We pulled the back aluminum rims off my friend's 2008 F250 recently, and I was quite surprised at how hard it was to get the wheels off the hubs. We had a floor jack and impact wrench so lifting it and removing the lug nuts was no problem, but the wheels and rims were stuck so tightly together that no amount of pulling, twisting, rubber-malleting or other measures would loosen them. We pried the left side off with a 2x4 between the rim and the spring, and used a bottle jack against the frame to loosen the right one. it would have been very awkward to get these off at the side of the road to fix a flat. This a a fairly new truck which is serviced regularly at the dealer - we were pulling the wheels to install mud flaps. I have had the wheels off my F150 and other vehicles many times and have never seen any as tight as these. We could see some rust on the inside of the rim where it sits against the wheel, and realized after that maybe we should have put some anti-seize in there. Any comments or suggestions regarding wheel removal on these trucks? Snapshot

 

The anti-seize isn't a bad idea. There have been issues with super duty's older than the 08 having the same type of issue.

 

Just a tight fitting wheel. Unfortunately there isn't much you can do. I run into this all the time on all sorts of vehicles. Makes me wonder about flat tire changes too. A friend of mine had this happen to a toyota pickup. Drove with the lug nuts loose to finally get the wheel to come free.

 

If ford had a brain they would install a micro thin plastic shim between the wheel and hub for about 59 cents. Thats what peterbilt and mack do and the wheels just fall off. I had to hammer my 05 350 wheels and my wife's 07 expy wheels off with a sledge hammer on the tires of course. I have a 08 350 and i dread the day i want to rotate tires. Flat on the road an i am screwed. Ford has their head up the a$$ and they are broke so who cares. But i don't carry a sledge in my vehicles so i guess i just call 1800fordsucks and hope foe a miracle.

 

Not a tight fitting wheel. The wheel bonds to the hub and it is a bear to get loose. Alloy and steel don't mix very well and they need a barrier of some type.

 

I ran into this back with my old 96. Since then I have always kept the hubs coated with nickel pipe dope/anti seize on all my vehicles.

 

07 f250 crew 30k miles- never had this problem. I rotate the tires every 10k.

 

See this problem on all types of cars. I keep a 4 ft sledge in my toolbox to whack on the back of the tire because of it. Had one so bad a few years ago on a Chevy 2500 we had to put the lugnuts on loose and drive back and forth with a few hard stops to break the bond on the hub.

 

Yes galvanic corrosion could be the issue here too. I've seen plenty of wheels. Sometimes it is corrosion, either rust between steel parts, or aluminum corrosion. More often than not it's just a wheel that should have been cut bigger. I can put wheel back on and take them off right away and have them stuck again. Same deal with rotors on my old f150 7700. I had them on and off several times, too soon for any corrosion to occur, and they would be badly stuck every time. I could list all sorts of situations where this happens. We could also list all sorts of things Ford could do better for what is pennies to us, but add up for them. But like you said, they're broke so what do you expect?