Black Steelies: OPPO's favourite rim?

"Lumpy44, Proprietor Of Fine Gif" (lumpy44) 11/05/2013 at 19:44 • Filed to: Rims

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For the past few weeks of people putting on winter tires have used the cheapest/best option they could find, Black Steelies. People rant and rave about twenty-fows' and spinners, but we all know the best option. If most people do it for cost or that they like the looks, I believe the black steelie is Oppo's favourite rim.

OkCars- 22k Crossroads > Lumpy44, Proprietor Of Fine Gif 11/05/2013 at 19:49

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i really like those, and they would suit my mustang, just as they do with the cop chargers

MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig > Lumpy44, Proprietor Of Fine Gif 11/05/2013 at 19:49

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I'm actually sort of surprised that people use steel wheels in the winter time when there is salt on the road. Wouldn't alloy wheels be more resistant to corrosion? And you can get cheap alloy wheels for similar pricing to Diamond Racing Steelies.

xxstich666xx > Lumpy44, Proprietor Of Fine Gif 11/05/2013 at 19:49

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My car :D

Casper > Lumpy44, Proprietor Of Fine Gif 11/05/2013 at 19:53

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I have thought about going this route for the simple cost value for the customization. Getting negative offset wheels that are really wide and under 17 inches is nearly impossible... and the few I can find are muscle car style wheels and aren't light.

McMike > Lumpy44, Proprietor Of Fine Gif 11/05/2013 at 19:55

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My winter setup.

beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard > MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig 11/05/2013 at 19:58

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heavier wheel means extra bite in snow?

I dunno, I use summer wheels all year round 'cause Australia

190e30-Now with COSWORTH > Lumpy44, Proprietor Of Fine Gif 11/05/2013 at 20:00

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I'm about to get a set for winters on mine. What brand/size are the ones pictured, because those would look pretty good. The only catch is I need a 15 or 16 by 6.5

davedave1111 > Lumpy44, Proprietor Of Fine Gif 11/05/2013 at 20:00

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I'm always surprised that there are so few good steelies out there, because a good steel wheel is lighter than all but the best forged alloy wheels. Most of the cast alloys are heavier than even standard steel wheels.

davedave1111 > MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig 11/05/2013 at 20:01

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Steel wheels are solid enough to shrug off surface corrosion, and cheap enough to replace if necessary. Alloys are very sensitive to salt-induced corrosion, anyway - more so, in most cases.

davedave1111 > OkCars- 22k Crossroads 11/05/2013 at 20:03

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I like those a lot more than most wheels people post here. I wonder if I could get away with them without the usual huge insurance hit for non-standard wheels, because they're steel, not 'alloys'.

nippon > MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig 11/05/2013 at 20:04

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Steelies are cheap(im talking in general, not about Diamond Racing which are considered expensive for a steel wheel), stronger, heavier and therefore much better for snow.
Also, steel wheel is usually stronger than alloy so you dont have to worry about hitting stuff. And it seals the tire better than alloy, and thats sort of important over the winter when temperatures go below zero.

Plus, aluminum alloy would look like crap after two winters on salt and snow.

Lumpy44, Proprietor Of Fine Gif > 190e30-Now with COSWORTH 11/05/2013 at 20:05

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It is just a picture from Google. Tirerack and other such sites usually have lots of options.

FJ80WaitinForaLSV8 > davedave1111 11/05/2013 at 20:05

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Why would your insurance company ever know what kind of wheels you have on your car?

DasWauto > MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig 11/05/2013 at 20:11

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You are more likely to have a bit of a slide and wreck a wheel in winter, I think that's probably the biggest reason. People don't want to mess up their nice, pricey alloys.

deadpedal > Lumpy44, Proprietor Of Fine Gif 11/05/2013 at 20:16

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They do have a certain thing. I would say they make a car look better if it's wheels sucked. And they can just make a ride all business in a way that is undeniable.

Plus 50 bucks a pop is hard to argue with.

davedave1111 > FJ80WaitinForaLSV8 11/05/2013 at 20:23

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Because not telling them about modifications is insurance fraud. Although from what I've understood from US-based Jalops, you mostly don't have a big enough penalty for small modifications for it to matter. I think you're still supposed to notify them, though; everyone's just as ignorant of that here in the UK, where we definitely have that law.

In general, modifying your car by changing the wheels makes insurance companies lump you in with bro-trucks and ricers and so-on, who are of course high-risk groups. That means changing your wheels is, however unfairly, something they'd consider a material fact, and you have a duty to disclose anything that would affect your premium.

In my case it's much worse than normal, because I've got very cheap classic car insurance, and my insurer won't cover me with any modifications whatsoever. The next cheapest insurer only adds ten or twenty percent for different wheels, but is three times the price to start with.

It does depend on the car, though. That's on a BMW E30, which is obviously a favourite of the kind of people who ruin cars. If you take something a bit more unusual, like a Reliant Scimitar, you can modify it all you like - engine swaps, the works - without being lumped in with the boy racers. Any normal car, though, no chance.

FJ80WaitinForaLSV8 > davedave1111 11/05/2013 at 20:29

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Very interesting color me completely ignorant. I think I'll continue with my ignorance is bliss approach given that I drive a lifted bro-truck.

davedave1111 > FJ80WaitinForaLSV8 11/05/2013 at 20:41

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Go use someone else's computer and run a few quotes on a comparison site, see if it makes a major difference.

If it doesn't, then paying a few bucks extra to be legal is worth it.

If it does make a big difference, you'll want to have a real think about what's going to happen if you get into some kind of accident and a loss adjuster notices the obvious mods. Even if you don't get charged with insurance fraud, you're likely to find that your insurance won't pay out. That's a shitter if you're out the value of your truck, but it can be much worse: if someone else is seriously injured in the accident, the bills can run into the millions.

Sorry to be a downer, but ignorance is most definitely not bliss in this case. Then again, maybe I've got a slightly skewed perspective because I did a little bit of work on the case that lead to the largest road-accident award in UK history at the time. It's since been surpassed, and is now at £23m.

Slant6 > Lumpy44, Proprietor Of Fine Gif 11/05/2013 at 20:46

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Because anything shinier wouldn't look right.

deekster_caddy > MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig 11/05/2013 at 22:29

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It's easy to hammer a dent out of a steelie. Not so much out of an alloy - crack!

Also, if a steely starts to rust, you just sand the rust off and repaint. Alloys corrode quite easily around here.

911e46z06 > Lumpy44, Proprietor Of Fine Gif 11/06/2013 at 00:09

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Correction: Fuchs are Oppo's favorite rims. But steelies are definitely on the short list.

Also, it has been many years since anyone has ranted and/or raved about spinners, which is too bad. I'm predicting a huge resurgence of the spinner in coming years.

bkempert > McMike 11/06/2013 at 09:13

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Dem tires.

MonkeePuzzle > Lumpy44, Proprietor Of Fine Gif 11/06/2013 at 09:20

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I prefer my steelies painted body colour

Lumpy44, Proprietor Of Fine Gif > 911e46z06 11/06/2013 at 13:50

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If spinners come back again, the terrorists have won.

911e46z06 > Lumpy44, Proprietor Of Fine Gif 11/06/2013 at 13:54

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Balderdash! Spinners are freedom in wheel form.

lonestranger > davedave1111 11/06/2013 at 14:13

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What's a "good" steelie? Any time I've picked up a factory alloy wheel, it's been noticeably lighter than its steel equivalent (same size, same vehicle, etc.).

lonestranger > Lumpy44, Proprietor Of Fine Gif 11/06/2013 at 14:15

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What I've been running for the past few years:

Lumpy44, Proprietor Of Fine Gif > lonestranger 11/06/2013 at 14:21

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My old work truck had the same rims, looks good with the GM cover on it too.

davedave1111 > lonestranger 11/06/2013 at 17:03

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Decent alloys are lighter than most steel wheels, but the cheapo cast ones on low-end cars aren't. A good steelie is one that is made out of a normal thickness of decent steel, instead of the ones you occasionally see which are about an inch thick because the steel's rubbish.

boxjohn > davedave1111 11/12/2013 at 19:14

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huh? I'm a tire guy/tech and almost universally the same size steelies are heavier by a noticeable amount.

davedave1111 > boxjohn 11/12/2013 at 19:25

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Yup, because most steelies you actually see these days are complete junk. They're cheap steel, overbuilt for strength. Back in the days when BMWs and so-on came with steelies, people would actually put time, effort, and money into making good ones. People still do, like in the pic above, but they don't come as the stock wheels on super-poverty-spec cars which don't even have cheap alloys.

But have you felt the weight of some cheap cast alloys? Some of those weigh even more than the cheapest steelies. My old Toyota - late nineties - came with at-the-time optional alloys that weighed more than the full-size (probably quite good) steel spare. Looked nice, though.

I had these:

If they were heavier than steel, you can only imagine how much a set of something like these weighs:

seriouslywhyiskinjastillterrible > Lumpy44, Proprietor Of Fine Gif 11/13/2013 at 04:21

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no one appreciates my factory steelies. but I guess im not alone in thinking they are better looking than chromies. not my car pictured, but not far off. They are also the best theft deterance you can get short of a sawn off.

seriouslywhyiskinjastillterrible > xxstich666xx 11/13/2013 at 04:23

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I hope I get to drive a crown vic one day. It tips my curiosity more than a lambo for some reason.

xxstich666xx > seriouslywhyiskinjastillterrible 11/13/2013 at 05:46

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It's boaty until it rains and then it becomes as agile as an AE86.

Wonk Unit > Lumpy44, Proprietor Of Fine Gif 11/13/2013 at 10:32

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good try, but the answer for wheels is always "Bronze TE37s." Its the Miata of wheels.

Lumpy44, Proprietor Of Fine Gif > Wonk Unit 11/13/2013 at 11:15

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Damn those are pretty.