Need help: Winter custom rims?

roadshow · Jun 30, 2015

My goal is to stop having to swap tires every spring and fall. I'm sick of doing it and with the A/T tires out nowadays I don't need dedicated winter-specific tires anymore. BUT... I also want custom wheels! The problem is that people are telling me I can't get the black looking wheels I want with a little bit of chrome all year round because winter roads destroy them. Do I have any options here? Besides going back to using two sets of tires obviously.

roadshow · Jun 30, 2015

Aha! Found a solution, PVD is a chrome looking finish that can hold up to winter crud.

roadshow · Jul 2, 2015

OK I'm back to the drawing board. I spoke to my local tire shop who I've dealt with for years and they have a really good rep locally. He told me that they've been seeing a lot of issues with PVD. He also said that if I want to install custom RIMS that will be used during the winter to go with ones that are all matte black and to avoid 'machined' finishes as well.

I'm looking for some more opinions on this before I pull the trigger on what'll probably be around a $1500 expense. Will matte black finished wheels corrode or otherwise damage from winter driving? Please help?

sbarron · Jul 2, 2015

Take it from someone who lives somewhere there is A LOT of winter. There is a reason people don't run custom rims in the winter... they just don't hold up. Between the constant sand blasting and the corrosive salt/antifreeze on the roads, the finish gets destroyed fairly quickly. Up here, (and we actually have less salt on the roads than some places), most that have dedicated winter rims go with steel.

hemihustlin · Jul 2, 2015

All wheels have a chance of getting pitted and/corroded in the winter. I have seen aftermarket mags that specificly say winter ready super powder coated whatever but they were audi replicas. Doesn't really help you. Once a rock hits and chips the paint the corrosion starts. So basically that is why everybody (intelligent) around here has 2 sets of rims/mags. One winter one summer. And I highly recommend dedicated winter tires if your winters are anything like ours.

roadshow · Jul 3, 2015

Dang... ok thanks guys, was worth a try. I'll stick with the OEM rims until next year. I just put on some snow+ice rated A/T tires and I want to see how they perform this winter. I've heard a lot of good feedback from others about A/T tires in the winter.

I'm really trying to avoid running two sets of tires all the time because the problem is that where I live we only really get hammered a few storms every winter and the rest of the season gets spent driving dedicated winter tires on bare roads. This has caused me to wear out my winters incredibly fast over the years and spending too much money replacing them much earlier than I should be because the tread wore out so fast and my traction in snow went to hell

charonblk07 · Jul 3, 2015

Winter tires aren't just for bad weather, you want the softer rubber compounds that come with them so they are able to maintain proper grip on the dry pavement in the cold temps as well. Most A/T tires aren't ideal below freezing because the rubber hardens even with the 'snowflake' or M+S designations on them.

nightrunner066 · Jul 3, 2015

you could take any wheel that you like and get them powder coated. heres a pic of my stock sport wheels that i got powder satin black.

roadshow · Jul 4, 2015

charonblk07 said:
Winter tires aren't just for bad weather, you want the softer rubber compounds that come with them so they are able to maintain proper grip on the dry pavement in the cold temps as well. Most A/T tires aren't ideal below freezing because the rubber hardens even with the 'snowflake' or M+S designations on them.

I knew about that, but it wasn't only the dry stretches between snowfalls causing premature wear on my softer winters, it was the slightly higher temperatures that accompanied those dry stretches.

preachp · Jul 4, 2015

Hi All,

There is no perfect solution. Softer tires wear faster regardless of if they are winter trail or road tires. Rims will get scratched and pitted regardless. Granted winter is far worse for them but if you are not into changing rims then cleaning your vehicle every week or two will definitely help. I plan on off-roading so I expect that my rims will eventually get scratched but that is the cost of playing. I have the stock rims and tires but I am not going to put them back on and I am not ready to buy yet another set of $1000 tires. If you are already set up to swap rims and tries in the winter I would suggest you continue to do so. If you are not then you have to decide how much it is worth to you to protect your rims. I can replace my rims for under a $1000 so it is really not advantageous to me to spend the money to replace the crap stock tires and swap rims.

Have a great day,

preachp

roadshow · Jul 4, 2015

Yeah that's kinda how I'm leaning. I'll pick up a matte black set. If they get scratched, matte black is pretty easy to touch up. Last winter was actually unusually heavy on snow here and I made do in 4wd on worn out stock tires so these new A/T's I just put on should do nicely

powderbrad · Jul 6, 2015

Yup, use the ****** ol plastic clad stockers for winter. Buy some nice summer ones.

Im betting you can get chrome clad ones for DIRT cheap.

Need help: Winter custom rims?

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