why alcoa wheels?

from what I have read, they are 20% stronger then steel , a lot lighter then steel and prettier, but cost a lot more

I'm not the greatest fan of my old school Alcoa's that require much polishing. My old stainless wheel liners were easier to keep pretty. Most pushers over a certain price all seem to come with aluminum.

billyboy wrote:
from what I have read, they are 20% stronger then steel , a lot lighter then steel and prettier, but cost a lot more

AND....they give off HEAT a heck of a lot better. If a person can afford them....go Alcoas

Mostly for looks.....

Once one manufacturer puts them on the RVs the other manufacturers tend to follow suit. Then the buying public begins to expect alcoa wheels on their RVs.

Like Two Jayhawks mine need polishing from time to time so no advantage over steel wheels with hubcaps.

stan909,
Well Sir, a few things here. First, based on at least quite a few years experience with fire trucks, Alloy wheels, mainly Alcoa's, are a tad stronger than the same wheel dimension of a steel counter part. They come in multiple finishes. If you're one of the types that likes the shiny way they look but, have no desire to "keep up that shine", then, they come with a clear coat that will keep them from oxidizing for the most part.

But, if you don't mind doing a bit of touch up every now and then, then you can get them with different finishes and, they're not clear coated so, over time, they will oxidize and get duller. But, if you do what I do, about every 3-4 months, sit down with some music on and, some polish, about an hour and a half later, you're back to a high luster.

Now, as far as weight is concerned, they are lighter but, not by very much. I pulled my rear duals off for some maintenance a while back and as usual, I have an outer alloy wheel and, a steel inner. Well, just for the heck of it, I thought I'd weigh each and see what the difference might be. My tires are Michelins and are the 255x80R22.5 versions. So, the alloy wheel/tire combo weighed in at , 144.2 lbs. and the steel tire/wheel combo weighed in at 167.4.

A whopping 23 lbs. difference, wow, big deal. Now, I'd bet my house that if you blindfolded someone, put them on a coach that had steel wheels all the way around and took them for a ride on whatever kind of test road you wanted, then came back, and put alloys on just the outside (as all coaches are equipped) and then took them for the same test drive on the same road, they'd never be able to tell the difference. That's a whopping 46 lbs. of unsprung weight. Doubt seriously it makes any real difference.

Anyway, it's a lot nicer looking wheel, in my opinion, if they're kept up in appearance. Just an opinion.
Scott

There is a heck of a lot of truckers running around with the Alcoa aluminum wheels. Lighter and stronger than steel wheels. That is important to the truckers where payload is everything. And with our motorhome the CCC is everything too if you are going to do any traveling!!! But if you are only going to go 50 miles from home and park for the summer, you don't need to worry about that kind of stuff.

FIRE UP wrote:


But, if you don't mind doing a bit of touch up every now and then, then you can get them with different finishes and, they're not clear coated so, over time, they will oxidize and get duller. But, if you do what I do, about every 3-4 months, sit down with some music on and, some polish, about an hour and a half later, you're back to a high luster.

So what polish do you like? I'm about to tackle my un-coated Alcoa wheels. I can figure out the music.

Very interesting gents. Thanks

For me personally I have a few friends that work in the Alcoa factory here locally so it gets the (at least partially) made in the USA stamp from me too.

Roundtwo-40 wrote:
For me personally I have a few friends that work in the Alcoa factory here locally so it gets the (at least partially) made in the USA stamp from me too.

It's interesting that the hub cover bolt is 10mm and the push on lug nut covers are 33mm.