Aluminum rims vs. steel

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.

 

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.

 

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?

 

Ok so if im understanding it all, and that's 30lb on each of 8 tires, then it looks like 360+240=600lbs saved by going from steel budds to aluminum supers.

 

Yeah that's definitely a factor. It'd be nice to find some hard numbers on the mpg difference with all else equal.