New DTD wheels for the Forester!

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JTK

JTK

Joined
Aug 14, 2003
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Buffalo, NY
I ordered a set of Vision Cross wheels for my 2016 Subaru Forester base model during Discount Tire Direct's 4th of July Sale. Very quick processing and shipping. I ordered them on the 5th and they arrived at my local UPS dist. center on the 7th. Nice packaging. The face of each wheel has a nice elastic hair net on it and a plastic band around the bead. It had me freaked out at first because they were double-boxed in pairs and the outer box was for a different model and size wheel. LOL. I didn't receive the lug/hardware kit which has me a bit concerned. It will be some time before I put them to use. Probably not until the Spring of 2018.




 
Nice BBS replicas - I don't see those too often on Subarus, as the cool kids will gravitate towards Work/Volk wheels(and their knockoffs) on WRXs, and I feel those are played out.
 
Thanks! The gun metal finish on them is lighter and brighter than I wanted, but still nice for the price.
 
Originally Posted By: JTK
Thanks! The gun metal finish on them is lighter and brighter than I wanted, but still nice for the price.


One of these days black is going out of style and those will still look good.
 
Originally Posted By: JTK
I ordered a set of Vision Cross wheels for my 2016 Subaru Forester base model during Discount Tire Direct's 4th of July Sale. Very quick processing and shipping. I ordered them on the 5th and they arrived at my local UPS dist. center on the 7th. Nice packaging. The face of each wheel has a nice elastic hair net on it and a plastic band around the bead. It had me freaked out at first because they were double-boxed in pairs and the outer box was for a different model and size wheel. LOL. I didn't receive the lug/hardware kit which has me a bit concerned. It will be some time before I put them to use. Probably not until the Spring of 2018.




I just received a set of wheels/tires from DTD this past Thursday. The lug kit and centering rings were wrapped in bubble wrap inside one of the wheels. You probably already checked for that but just in case..........I ordered on 7/3 and received them on 7/6.
 
Indeed I just found the box of "Gorilla Nuts" and bag of plastic centering rings in the bottom of one box. I'm a little ticked I paid $45 for a box of spline drive acorn 12mm x 1.25 nuts, but my bad on that one.
 
I've got some serious concerns with these new Vision Cross wheels from Discount Tire Direct. Between today's adventure and my TPMS thread associated with Subarus, I so regret bothering buying an aftermarket set for my Forester. I had new tires mounted on these wheels today and the tire tech had a heck of a time getting them to balance. He called me to witness a very slight wobble in one wheel in the tire balancing machine and questioned me as to if these were used before and being potentially "bent"! The new tires are Walmart Douglas all seasons. Yes I know. It's a Walmart brand and it is wallyworld we're talking about. Thing is, I've used these USA made Goodyear off brand tires in the past and love them. Never had an issue with Walmart for tires in the past either. Tech didn't believe this problem stemmed from the tires because they install them all day long and rarely, if ever see this. He did get them to balance, but one tire has 6oz of weights in one spot! I called DTD. Their suggestion is to have them Hunter Road Force balanced and for the tire tech to call them with issues. There are no Discount Tire Direct stores in NY, so this would be an additional cost for me. To be fair at this point, I can't blame Discount Tire Direct without absolute proof it's not the tires, but like said, I did see what appeared to be a very slight wobble in one of these wheels. Tech said atleast 2/4 where like that.




 
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I saw these wheels on a Camry in a parking lot the other day. I went up to it to look at the center caps to see what brand they were. Sharp looking wheel. Sorry to hear about the balancing issue.

Nothing wrong with Douglas tires, they get very good reviews and can't beat the price. I just bought new tires a few days ago off Amazon but the Douglas tires were definitely under consideration.
 
Thanks SS! Yes, I really like the look of these wheels. ~30yrs of owning vehicles and the only "extra" wheels I ever bought were a pair of junk yard steelies years ago for a pair of snow tires to go on. For me, Douglas tires were always on par with the Coopers and Mastercrafts I've bought. Different manufacturer I know, but same experience. I couldn't resist these at only ~$62/ea when bought online and picked up at the store where they had tons of them. DTD is a reputable outfit that sells quality products. I just wouldn't recommend mail-ordering from them if you don't have a Discount Direct store to back things up. Based on what I'm seeing online, the only outfits that have Hunter road force balancers in my area are car dealerships. I'll probably just throw these on the Soob and see how it goes. My high dollar Douglas's come with lifetime balancing. Hope they have enough stick-on weights in stock. LOL
 
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Originally Posted By: JustinH
That is a lot of weight to balance those tires.


I agree. It's the slight wobble or out of round of one of the wheels in the balancer that has me more concerned.
 
Thanks Carbon! Bruce's is only about 5 miles from my house.

I installed the new tire/wheel set a few hours ago with the plastic centering ring kit and gorilla splined lug nut kit and took her for a spin. She drove straight, smooth and quiet. I only put about 11-12 miles on them and achieved a max speed of ~60mph, but so far, so good! Here's the other kicker that got me thinking I'm freaking out for no reason: My factory Subaru wheels/tires have what appears to be a horrendous amount of weights on them from the factory that i never took notice to. One wheel has a strip of 18. YES 18 stick on wheels weights in one row on and a clip on weight! It's gotta be over 6 oz easily. The Vision Cross look awesome on my Forester. Before and after pics, plus a pic of all the weights in one of my factory wheel/tires. Others are nearly as bad as well!




 
I'm not going to bring up the Michelin > * issue, but even Tier 1/OEM tire suppliers might need more weight to balance out, and also account for the TPMS sensors as well - some brands of wheels or some OEMs don't install wheels that are weighted out for TPMS. Honda did install TPMS-specific wheels on many of their models.

I've seen techs balance out bargain brand tires with only a few weights, and Michelin/Conti/Pirelli with lots of them. I'm not sure about Subaru - some OEMs have a vendor who mounts and balances their wheel/tire assemblies and they do check for balance or vibration.
 
Thanks nthach. I've only put about 50 miles on the new tire/wheel combo, but they're silent smooth and straight so far. I just noticed on my printout from Walmart, the Tech noted, "all wheels seem bent. See customer". I don't notice it from behind the wheel and given my factory wheels had so much balancing weight in them, I'm only marginally concerned at this point.
 
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