Or when you don't center the wheel correctly. That's the "centric" part, where the wheel should be centered on the hub. Theoretically, conical lug nuts take care of this, but in practice, when someone runs around the lug nuts in a circle, tightens down to the torque spec on the first hit, or tightens the studs while the weight of the truck is pushing the wheel out of center, then wheel is clamped into the wrong position, and that's when the weight ends up on a lug, and you get a nice vibration from the wheel.

 

OK, so put the conical lug nuts on right. I learned that when I was 14.

 

Ok, so I have no faith in human intelligence. I learned that in 2008.

The OP hasn't confirmed he knows anything. I assumed if he's asking, he doesn't. Cartman made a blanket statement about the torque spec being all that mattered. With conical lug nuts, it's not, the sequence also matters, moreso than on hub centric wheels where the wheel is centered regardless of how it's clamped. The goal is to center the wheel, not just screw it on tight. I didn't even get into all the wrong stuff up top about custom wheels.

 

If you really want hub centric, you could look for some older (mine are 4 years old) Weld Racing wheels. My Weld X-Landers are 4.93" center bore.

 

Why not just stick with oem?

Id rather get sone good spacers and newer OEM wheels than put on lugcentric wheels that 'should' be fine.

 

spacers and towing usually isn't a good combination from what i have heard. but anyway, i know several people with after market wheels, Mickey Thompson to be more specific, they have conical nuts, and they tow for a living. one guy hauls a 30' goose cross country, and the other does local steel deliveries on a 25' 24000# gvwr goose and it gets loaded really haevy. To my knowledge, they have never had issues.

 

I would think if this was such a huge issue that wheels would be falling off left and right ripping the lugs out of the wheel and wreaking havoc up and down the roads.....I do not believe this is the case, the logic is sound and makes sense however it seems to me that if this were the case that a lot of people with custom wheels would be having issues. I have the above mentioned Mickey Thompson wheels I do have a slight balance problem on one tire....maybe, could be a bearing, could be a shock, bent/dented rim, etc....I seen this issue on another thread with the video and emailed MT to see if the wheels were hub or lug centric...they are lug. There is a "tool" on balancing machines that holds/clamps the wheel utilizing the lug holes (looks like a ring with 8 fingers sticking out) vs. using the center hole to find "center" prior to balancing. When I get a chance at work (I am not a mechanic, just have access to a balancing machine) I am going to use this to balance my front wheels and see if I get any better results. I suspect I will, if I do not I will continue the hunt....it may be the locking hub cover throwing off the clamping force. I just cannot for the life of me see my wheel flying off as long as the tire is properly mounted and lug nuts tightened and torqued in sequence....it probably would have happened the previous 84,000miles that I have driven the vehicle. I also think this forum would be over run with posts about guys wheels falling off due to this issue.

Rant complete....I think this has been my longest post. Thanks

 

If your capable of installing a lug centric wheel incorrectly, you're just as capable of installing a hub centric wheel incorrectly. I've seen a guy tighten lugs up on an oem wheel when it wasn't centered on the hub and you could see visually that the wheel was sitting crooked on the hub. There's always someone who can do it wrong, oem isn't foolproof.

 

Blanket statement

If installed correctly, Lugcentric will be just fine. They just require more care during installation to ensure correctly centered.



With aftermarket wheels, I would be more concerned with their weight bearing properties. I've seen quite a few brands have issues with rim cracking when mounted on a SD

 

I don't think they take any more care. I install hub centric wheels the same as lug centric. Place wheel on hub, centered. Install lug nuts by hand, then tighten to spec in star pattern in 2-3 torque steps.

 

DING DING DING! Yet another gold star!

Hub centric is a valiant effort to help idiot proof wheel installations and minimize misplaced liability lawsuits (aka, suing Ford for damage caused by improper installation and damage)
Of course, it is impossible to idiot proof anything as long as the idiots remain so creative in their stupidity........

Anyway, a hub centric wheel can remain on and reasonably safe with only 2 lug nuts holding it on. And based on how few people are educated enough to accurately torque lug nuts, there are probably a lot of trucks running around with only 2 lug nuts holding them on.... With the other 6 so stretched out from over-tightening with a rattle wrench that they are effectively useless.

 

Hub centric is always better than lug centric. Usually oem rims have better quality and strength over aftermarket rims. The oem rims have been designed for durability and had to pass nhtsa crash tests. Here is a link about replica wheels.
eBay Guides - The truth about replica wheels and why OEM is better

 

^so Alcoa does not sell to the aftermarket? Nor does OZ or BBS? That guide has almost 0 correct information! Gravity cast an aluminum wheel? Really what kind of idiot wrote that swill? Obviously not involved in the casting industry, that's why spin casting methods were introduced in the 40's! Not to mention that metal density cannot be affected by a casting technique its a function of the alloy, porosity and non-fill are the reason wheels have never been cast using straight gravity pour! This article is just not credible!
Jim & fat Monty

 

So, basically what you're saying is that every truck Ford built before 1999 had inferior wheels?

 

Inferior, but not bad.

The trucks were rated for less. As the trucks and their ratings grew, Ford decided to upgrade the design.

Lugcentic is not a weak design, just weaker. And if applied correctly, will function with little to no problems.