Puricare Industrial Enterprises: WHEEL WIDENING - The Dangers of Wheel Widening - Reputable wheels shops will often show the car owner why it makes more sense to simply buy new wheels. The cost of having your existing wheels customized is somewhat less than buying new, wider wheels, but the dangers of the practice are well documented and simply not worth the risk.

Wheel Widening

The Dangers of Wheel

Widening

By Sean Phillips

Custom car shops and wheel works stores often receive calls or visits from customers who ask if the current steel or alloy wheels can be widened to allow them to equip the car with wider tires.

This is a highly controversial practice.

There are tire and wheel shops who routinely offer this service, and customers often make use of this practice as a means to save money over buying new wheels at the width they want.

Other wheel shops, though, will flat out refuse to even consider this practice, for reasons that are quite logical.

And yet, some car owners not only insist on having this done but may even consider doing it themselves with home welding tools.

Before you consider having this done to your original equipment (OE) wheels, it's best to consider the possible dangers.

How Wheels Are Widened

When a factory wheel is widened to accept a wider tire, the process involves sawing the wheels in half parallel to the barrel and then welding in a piece of metal between the two halves.

In other words, the joint between the two edges is simply pressed together with no lateral support at all.

Such a configuration might be enough to hold air on a show car that never gets driven anywhere, but many experts believe that any real road impact could destroy a wheel modified in this way.

Why Wheel Widening Is Dangerous

Car owners, in their zeal to modify a beloved automobile on the cheap, neglect to consider why this wheel widening is a bad idea.

In some cases, a car's wheel well might simply be too narrow to accept a wider tire without scraping against the suspension.

More to the point, though, is the fact that the kind of welded joint used to widen wheels may have good lateral strength but very weak sheer strength.

Its ability to resist the kind of common stress applied at a 90-degree angle to the weld—such as hitting a pothole or a manhole cover—is very, very low.

The resulting failure of the weld will cause the tire to deflate instantaneously and can potentially kill you or someone else.

Buying New Wheels Is the Better Option

Reputable wheels shops will often show the car owner why it makes more sense to simply buy new wheels.

The cost of having your existing wheels customized is somewhat less than buying new, wider wheels, but the dangers of the practice are well documented and simply not worth the risk.

If these very good arguments don't convince you, and you remain determined to save money at the expense of safety, make sure to consult a shop that has long experience with the practice and a willingness to guarantee their work.

And under no circumstances should you attempt this yourself in a home workshop.

Sean Phillips is the Operations Manager at Rim and Wheel Works, a family-operated wheel and tire repair shop located in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Experience

Sean has been straightening, refinishing, welding and replacing wheels for more than a decade, making him one of the most experienced wheel repair specialists in the world. He has repaired thousands of wheels, sold thousands of tires, and trained multiple wheel straighteners and tire technicians. As a skier and Colorado native, he has a particular interest and expertise in snow tires and winter driving.

Sean Phillips

“At Rim and Wheel Works, our focus is on all kinds of drivers; the daily driver, the enthusiast, and those that want their ‘bling.’ I myself am less of a journalist and more of a hands-on repair guy, and that is the kind of focus and perspective I intend to bring to About.com Tires and Wheels. Tires and wheels tend to be things you don’t really think about until you have to. I think about them every day. Our customers appreciate our honest, no-nonsense advice and that we go out of our way to save them money, and I hope my readers will appreciate that as well.”

https://www.thoughtco.com/widening-wheels-is-dangerous-3971045

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