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Topic: Alcoa Aluminum Wheels (Read 390 times) previous topic - next topic - Topic derived from Re: Tire Pressure Mon...
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Alcoa Aluminum Wheels
Quote from: Corky Ewing  - 
Does anyone ever buy/replace lazy daze steels wheels and the liner with Alcoa aluminum wheels are another brand of aluminum wheels and would this solve one of the problems needing valve extensions.? Might be a lot easier to check pressure?  Also it would also be better ride maybe? Sorry if this has been discussed earlier. I did hate the wheel  stimulators on my old bounder.
Corky, search for Alcoa Wheels and you will find numerous past discussions. Terry Burnes has them on his '03 RB.
Chris
Formerly: 2002 30' IB
Re: Alcoa Aluminum Wheels
Reply #1 –
FYI Corky and all, no knowledgeable person would use valve extensions. They replace the valve stems with longer ones.
Don & Dorothy
Sold our LD in June of 2023

Our boring always non-PC travel blog
Traveling Dorothy
Re: Alcoa Aluminum Wheels
Reply #2 –
Quote from: Chris Horst  - 
Corky, search for Alcoa Wheels and you will find numerous past discussions. Terry Burnes has them on his '03 RB.
Chris
Here is Terry's info on Alcoa wheels:

Regarding Corky's question about Alcoa wheels, yes, we have those on our LD, as do others. What I say here may not apply to current Alcoas, which I know nothing about. Ours are over 14 years old.

There might be some ride improvement due to more "accurate" wheels but I can't remember any when we made the switch.

Larry is correct, when making this conversion it involves four, not six, aluminum wheels. The inner duals remain steel. Also the front Alcoas are different from the rears. This greatly complicates tire rotation. Can't swap the front and rear tires, or the inner duals to some other position, without dismounting and remounting the tires. But in my experience there is little need to rotate LD tires as mine have always worn very evenly. And they don't seem to need rebalancing much either. With my recently acquired new Michelins I do, however, plan to rotate the rears side-to-side every so often, since the right rears run in a higher heat environment due to the exhaust.

Larry is also correct that you must be careful not to allow corrosion between the two dissimilar metals on the rears to essentially weld them together. I do this by carefully applying a light coating of anti-seize to the mating surfaces, being very careful not to get any on the wheel studs.

Alcoas also require a bit of extra maintenance to keep them looking good, though that may have changed with the newer wheels.

So why bother with Alcoas? Well, I've always hated hub caps and wheel covers. Just something to come loose and cause trouble, with no compensating practical benefit. But my real motivation was simplified pressure checking and airing. I don't like valve extenders for the same reason I don't like wheel covers. With my Alcoas I use metal air-through valve caps on the Alcoa-supplied straight rigid metal valve stems with no extensions. With the proper tire pressure gauge and air chuck on my CO2 inflation system pressure checking and airing is very strait forward.
Formerly: 2002 30' IB