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- Since essentially the beginning of time,
there have always been debates,
especially when it comes to building a truck.
We're talking things like lift size, tire selection,
heck even what color to power coat your suspension
it's always been something.
But there's one overarching debate that has stood the test
of time since I was even a little kid,
granted that was only like 50 years ago or something,
but still, there's a battle of materials and strength
happening even still to this day with literally no end in
sight, but which one is right and which one is wrong?
I'm not sure that I know the answer to that,
but what I do know is I'm Dustin with Custom Offsets,
you guys can follow me on the gram @dusti.co.
and today, we've got a habanero level spicy video
for you guys.
Today we're diving head first into the hot sauce
to find out just which wheels are better,
and truthfully find out if forge wheels are really worth it.
Let's get it.
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As we're getting right into what is probably the greatest
debacle of all time when it comes to custom trucks,
it's important to remember that there is no right answer
when it comes to this topic.
I mean, after all, it's really like everything else in life
and it just depends on what you're doing with your wheels.
More on that later though,
in the meantime, if you haven't already
please consider subscribing to the channel
so we can keep kicking and taking names over here
at the old Custom Offsets
by making this awesome truck content
that you guys have come to love from us.
But enough about that,
let's get into the meat and potatoes of the video here.
So first and foremost, what the hell is a cast wheel?
What's a forged wheel?
And what on God's green earth
is a rotary forged wheel?
So on first today we have the most common wheel of all time,
the cast wheel.
If you aren't familiar,
cast wheels are called cast wheels because they start
with a boiling hot pot of molten metal,
and when we say boiling hot, we mean boiling hot.
- Oh that's hot, that's hot.
- Most aluminum alloys need to be heated
to approximately 1200 degrees Fahrenheit
in order to properly float into the mold.
And you guys thought habanero peppers were hot.
Once the aluminum alloy mixture has been heated
it's mixed with a few other materials to help strengthen it
and make sure that your wheels aren't gonna crack
when you're mobbing down the highway.
From there this molten alloy is injected or cast
into a mold in the shape of the wheel,
giving the wheel its shape and its design.
From there, the cast wheels are taken out of the molt,
once cool, finished up, painted and boxed up to be shipped
to the end user.
This process of casting wheels has a few advantages.
For starters,
cast wheels are quite a bit cheaper than their forged driven
rotary forge counterparts.
This is because forge wheels take much more time
to manufacture, compared to cast wheels.
Additionally, this lower production time allows
manufacturers to make significantly more wheels per day,
which means more wheels per week and more wheels per year
than making a forged wheel,
ultimately bringing the price down
because there's just more available.
On the flip side of the debate is the one and only,
forged wheels.
I mean, let's face it.
Everyone seen a forged wheel at one point in their life.
We're talking heavy hitters like American force, Fuel forge,
Specialty forge, fit up all the off-road,
and a whole bunch of more.
Well, I was unable to find exactly where forged wheels truly
started word on the street says that they were founded
way back in 1948 by a company that you may have heard of
called Alcoa.
Alcoa claims in 1948,
that they invented the first truly forged truck wheel.
Well again, I can't confirm that
what I can confirm is that a lot has changed
since 1948 right?
What hasn't changed though is that the overall process
on how forged wheels are made.
Forge wheels and cast wheels actually start off
in a very similar fashion,
with a big old pot of molten metal.
Again, we're about 1200 degrees here.
In a similar fashion as to what cast wheels are made,
forged wheels are also poured out into a mold
except these molds are different,
forge wheel castings are basically just
this big oil cylinder of blank aluminum
that it's poured and then allowed to cool.
From there these blanks or castings as they're called,
are sliced into different sizes,
depending on which wheel sizes to be made out of them.
From there,
these blanks are heated to a temperature that makes them
flexible, so a little bit squishy, right?
And then push through molds to form them
into the correct shapes.
After all you wanna round wheel to be well, round.
Once shaped and cut to size,
these forge castings are then sent to a machining process
where a milling machine actually goes in and it cuts away
all the excess material and makes things like the wheel face
and the lip and then ultimately drills the bolt pattern
that's what's gonna actually make it fit on your truck
because, let's face it
the right bolt pattern is it's kind of important.
- You might think it's not important.
- But that's not true.
- One of the biggest advantages of a forged wheel
is that they're strong like, really strong.
Additionally, being made from a single piece of solid build
aluminum makes them much more simple in terms of repairing,
should you, you know, accidentally kiss a curb
or something on a bank drive-through.
Plus, because they're made from a single piece of monoblock
aluminum, aluminum forged wheels are one of the only wheels
that can give you a true shine
if you're looking for that polished real look.
Now sure, there are some companies out there
that make a cast wheel and a polished finished,
but at the time of us making this video, which is today,
we haven't seen how these compared
to a polished built wheel.
Another big advantage to the forge wheels is that you can
make them essentially as custom as you would like.
Unlike cast wheels, which require a new mold
which can cost literally tens of thousands of dollars,
forge wheels are easy to change.
You just go into the old CAD and tweak your design
a little stretch of spokes out and make the windows bigger
or something, and then fire it off to the old CNC machine
and bam, you got yourself a custom set of
one-off wheels for your truck.
The downfall of these wheels is that as customers
they aren't and as great as they look,
they're goddamn expensive.
For comparison sake instead of 24 by 14 arc on Mandela's,
which are a cast true directional wheel,
will set you back about $2,000,
the same size wheel in a specialty forge wheel
is gonna set you back close to 10 grand.
As you can see there's a little bit of a price difference
between a cast and a forged wheel.
And as if that wasn't already enough to make your head spin,
there's a third wheel type that enters the market.
Known to some guys as 'flow formed',
rotary forged wheels got their start
actually in the car industry.
Rotary forged wheels start off in the same way
that a low pressure cast wheel does
with the molten aluminum being injected into the mold.
Unlike a traditional cast fuel though,
rotary forged wheel molds are much narrower
and are quite a bit thicker than a standard cast wheel.
This is important for the next step
in the rotary forging process.
Once the wheels are cast and they've cooled and popped out
of the molds, the barrel of the wheels that heated back up,
and it's actually pushed back out via immense pressure
from rollers.
Because they roll the material of the barrel
of the wheel outwards,
similar to how grandma does when she's running a rolling pin
on her Southern style biscuits, right?
Not only is this a beautiful process to watch
but it also actually elongates the actual structural,
grain of the metal itself,
making the wheel much stronger.
There's also is gonna leave you with a much lighter wheel
than its cast counterparts,
making it perfect for automotive racing.
It wasn't until the last few years, however,
that companies like Axe Off-Road and
Fittipaldi Offroad began offering
a rotary forged truck wheel as a way to shave
a few pounds off your wheel and tire setup
because let's face it,
wheel tire trucks, they're fricking heavy.
So with all that being said, which wheel is the best?
Honestly, kind of like we said
at the beginning of the video,
it really does depend on what you're looking for.
If you're looking for a set of wheels
for your daily driver to help it look good,
but also stand up to the wear and tear of everyday life
then a cast wheel might be the best option for you.
They're going to look great
they come in all sorts of sizes and you can even get a
true directional cast wheel from companies like
the one and only Arkon Off-Road.
If you're looking for a heavy duty wheel,
or a wheel that's truly polished aluminum
then forged is for you.
At the end of the day though, it's all personal preference,
but, I absolutely love how polished aluminum looks
on a set of wheels,
which is why you guys will see what wheels I choose
for my truck in the last episode of the Build Series
that goes up in just a couple of weeks.
And finally, if you're looking to shave a few pounds off
your wheel and tire setup,
then a rotary forged wheel may be the best option for you
it's really up to you guys.
What do you guys think though?
Do you have cast wheels or do you have forged wheels?
Are forged wheels better, or is that a myth?
Let us know what you guys think
down in the comment section below.
We're looking forward to hearing from each
and every one of you.
And with that, I'm Dustin with Custom Offsets
and I'll see you guys on the next one.
- And I'm Junk.
- And you're Junk.
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