Steelies or Alloys?

[COMP]

Originally Posted by Chris D.

Rota sells lightweight affordable wheels..
their lightest model is called the Slipstream..
11 pounds a piece for 15x6.5' wheels..

I have the 16x7's and they weigh 13.9 lbs.

www.18racing.com
the most direct way to get the best pricing,
I went directly to the importer of these in Hayward CA to get mine..

www.rotawheels.com for more info..

www.wheelweights.net to see how much they weigh..

cool links

[Xringer]

I would look at the weights first. The steels are not as thick as aluminum.
I once purchased a Honda aluminum body lawn mower.
The body needed to be rock proof, so it was a lot thicker.
Turned out that the same lawn mower in steel weighted about 18 pounds less..

One other thing to think about is the installation of disc hubcaps. If you get the the screw-on type, you will have to drill holes in your rims edge (where it's thin) and tap the holes for screws.
To keep from stripping the screw hole out, steel is stronger, and would be the better metal for this application.

Aluminum is a soft metal. If you hit something in the roadway and it compresses the rubber down to the metal, steel has some flex to it. Aluminum castings have very low flexing before they crack and break.
Accidents happen. I would rather run over a spilled load of bricks with steel rims, since they aren't likely to break into pieces and fly apart.

[COMP]

i have fixed a few dented alum. rims (big pot holes) they bend ,,and the un-spung weigh helps mpg and the ride

[Bror Jace]

I gotta figure that saving 1lb or so per wheel is a waste on the open road (limited-access highways). Yes, it takes less energy to get a lighter body of mass up to speed, but once up to speed, it takes little energy to keep it at that speed ... a body in motion tends to stay in motion.

It's hard to believe, but supertankers are very, very efficient at moving bulky cargo, probably for the same reason.

My Dad manages real estate. I remember him telling me that when working with freezer/cooler buildings, it was cheaper to run them when they were full rather than empty. It's thermal energy instead of momentum ... but hopefully it helps illustrate the principle here.

Short answer: skip the alloys unless you are into bling-bling and get some smooth wheel covers instead.

[Chris D.]

reguardless of rolling inertia, the less weight you have, the better

[digitaldissent]

Thanks for all the posts

I will most likely go with moonies for now they are cheap, but my thinking is this:
I am not going for looks, just function. I do think that taking weight off the drive train is a lot different than lets say taking that duffel out of the trunk. Yes I agree with the un-sprung weight point. I mean I believe that any weight removed from the drive system like the flywheel, axles, rotors, wheels, pulleys,,,, you get the idea, will make the engine spin easier and if I don't hod rod it actually save energy. My biggest problem right now is I can't find how much the steel wheels weigh.


and to complicate things I found a set of factory alloys for cheap

[Chris D.]

look on ebay for someone selling the steel wheels and ask them to weight them..


what wheels do you have on there now?
pictures?

[Bror Jace]

[i]"regardless of rolling inertia, the less weight you have, the better."

Yes, I agree ... but if your driving is mostly steady-state on a highway, you won't see much of a savings from 4-10 pounds less at the wheels (total).

And there IS a big difference between driveline mass (of course, this includes the wheels) and mass elsewhere in the vehicle. I think one car show said a single pound off the unsprung weight was worth ten elsewhere on the vehicle. Still, I think this has more to do with acceleration performance, and not steady cruising.

The best tankful I ever got from my car was 42.8mpg ... and I was moving during that interval. It was all highway miles and half the miles, my car had several hundred+ pounds extra in it ... looked like the suspension was close to bottoming out.

Get the alloys if you wish, just don't expect to see a measurable improvement.

[Chris D.]

I saw a noticable difference all around,
I went from wheels that weighed 25.8lbs each to 13.9lbs each..

It doesn't hesitate or bog ever so slightly starting off from a stop..
The truck feels lively and nimble..

So from 103.2lbs to 55.6lbs I dropped 47.6lbs..

[donee]

Hi digital...,

For a Yaris the Prius wheel might work. The Prius wheel has a groove in it that a trim ring snaps into. The Trim ring can be sheathed with aluminum flashing and then snapped into the groove. The flashing is very thin aluminum, but durable enough, and the weight penalty very small. I have had this modification on my Prius since December.