- What's going on, guys? (hard rock music)
Junior with Custom Offsets TV on the YouTube.
As y'all know, we are known for selling
aftermarket wheels and tires for your truck.
Well, today I'm here to tell you
the history that has led up to the current trends
you see in the trucks seen today
and how people have been constantly reinventing the wheel.
So if you wanna go way back to the '20s,
wire wheels were all the crazy a hundred years ago.
Dayton was the name in wheels
and had set a high-quality standard in the auto industry.
I'm not here to talk about 100-year-old wheels,
but stick with me because it's all gonna
lead up to today's American Forces
and 24 by 14s that are all over the 'Gram.
Daytons from way back when have always
had their niche in the aftermarket wheel world,
and I bet any car shows you go to nowadays
will have a few styled rides rocking them,
specifically the low riders on their hydros
and scraping their bumpers as they drive down the road.
Okay, let's fast forward a few, 30 years,
1950s, hot rods, and the first
custom wheels started to emerge.
Although they were limited due to low production,
people found any ways possible to customize their wheels.
Most of this was taking from other production wheels
or hubcaps and center caps to make yours more unique.
Pretty boring, right?
Pretty soon, cars got faster and racing was more popular.
Industry demands pushed for the first custom wider wheels.
Faster cars needed wider tires in the rear,
and that meant wider wheels were needed.
Chrome reverse wheels started to become popular,
and the first wider offset wheels were introduced,
the first custom offsets.
People would take their steel wheels,
and cut the centers out of them,
and then flip them to gain a huge lip,
and they started the whole deep dish look.
Pretty soon, these were made chrome
with big lips and sold to vehicles everywhere.
Race cars and trucks alike
started running aluminum wheels,
and they became the cool style to run.
A few years into the '60s,
a name I'm sure a lot of you enthusiasts
will recognize released their first wheel.
1964 was the year that Cragar released
their first and most iconic wheel, the Cragar SS Mag,
which set the aftermarket wheel market spinning.
If you've ever seen a muscle car,
I'm sure you've seen a set of these.
Cragar had many companies on their heels though,
including American Racing, Keystone, and Astro.
The Astro Supreme was one of Cragar's biggest competitors,
and no, this isn't the same Supreme
that Alby paid $2000 to own one of their hoodies for.
Muscle cars of the late '60s
started running staggered wheels, a jacked-up rear end,
big meats in the rear, and Parker Fuller's--
- 2019 blooper real, whoo!
- Muscle cars of the late '60s
started running staggered wheels, a jacked-up rear end,
big meats in the rear, and the horsepower to match.
(hard rock music) (man laughs)
Also, SEMA was created during this time
for the brand-new and already fastly-growing industry
of the aftermarket mods for vehicles.
But what about trucks?
A company that I would almost consider
the OGs of aftermarket truck wheels
was established in 1967 and have snuck their way back
into today's scene as well, Weld Racing.
Weld dominated both the racing world and the truck market
with aluminum wheels for everyone.
The development of their wheels started
with Greg Weld working the dirt race track.
All of that driving in circles
meant that right wheels like the right side of the truck
had a lot of weight on them,
and Weld developed a stronger, wider wheel
meant to handle this and allow for a wider tire as well.
And the best part,
Weld reinvented the wheel out of his garage.
Trucks started running his wide wheels as well,
and the 15 by 14s with huge Bogger tires look was born.
These wheels had insane lip and featured a step lip
on these fully-polished aluminum wheels.
One of the most popular models
in this style was the Weld Cheyenne.
If you check out this wheel design,
it really shows what's to come
and kinda what's popular now in the truck scene,
defined spokes, a big flat lip,
and all of that shiny polished aluminum,
kind of a foreshadowing of what was to come.
For some reason, this look didn't seem to last long,
and it seems like the late 20th century
consisted of American Racing on like every truck.
These wheels had a flat face or some concavity,
but like no real spokes.
The classic bolt-hole design
also became super popular to run.
Between the American Racing AR-39
and the eight-bullet-hole design,
I'm not really sure which one I've seen
on more K 1500s and OBS Fords.
And the other thing too is there's a bunch of companies
with that like soft-eight or D-window wheel.
I'm not gonna list them all.
Okay, maybe I'll try.
So we got like Vision, Pro Comp,
American Racing, Rebel Racing,
Black Rock, Alloy Ion, Cragar, Ultra.
Okay, I'm done, that's just to mention a few of them.
But fun fact, quick before I get too off-topic,
in the last few years, American Force has released
what they call the American Force Classic,
which as you can see from just looking at it,
it pays homage to all of these
classic bullet-hole style wheels
with the obvious American Force influence.
CJ Dunlap has these on like
his brand-new Powerstroke dually, his OBS Ford,
his side-by-side, his kids' Power Wheels,
and he's probably running them
on his damn vacuum cleaner too.
These wheels in this style with the soft, faded D-window
lasted into the beginning of the 21st century,
and chrome or aluminum wheels were the popular color choice.
Then, a company came along that totally disrupted
and changed what truckers wanted to run on their rig.
The little company XD Wheels,
which had been growing slowly in popularity,
dropped the original XD Series XD775 Rockstar in 2004.
The chunky five-spoke looked nothing like bullet-hole wheels
or American Racing wheel styles at all,
and everyone fell in love with them.
People start running 18s instead of 16s,
and as the years went on,
XD also released these in a 20,
and the start of today's truck scene emerged.
It didn't have a lip to it.
It was more of a rugged truck wheel
with the extra bolts and huge star in the center cap.
This wheel became so popular,
you probably know somebody who has ran these
on their truck at one point or another
or on their car because yeah,
they were that popular that XD said (bleep) it
and offered them for cars too.
Of course, this was followed up
by the Rockstar 2 and the 3 years later,
but the original XD Rockstar
holds its landmark on this track.
This leads to many new companies emerging
and offering new crazy styles with larger diameters
that people began to fall in love with.
Before this, there were maybe
like three to four main wheel companies
that people went to for aftermarket wheels,
but in the early 2000s,
companies like XD and Fuel Off-Road began to emerge
and try their hand in the custom wheel game.
Is this good?
Ehh, it's like both a good and a bad thing.
Having only a few companies before
meant that quality was in high demand.
Not that it's not now, but back then,
you were only one of four companies selling wheels
and wanted to please your customers.
I feel like wheel companies now
can easily get lost in the sauce
of how many companies and names are out there.
Which one should I buy?
Which one is the best?
Highest quality, coolest design,
biggest name, overplayed,
so many options leaves people wondering
which is the right one for them,
and honestly, it's all to you.
Just about all of these wheels are made
in the same factories in China
with the same quality testing and materials behind them,
and the style and design is up to you
on what you want your build to look like.
I digress, sorry.
So Fuel Off-Road, they're next on this
magical journey through custom wheels.
The Fuel Hostage was next to jump into the picture.
Offering an 18 by 10 and then an 18 by 12 was insane.
10-wides were the cool thing
and dudes running 12-wides were like out of this world.
Like half of your tire sticking out...
Whaaaaaaat?
The Fuel Hostage had big bolts, split spokes,
and screamed, hell yeah, put me on your truck.
The Fuel Hostage had, what, Cody?
(crickets chirping)
I was just seeing if you were paying attention.
The Fuel Hostage had a lip, a flat lip, flat face, sexy.
This was the style that was becoming the norm.
A lot of companies were dropping styles
with the same concept,
Most notably was American Force.
These big shiny wheels with their flat spoke faces
and big lips became everybody's dream wheel.
And guess what?
They were full polished aluminum,
and American Force offered 14-wides.
Kids everywhere knew what their new dream wheel was,
and adults just shook their heads
as they remembered the good old days
when their Weld Wheels had the same shiny forged
polished aluminum and available in 14-wides.
It's kinda crazy how these trends seem to cycle.
The only difference were these American Forces,
and then Specialty Forged
shortly after had the bigger diameter.
They weren't your dad's 16-inch wheels.
These bad boys were available in 22s, and then 24s,
and now, at SEMA 2018, 30s,
and the widths just seem to keep increasing too.
SEMA 2017, American Force introduced 18-inch wide wheels,
and then the big thing at SEMA 2018
was the American Force 30 by 16.
But with all of these styles and designs,
it seems like another trend is starting to emerge.
SEMA 2017 was when Hostile introduced a new concept
that the market didn't know they wanted,
but ended up being massively successful,
so like they ended up wanting it
even though they didn't know they wanted it, right?
I don't even know if that makes sense,
but that's like kinda what happened, okay?
So Hostile released the Hostile Alpha, a hybrid wheel.
I saw this at SEMA and knew
right away that it was gonna be hot.
The wheel incorporates the lip style
that's popular right now,
but now the spokes aren't flat, they're angled in,
so it's a concave-faced wheel that also has a lip to it.
There are other companies also offering this,
and even American Force offers
a whole series lineup of concave wheels
that they're very proud of, their Concave Series.
There are even companies like Arkon Off-Road
that offer the hybrid wheel designs,
but eliminate the ridge between the spokes,
which gives people exactly what they want,
a concave face but the biggest lip possible.
Without that ridge between the spokes,
the lip goes back as far as the wheel,
pretty smart design to allow the best of everything.
So now it seems that big lip, big diameter,
and or hybrid styles are super popular.
I think the hybrid wheel design style
is still on its way into becoming popular,
and lots of wheel companies
will be dropping new styles and designs
to please this ever-changing market of wheel designs.
But another interesting offering
is becoming more and more popular,
and not entirely what I expected to see,
off-road wheels, like real off-roading wheels.
Not mall crawler wheels that say
off-road at the end of their name,
17 by 9s meant for going in the dirt.
Companies like Method that have been around forever
in the off-road game have been gaining popularity.
And then, there's all these new companies
that previously made and are still continuing
to make their mall crawler wheels
that are branching out into this off-road lineup.
Some of these guys are even making a true beadlock,
which we just never really see
anyone heavily promoting these days.
A split is happening where there's these guys
that want small wheels, large tires,
and then there's the dudes
that want huge wheels and small sidewalls,
so who knows where this will go.
Is it gonna turn back to the styles
and sizes offered in the '90s?
And will our 24 by 14s end up being
the donk class of the truck world?
It's all speculation at this point and looking ahead,
but I have a feeling both markets will stay popular
and grow for the next five-ish years.
Or who knows?
Electric trucks might become the new thing
and big, heavy, inefficient, off-road wheels won't work.
I have no idea.
What are your thoughts?
What does the future hold
for custom truck wheels in your opinions?
What era was your favorite for custom truck wheels?
I've talked too much.
I'm gonna go take a nap now.
This is Junior with Custom Offsets,
and this was the history
of custom wheels in the truck scene.
Be sure you subscribe on YouTube.com/CustomOffsetsTV.
Peace.
(hard rock music)