whole arc.

 

Just to clarify;
The smoothie part of the center section will contact the drum before the actual mounting surface?

Do these wheels use thin sheetmetal center sections like on pre-war wires that use the drum as structure support?

How goofy.

 

I was always under the impression that the ID or 'centre bore' of the wheel was the means of location.

The bolts or lugs are there to secure the wheel to the hub, the bolts/lugs shouldn't ever see a shear force, only tension.

(obviously in the case of earlier wheels the rim located on the outside of the brake drum)

 

That is the case with most OEM wheels, but most aftermarket wheels, until recently, did not locate on the center hole. I think that's because it's just easier to make the hole really big, and not worry about the pilot size on different models of car that share lug bolt patterns.

I've been using aftermarket wheels that are located by the lugs for decades, it's not a problem. Even though it's not "right".

 

Yea most modern aftermarket wheels are meant to be used with a spigot ring spacer to adjust to the centre bore dia.

As you said though, 99.999% of the time the wheels will fit and stay secure no problem.

 

I buy the crap out of those. Plus it’s free shipping over $99. I have probably bought 8 sets over the last 10 years.

 

Strange, in this pic there is no evidence of the lug holes being dimpled/countersunk/whatever the correct term is. It looks like the only operation to them was to drill them and call it done. Is there a specific wheel nut required because they sure don't look like any wheel I have ever seen that was designed for a conical nut (assuming these were designed to be used with your typical tapered wheel nut).

 

I can see a taper in the holes. Yes, it's a lousy picture.

 

Kinda looks like trailer rims that come with 2 CAUTION labels
For trailer use only and
Retorque after 50 miles

 

The welds and the weights indicate the inside of the wheel, so either the wheel was turned around and installed or the the center register of the wheel is too small so that by torqing the nuts you are bending the center. Ran into this just yesterday as the customer was having a hard time getting the nuts tight and the wheels wobbling (these were fronts). The register on the hub was 3.250 but the wheel was 3.00. Easy fix was to remove the register on the hub (no front brake drum anyway) but opted for opening up the wheel register instead. If this was a rear wheel, check the register dia of the axle and either get the appropriate wheel center or pull the axles and machine the register just pass where the brake drum registers. US Wheel (Elliot Mason) prob has assembled over a million wheels, and buys just as many bare rims and finished center stampings. This was more of a installer issue then a manufacturing problem, or that the wheels were ordered/mis-packaged with the wrong register dia.

 

Little off the Subject, I,m having a issue with a 60 mph shake at the wheel. In checking out the ( run out) how perfectly they are spinning ( round,) both wheels & rubber were off ??/ No matter how many weights one add will not eliminate the problem. I wonder how many tire shops take the time to check all the possible factors and do it right or just throw weights on and send the customer on their way. Speed,volume,& large numbers of customers going threw the doors makes money.... Sad Gene in Mn