Posted by Oscar on Saturday, January 05, 2002 at 7:55PM :
In Reply to: WHEELS....Split Rim vs Solid Rim posted by Paul on Saturday, January 05, 2002 at 6:56PM :
Keep your current (stock rims).
Most tire shops are reluctant to work on split rims.
In the late 60's/early 70's car companies were required to modify all rims to include a tire bead retention ring/bead/lip. The ring pervents the tire from coming off of the rim when a flat occurs at speed. It works pretty well.When you seat the bead on a tire you put air into the tire/tube to force the tire bead against the rim lip. On the early rim (no retention ring) the psi to seat a tire bead is about 15 psi. On the newer rims seating the tire bead can require 60 to 70 psi to seat. If the split ring is not correctly seated on the rim it can come (will) off. When the split ring fails to seat (does not occur often) very VERY bad things happen.
At 60 psi the ring can be ejected from the rim/tire with enough force/energy to kill or dismember someone.
If you do not like your current rims buy some nice looking aftermarket aluminum or steel rims. For most folks it is a good idea to use the standard tubeless rims that come on the truck.
If you are planning to run 10 ply tires and be able to repair them YOURSELF when you are in the middle of nowhere then you may want to consider split rims. The 10 ply bias ply tires were almost impossible to dismount with hand tools unless the rim was a split rim.
It is getting hard to find a real 10 ply tire anymore.
I plan to use standard rims for every day and keep the splits for show.
good luck
oscar