Are truck/trailer rims a weak link?

[Fstmvrerik]

After reading a lot of information in regard to weights and towing on this forum I was crawling around my F350 srw looking at weight ratings for the various components on my truck. I have 3750 per tire, and 3640 per rim (both aftermarket). My heaviest scale ticket shows 6120 on my drive axle, which is under the 7280 weight rating of my rims: when you think about the pounding that happens driving down the road, how often does the weight exceed the rating of the rims?

I have broken several rear rims and 1 front rim over my lifetime, but I have chalked them up to when I de-bead tires, or rock strikes doing stupid stuff driving to places probably above the trucks paygrade.

Now wondering if highway travel and heavy trailers could be part of the problem. How frequently do rims fail?

[valhalla360]

The rating is based on dynamic loading...so they already have you hitting normal bumps.

Now if you hit a curb or rock...or you have a blow out and the rim hits the pavement hard all bets are off but a higher rated rim is unlikely to help.

Just running down the road nothing unusual, I've never heard of a rim failing (not that you should overload them).

[Old-Biscuit]

Other than some serious off-road/rock climbing I have never broken a rim, truck or trailer

Have bent one rock crawling when I slip down but didn't break the tire bead

But then I don't run aluminum rims.....steel only

[carringb]

I cracked 2 rims as well. Both were Alcoa dually wheels, but I was regularly overloading them by about 500 pounds each. No doubt the overweight condition was a factor, but I also travel on a lot of rough terrain.

I wouldn't worry about dynamic loading. That's already factored into the engineered ratings. But I never realized the rating on my Alcoas could be an issue, because the weight rating was inside the rim on the tire side, so I never saw it until I cracked one and had the tire off.