I picked up my 450 pickup on Tuesday. Lariat bronze fire. Beautiful truck. It's the first non white pickup I have bought for our company since a '95 dodge. I love the truck. Seems smoother than my '11 350 srw. Will have to get used to the duals. I think its as wide, or wider than my mack dump trucks.
Anyway, I finally got to crawl under it tonight and noticed the inner rear wheels are steel. Is that normal? It's pretty disappointing to spend 70k on a truck and not have 6 aluminum wheels.

 

Pretty standard as far as I know

 

Every dually truck out there has steel inners. The thicker aluminum would add too much sheer forces to the lug studs.

 

This is not news. On every DRW truck that is equipped with the optional aluminum rims, the rear inner rims have always been the standard steel rims. To bring this to another dimension, the front and rear outer rims are also non-interchangeable as well. I know this is because, as a technician I've always tried to preach rotating tires on a regular basis to keep tire wear even, but this is obviously not possible on DRW trucks equipped with the aluminum rim option.

Before you ask, no you can't swap out the inner steel rims for aluminum ones either, because they are thicker and therefore not fit onto the hub.

The only way to solve this, is to have a truck with all six rims steel, and purchase a set of chrome wheel covers for the front and rear, if vanity is that important. By doing this, enables rotating all six wheels regularly in order to keep tire wear even.

 

Thanks Guess I'm just used to my tri axles .

 

yup.

Just rotate the fronts from side to side and the same with the rears.

 

Great post, great information.

 

A little OT, but has anyone had trouble with tread separation with this method of rotation? Tried this method back in the '90s when the mfgs started recommending X pattern for rotation and within 1000 miles on BFGs all four began separating. Haven't changed the direction of tire rotation since then - always front to back. Just figured on DRW you didn't rotate.

 

Not a DRW but I do rear cross on my truck and all my other vehicles without issue to date. I think you'll be fine.

 

Wait wait wait....the wheels are removable?

 

I too was surprised when I had a flat on my left inner tire and pulled the outer wheel off and saw steel. I had no idea.

 

No problems.

 

I would only switch the fronts side to side. No reason to bother with the rears.

 

Would love to find 4 17" steel dually wheels reasonable. I would take the aluminums off.

Anybody know where any 17" are priced reasonably?

 

steel rims, paint them nice a black. That would work.