Talking to a guy here in the waiting room of the repair shop, the subject of rim weights and weight savings came up, since he has been losing out on some loads due to weight. Help us out:
With 295/75r22.5, what's the weight difference between steel rims and aluminum? And how much more weight is shaved off by converting to aluminum rim super singles?
Thanks.
Aluminum rims vs. steel
Discussion in 'Experienced Truckers' Advice' started by slow.rider, Apr 1, 2021.
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Negligible. IMHO run lighter loads.
Now if you wanna talk how they ride! Aluminum made a night and day difference on my truck.
And they seal way better...my tires all hold air consistently now.slow.rider Thanks this. -
Thought I heard once that converting a standard 5 axle set up to wide singles would save 250lbs per axle. So around 1000 pounds.
We have a few places that load on a scale and won’t let us out overweight so when I’m going there I just make sure I’m low on fuel, load to 90k gross, then stop and fill up before I head back.Deere hunter, Tug Toy, Dave_in_AZ and 2 others Thank this. -
Deere hunter and slow.rider Thank this.
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I test drove a Pete with super singles and it rode so dang nice...but I kinda got scared away from them after doing a LOT of reading and price checking.
slow.rider Thanks this. -
There are some people who don't like anything new. Yes the singles have the drawback of higher likelihood of needing a road call for a tire repair, but I have rode them before too and did find them more comfortable for certain things and the mpg boost is worth considering. I know there's a couple stories of a super single blowout taking out an airbag or a couple of crossmembers and such, but I've also heard that blowouts are less likely.
One nice thing about the ride is if you wander across the white line and there's a little dropodff into the breakdown lane, the budds tend to have a tough time with that and you get real wobbly trying to ease back over the line, whereas with ss there's no trouble at all. Singles might also be a little more sketchy in the snow, but I'm not sure how much of that is in my head, just from them being so fat that it looks iffy.Last edited: Apr 1, 2021
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So this guy is looking at a truck, and the dealer is offering to switch from steel budds to to super singles on aluminum for $1500 upcharge.
Assuming the fuel savings, weight savings and daily comfort cancels out the small chance of a one-off catastrophe, how long does it take for the fuel savings to equal the upcharge? -
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stillwurkin and slow.rider Thank this.
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Bean Jr. Thanks this.
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So at 3$/ gal, 6.1 vs 6 mpg thats $819.67 saved per 100k
Did okay but not amazing in snow/ice/mud, but i never got into extreme cases of any of those eitherslow.rider and Bean Jr. Thank this.
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