Steel vs. Aluminum

[Brian Miller_dup1]

quote:

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Originally posted by cousincletus:
My suggestion is to save your money and use what you already have.

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It seem that you and my wife think alike. She told me that my Aluminum OEM wheels look fine and I'm not spending any money getting new ones

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I just wanted some 8" wide instead of the 7" that it came with. But, the BOSS has spoken

The 15x7 stock wheels fit my 31x10.5-15's just fine. When you look at the specs for this size tire, they say the wheel width should be 7 to 9 inches wide. I'll be fine with what I have.

Thanks everyone,
Brian

 

[XS650]

quote:

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Originally posted by PandaBear:
Not sure about truck, but for compact car my OEM steel will be 21lb each 14", and OEM alum will be 15lb each 15". You have to get to 17" to get back to steel's weight.

I think it is more of an inertia than unspung weight issue, since mass is mostly on the outter edge, it has more effect than saving 20lb total on a car. I heard somewhere that flywheel weight is 50x the effect on vehicle mass, if you divide that by the gear ratio it will be like 20lb * 50 / 4.3 = 232lb total saving.

Not much for a truck, but a lot for a small car.

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The 50 times rule of thumb is reasonable for mass on the outer periphery of flywheel, but only in 1st gear. The effect greatly reduces in higher gears.

Extra mass near the tire tread counts about 2 x the same mass in the car.