Wheel rims - why is this difficult?

MB,

Ford, at least, does not recommend rotating the rear duals. There ARE patterns out on the Web how to do it, but it's usually to solve a problem not to equalize wear.

SO... When the Navy Base installed my dually valves, and O-T-C metal valves on Fronts and Spare, YES, I labeled the wheels and the valves as to which I wanted where. That meant Spare and two Fronts could rotate. Two rear inners could cross and two rear outers could cross. Beyond that, tire servicing (check and inflate) would be very awkward. As I mentioned above, the combination of your Valves, Wheels, and Simulators/Covers may make it only a little less inconvenient than with custom valves like T-M or Borg. In my case, it was AWFUL. Going from Awful to Easy was wonderful, well worth the investment.

JUST PLEASE DO NOT RUN WITH RUBBER VALVES EVEN THE SO-CALLED PREMIUM OR HIGH PRESSURE ONES!!! They simply do not hold up in RV usage. Some people put extenders on rubber valves and that's even worse. Failure Guaranteed.

Thank you for all the great information. Armed with this knowledge I was able to speak intelligently with my Chevy Parts department and trace the correct wheel part to one at Hubcaphaven online. So now the adventure can continue.

WHEELS: If a dual wheel vehicle has "alloy wheels" it's possible to have three kinds. It is VERY common for the Inner Rear Duals to be Steel. Meaning the "set" of alloys is actually FOUR wheels. Then, I've heard a few cases where only the "deep" side of the alloy wheels meant for the Rear is polished. And only the "shallow" side of the alloys meant for the Front would be polished. Some vehicles use two different tire sizes, likely different rims as well, front and rear. Hadn't heard of this in light trucks but who knows? For now, I'm sticking with my claim that a Class C, that hasn't been modified, will use the same six or seven wheels.
VALVES: Yes, the tire checking/inflating chore can be difficult with dual wheels. I think that since you have a Chevy... you can get at the valve stems well enough with TRUCK style gauge and air chuck, that custom valves may not be essential. With Ford, a couple problems. For many years, they shipped RV chassis with 8-hand-hole wheels. Yep, 8 two-inch holes. Not much reaching through to check tires unless you have baby hands with adult muscles. Also, Ford wheels, at least the 8-hole ones, had the valve oriented in a way that we could not get a gauge/chuck onto the common short metal valve stem. With short rubber valves you don't notice it, but with no-go with metal.
So, many of us have gone to custom stems from Tire-Man or Borg. Even more important if the 8-hand-hole wheels are being used with stainless simulators.
What I do matches what several others do. Use dedicated custom valves on the Rear and pick over-the-counter steel stems for Front that let you service your tires with the simulators on. Same O-T-C stem for the Spare. Then, you can put the Spare wherever it needs to go. If rear, be sure it's at pressure before you install it. Then, Rotate the three tires with O-T-C valves. Spare to Left Front, Left Front to Right Front, Right Front to Spare. Or the other way if you like. Chances are you'll wear Fronts faster than Rears. Also, you won't be replacing a never-used spare on age alone.
Chuck Carvitto (Tire-Man) is easy to find on the Web, but Borg's site became part of yourtireshopsupply.com which right now doesn't seem to be working. I have Borg's contact information. Anybody who wants it just PM me.

While not a Class C, my 2011 Chevy one ton DRW pickup has what GMC refers to as 3 "unique" wheels on it. Took it in to the tire shop I have used for years to have the tires rotated. Was told about the 3 wheel situation and told the tires have to be taken off the rims/wheels and moved to a different wheel. He didn't recommend doing it as he said he would have to charge me $150 for the job and at 4 rotations a year, I would be spending about $600 a year. He told me to leave them alone, keep them balanced and use the $600 to buy a couple of new tires later if they wore out sooner.

Thought this was strange so talked to the Chevy service manager where I bought the truck and he confirmed the 3 unique wheels on my truck. He said the change was made during the 2011 model year but the 2011 owners manual didn't show this, but the 2012 manual does.
The inside rear wheels are the same, steel they be, the outer ones are the same, aluminum alloy and the front alloy ones have a different off set than the rears according to the service manager. Except for short distances, he advised me not to swap them around. The OEM spare tire also has a steel wheel, full sized tire, and can be used front or rear but not permanently recommended by the service manager.

I too question whether this change was really necessary or not. But it is there on my pickup but don't know if the Chevy RV chassis uses the same or not.

j-d wrote:
If you have Dual Rear Wheels, you use "Dual" rims on all six positions and therefore also the spare. Dual rims have a very deep hub offset. Front and Inner Rear go on one way (the deep dish IN) and the Rear Outers go the other way (deep dish OUT).

Does that mean that once mounted and balanced, the valve might not be placed correctly depending on which position is being used?

If you have Dual Rear Wheels, you use "Dual" rims on all six positions and therefore also the spare. Dual rims have a very deep hub offset. Front and Inner Rear go on one way (the deep dish IN) and the Rear Outers go the other way (deep dish OUT).

Do you have a 4 hole wheel on front and rear? If so then you have the same as my 2006 Chevy Based Class C 3500, 8 lug 16x6.5.

My spare, which is the same as all others, will fit both front and rear.

I Rotated one time when putting Tire Man valve stems on and they all fit regardless of where they were put on.

On our unit on a '99 E-350 chassis, all 7 wheels are identical. Well, not quite - the spare has 4 hand holes, the remaining 6 have those 8 tiny holes - what ever "bright" engineer came up with that design should have been made to check air pressure & add/subtract air for the rest of his life!

I rotate tires when I have them balanced - the rims are all the same.

Usually on GM chassis, they are all the same as well.