Trailer advice

My 2019 reefer trailer came with steel wheels. I was disappointed it did, and they wanted to charge me over 2k to switch them to aluminum. So I kept the steel wheels. It does add about 250 lbs of weight.

On the plus side, steel wheels don’t really crack or easily bend like aluminum. I suspect some trucks and trailers are fighting irregular tire wear because their aluminum wheels are bent from hitting something hard or possibly bouncing hard on the road.

I rotated my 8 drive wheels recently and to my surprise 2 aluminum wheels were cracked! Those things are expensive to replace compared to steel. Also, my 8 drive wheels are strangely 4 steel and 4 aluminum wheels. So 50% of my aluminum on my drives cracked.

 

@PE_Trans
I am not sorry for the steel wheels then. These just don’t look pretty after some time. But I can live with that and replace for newer ones without breaking my budget.

 

I don't mind steel wheels when properly used. However Ive learned to despise the steel wheel. Those #### things are so heavy. Shoe a tractor with all steel and you find you cannot hardly get anywhere so to speak without being clumsy and rough riding.

 

You may be able to trade those wheels for fresh powder coated used wheels or have those powder coated at some point and “shelve” them for the future whenever they need new tires. Places like Southern Tire Mart do that.
Millions of steel wheels not in service floating around out there to had cheap.
Billions of trailers running everyday with them.

 

Having steel wheels vs. aluminum has never been a deal killer for me. They both get the job done. I Wouldn't pass up something that is clean and good and extremely usable just because it has steel on it.

 

Thats always been the standard on Petes and Kw’s since the early ‘70’s on the drives until recently. Steel inside. Aluminum outside. All the manufactures since about ‘51 when Alcoa introduced the forged aluminum wheel on a Mack 10 wheeler. They have offered aluminum steer with steel drives. Or aluminum steer and outside drives with inside steel as options over them all being aluminum. They even built trucks with spoke steer and all aluminum drives in the past. Those are different.
Historically the west coast was where the most Alcoa’s were in the old days. All the big companies like PIE and CF and other fallen flags put Alcoa on the map.
Sorry for the history lesson but you know us “old” guys.

 

I remember seeing aluminum wheels on Utility’s, Tempte’s, and Wilsons from out West long before I saw them on Great Danes or any of the Fruehauf owned companies from out east.

 

You may not see very well but this rig has the full aluminum. Always a bit of pain after a snow storm particularly around the salty states.

 

They never should of stopped building that model truck. Always sharp no matter what wheels.

 

We had nicknamed those style FL logo wheels the low flying boomerang because they also returned to the truck when it stopped. Yuk Yuk. Stupid I know.