I'm gonna have to start kicking my virtual boot square in a few peoples virtual sacks to get everybody back in line

Ya know, I was thinking the same damn thing as monster, but I know its tough judging from pics on the internet. I think its a good idea to drop by a shop and see what an expert says about the quality/strength of those welds.

 

Ivan I got stazworks beadlocks with rock rings.

one of the stazworks welds.



rest of the rim pictures here.
http://www.1ton4x4.com/rim

I drove about 1.5 miles of the rubicon trail on rim. then about 1/2 mile on the rim of the other tire. they were rotted out pretty bad. only think I wish I had gone back and done was put some rock rings on the inside of the rims to protect them more. but for driving on the rims as mush as I did they handled it very well.



rest of the pictures.

http://www.1ton4x4.com/bad%20xls

 

Dang Jopey, those tires are wacked! Is that just because of the rot or is that all from rocks? I've never seen anything like it before!

WELDS

Pretense: I'm not upset with anyone's opinions/thoughts about these welds or the wheels in general so don't think I'm an idiot getting all defensive here with what I'm about to say. The criticism is appreciatated and I know many of you guys have far more experience with these type of wheels than I do. There was a lot of bovine feces going back and forth about the reputation of USA6X6 before I bought these and I wanted to give Dan a shot and provide an unbiased review of the beadlocks. That being said this will be my final word on the welds until I test them and find otherwise.

They are not the prettiest welds I've ever seen. I'm not 100% convinced that their machine welded and to be honest I don't care. Rick and Theresa are running the EXACT same wheels on WhiteKnight (only they've got rockrings) and Brad Austin ran them in TTC this year though I think he was running a 15" rim. I made a point of talking to Theresa about these rims before I blew close to $1000 on them and while she was familiar with the reputation and all the stuff that went down on Pirate she had been really happy with them. My point is that these wheels have been working just fine for a lot of people and these 2 examples are people who are really abusing them. If you're not familiar with the beating they put that truck through I encourage you to buy one of their videos or even browse the clips they have at their site (www.whiteknight.ca). They race that truggy and jump it non-stop catching some crazy air . . . never had a problem with the wheels. Then there's your average rock crawl bashing like this:



I highly doubt that Dan has one assembly line for WhiteKnight and a seperate one for me. It's possible but not likely . . . "Here's an order from a guy who looks like a real jackass. Send his rims to the gimp and let him weld them up. " Now as for the paint that may be the case . . . or maybe it was a finger painting project for a kindergarden class. In any event all I'll say is I am not concerned about the quality of these welds. I'd mount them up and drive on them without thinking twice. IF I do find any leaks or strength issues you can be sure I'll post about it and send them on the first pallet back to OK but until then I'm not going to bash Dan on these welds when I have nothing to back up my complaints. All of us who are into fabrication know that you can have a really pretty weld that isn't strong (or sealed) and you can have a really ugly weld that will never let loose. Sometimes you have pretty welds that are also strong but just because they're one doesn't mean they can't be the other.

I guess that about sums it up. If I run into a problem with them you guys will be the first to know. I'm not too happy about the whole thing as it is but I'm not ready to tear into Dan for a weld that I really know nothing about. I'm not a wheel expert so for now all I can judge on is bling and customer service. Tomorrow I'll try to get them on the truck and see that they hold air. Once that's done we'll go from there.

Btw, in terms of the welds being air tight I really don't think they would need to be with the design of these rims. I'll get some more detailed pics but if you see where the o-ring fits in these it SHOULD hold any of the air pressure before it even gets to the welded portion.

 

Just because something is machine welded doesnt mean its gonna be pretty, it all depends on the person running the machine, and the prep of the parts. If you put a rusty center and a rusty shell in the machine you will not get nice welds. And just because a weld is pretty doesnt mean it is strong ive seen many pretty welds that have no penetration. As a matter of fact i will soon be ordering a set of 20x20s from usa 6x6 (unpainted) to turn into 21x20s

 

Ivan it wasn't holding air I was concerned with I agree they probably will any way. I personally hadn't heard anything one way or another about 6x6 just going off this post (guess maybe I need to go check out pirate some time) I said my piece now go get them critters on the truck and post some pics I wanna see it cause that should look awsome

 

if I ever need beadlocks, they are definatly going to be from staz!. Those rims aren't scarely, but for the money, I would have expected a little bit more..

 

If they'd come with the rings and the paint didn't look like modern art I'd be thrilled with them. Honestly. I was a little peeved that it took so long to get them but these things happen. I'm just not too keen on having to work on these myself after paying for them. Staz's prices were very close to Dan's, I'd just heard from several people that Staz was a little slow on the turn around time and Dan said 2-3 weeks. Well obviously this didn't happen. I guess I just need to see how he takes care of all this.

 

So true, which is a good thing for me, king of the ugly beads. My stiches don't let go but they sure look fugly

 

i dunno why you guys are bashing the welds so hard....they look plenty strong to me! how can i tell? ...there is slight undercutting on both sides which means the heat was applied evenly and was quite hot to cause it! i am not 100% sure how they weld these things up but i am willing to be that they don't run oine continuous bead all the way around....that causes too much heat and the wheel will start o deform and cause problems! to combat that they run stringer beads which only go a few inches then the bead is stopped and allowed to cool for a short time then a new bead is begun!

the ONLY reason that paint is on there is to protect the metal and welds from getting dirty and rusty! i have found that unless you explicitly ask for paint you will get the 'just-enough-to-get-by' bulslhit or more times than not they don't waste their time. i vote go get'em powdercoated!

-cutts-

 

Well Dan said he'd either pay to get them repainted or pay to have them shipped back and they'll repaint them in their shop. He told me 2 weeks ago that they were getting in a new silver paint and apparently I wasn't the only one to complain about it. So silver is OUT right now. He said their black is perfect but I really don't want black wheels on the truck. Powdercoating would be cool but would cost another $200 to do all 4. Chrome would be $400. What to do what to do.

I will say he was pretty quick about getting back to me and he's going out of his way to make it right.

 

Did you find out how the rock rings mount to the wheel? As for the welds being strong enough i wouldn't worry, they are welded 360 degrees I doubt you could get that center out if you tried, And i am sure you will.

 

The rock rings need to be welded to the wheels. I'll most likely send them back to him to have the rings put on and get them refinished. I have a feeling it'll be pricey to get them done here.

This is what I wanted them to look like when I ordered silver (save the flame centers of course)

 

Thats cool getting back toyou so fast that shows a true concern for customer service, but agree black just doesn't fit your rep somehow, maybe you could ask him to cover what it would cost to have them repainted towards the powder coating, or chrome? just a thought. I wouldn't go back to paint although it has one advantage, that bieng if they get scratched or start to rust a little you can easily repaint, not so easy to do with chrome or powder coating, but powder coating is soooo much stronger, and really does look good

OH wait a minute I just realized this is post 1000, didn't I read somewhere you are supposed to tell a joke or something at that number hmmmmmmm, to early and I am tired, and this is old but here goes

question: why is aurguing with a truck driver like wrestling with a pig in the mud.















after a while you realize the pig likes it.

 

Harbor Freight Tools has a powder coating kit, I do beleive. www.harborfreight.com And maybe an old oven and you can powder coat more than your rims.

 

Me powder coating would look like a Special Olympian performing brain surgery. I think I'll leave that to the experts. I'm going to check and see if I can find a price on powdercoating . . . might be the way to go. Once the rockrings are on there they should be the only thing that can get scratched up.

Yeah Monster . . . could you imagine ME with black wheels?