It's been about a year since I was considering new wheels for the truck (ended up staying with stockers due to funds). I've spent a bit of time looking around the Interwebs, and still ain't seeing much in the way of hub-centric aftermarket wheels.

Am I correct in saying that the hub center bore is 125.22mm (4.93")?
I have found a few wheels that some places are listing as "fits a Super Duty" but the bore is 125.20. I'm no math expert, but I don't see how that would fit. And one manufacturer list their bore at 125.2, which likely means .20, not .22.

All I have found so far with the 125.22 center bore is the following...


Ultra 225 Phantom 17x8, offset 1, duplex acorn lug nuts (in black or black/diamond cut- not in chrome)
Ultra 245 Spline 17x8, offset 1, acorn lug nuts (in black/diamond cut or chrome)
Ultra 286 Predator 17x10,18x10,20x10 offset -25, acorn lug nuts (chrome)
Ultra 286 Predator 18x9,20x9 offset 14, acorn lug nuts (chrome)
Ultra 286 Predator 22x10, offset 10, acorn lug nuts (chrome)

The Predators also advertise a 3500lb load- nothing is listed for the Phantom or Spline.

I'm probably looking in the 16-18 range, anything larger just isn't to my taste, but feel free to share whatever hub-centric wheel you know of...

Anyone care to post up any hub-centric finds? We need a definitive list!

 

Sorry can't help with the math on that. But I have Mickey Thompson Classic black 17x9 with 315 70 17 on my 11 super duty (all silver truck) stock no lift fits great no issues. I am very happy with the MT wheels. My brother has same on his 99 super duty. Just throwing an option out to you.

 

I don't think there is any aftermarket wheel that's hub centric like stock. They all use acorn lugs to center the wheel which is fine is you tighten them correctly, had a set on my 1997 F250 HD and I towed and hauled all the time and never had an issue with the wheels. On my SD I won't do it for one reason my SD is like 2k heavier than my old HD plus add in payload and I don't trust them acorn lugs to center and hold my wheels onto my truck

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There are hub centric wheels available, but like demonstrated not many. The 3500# rating is impressive. I don't think the stockers are rated that high but I'm not sure.

 

I'm under the impression that the wheel can still be hubcentric even with the acorn nuts, as long as the bore hole is maintained. If the bore hole is exactly the same as factory wheels, then it is still centering and bearing weight on the hub- the acorn-shape of the lug nut ain't going to change that. So I guess the wheels I listed above are both hub AND lug centric? Only difference is the lugs cannot center the wheel outside the allowance of the hub...

I have also seen a few aluminum wheels with the correct bolt pattern, but a smaller hole. Could a decent machine shop enlarge those smaller holes out to 125.22, thus creating the same "hybrid-centric" situation as the wheels I listed? There seems to be lots of 125.20 holes out there, and some a little smaller...

 

Not trying to hijack this thread but i have been confused on the bore issue as well. For example i am interested in some wheels and the hubbore is listed at 130.8. This is to big correct? but if i got acorn lugs then they will hold the wheel in the center where the wheel is supposed to be? is this a sketchy setup or something that is safe like scaler said as long as everything is torqued correctly? are the majority of superduty's running around with aftermarket wheels today using the acorn lugs to hold the wheels? sorry for all the questions and partial hijack lol.

 

If the center bore of the wheel isn't exactly the same as the factory wheel, you MUST use acorn style lug nuts- because that is the way you are centering the wheel now. I would say that 98% of the people here with aftermarket wheels are using a bigger-than-stock hub bore, thus using acorns.

As far as it being a sketchy situation- it depends on who you ask- it is accepted practice in the aftermarket wheel industry (for Super Duties) and no one here is having centering issues. The debate comes in when the question becomes "does using lug-centric wheels take anything away from the load capacity of the truck?" There really are no answers there, other than personal experience Vs. Ford went hub-centric for a reason.

I am a believer that hub-centric makes some kind of difference with weight capacity, which is why I made this thread. Would I be scared to run lug-centric? No, not if I did anything from just cruising on up to mild work. But I'm just not convinced that lug-centric is the way to go for constantly towing or hauling heavy loads. It may be fine, it may not- I just don't want to be the one who posts the answer if the wheel comes off under load...

 

Thanks for clearing that up psyclopse! in my case The only hauling this truck will do is a 7000-8000 pound travel trailer a few times a year just a couple of hundred miles so like you said i think i should be fine. I agree with you though I don't think i would use lug-centric on a truck that i plan to max out the pay load and travel great distances consistently. Like you I don't want to be the one to find out it does work.

 

My new wheels use the acorn nuts. The hub fits fairly tight as well though.

 

XD's with our bolt pattern have a bore of 125.5.
How would you compare it to OEM as far as tightness at the hub?

 

I highly doubt that any "NEW" US made part will spec out at exactly 125.22 across a lot of manufactured parts...much less retaining 125.22 after tens of thousands of miles on the road.

so do we think that a 125.22 size hub when new will fit into a 125.2 wheel...why not....it's only 1 hundreds of an inch on either side.

If you think they wont fit....do the wheel swap in the middle of winter...pick a day when the hubs are freezing cold. Keep the wheels in your heated garage...bring them out one by one.

the hubs would certainly shrink in the cold by 1 or 2 hundreds of an inch. we freeze bearings all the time before pushing them in place and they go in very easy when frozen.

so what happens when both hub and wheels are the same temp....you have a nice tight fit.

what will happen after a few 10 thousand miles...there will be wear and the size of the hubs and wheels will move closer together...some wear will occur on both.....you will be able to remove the wheels.


what am I missing.

by the way...need an opinion...I have factory alloy 18" and am thinking of getting fake dually's which requires a purchase of a set of 6 rims. Any market for the factory alloy 18's in your opinion? Opinion of worth?

 

It may or may not make a difference in load capacity between hub and lug centric wheels, but HD over the road semi's started to make the move to hub centric years ago to eliminate lost wheels. I have been driving 18 wheelers for 44 years and I have lost wheels that where lug centric AND properly torqued, I have never lost a hub centric. I have also seen a hub centric wheel that had not been more than finger tight stay on the truck until the driver could get the rig stopped safely and repaired.

 

125.22 mm = 4.929906 in
125.20 mm = 4.929119 in

Less than 1 thousandths difference. The tolerance in the bore is going to be a lot higher than that. They will fit.

If you're going to use your truck near GVWR, I would stick with hub-centric. Ford didn't make them that way just for the fun of it.

 

Why wouldn't they spec out the same? The bores are cut in by robot, not cast in by humans. And why wouldn't they retain their bore after thousands of miles? Nothing is spinning in the bore. Once bolted on, there is nothing to wear the bore down.

So then back to my original question- would these (125.22 & 125.20) be considered lug-centric? Even if the lug holes still require acorn lug nuts? And what about 125.5 bores? I doubt that would be tight enough to call hub-centric.

That's the purpose of this thread- to figure out what aftermarket wheels are hub-centric, not to debate lug-centric vs. hub-centric. Factory wheels spec out with a 125.22 bore, so it would stand to reason that an aftermerket wheel with the same spec'ed hole (the ones I listed) would be hub-centric BUT they also use acorn lug nuts and don't advertise as being hub-centric, so are they?

And the last few posts bring up another question- what are the accepted tolerances to still be considered hub-centric? Just a two thousandths bigger bore (1 thousandth around the bore) introduces a dozen or so more possible rims.

Remember- I'm trying to find which rims are hub-centric and/or what the criteria is for calling a rim hub-centric. I'm not trying to debate hub- vs lug-centric...

 

I'm not even sure what diameter the hub is on the axles. I was merely commenting on the very small difference in the two dimensions you quoted.

As for acorn nuts, that could be explained by their need to make the wheels work for multiple vehicle applications. Which is why hub-centric wheels are not available - they want to cover as many vehicles as possible.

125.20 mm = 4.929119 in
125.50 mm = 4.94093 in

About 12 thousandths bigger. Which is about 3 sheets of copy paper. I don't know the answer to that question. But I would consider it marginal, but combined with acorn lug nuts, adequate. I know by looking at the hubs and the typical aluminum wheel, neither is particularly well machined, and my guess is the tolerance is pretty loose. Even worse on steel wheels, which are just stamped. But I don't have any facts for you.

Which comes down to diametrical tolerance. Good luck finding a source for that.