Quote:
Originally Posted by GO FURTHER
On the subject of pothole damage to rims...
I have often wondered if wheels with a greater number of "spokes" than a wheel designed with less spokes (such as the stock Mustang GT "20 spoke", versus say a 5 spoke wheel), helps lessen the chance of buckling the rim at the same impact speed?
One would imagine that the more spokes radiating from the centre to the circumference of the wheel would help strengthen the wheel and spread the impact load over more structural points... Maybe or maybe not?
Higher tyre pressures, while giving a much harsher ride and greater transmitted impact shock to the cabin when hitting a pot hole, I think would definitely help protect the wheels to a much greater extent.
|
I have wondered this. I’m going to say “it depends” from my experience. You can have less spokes, but thicker, covering more circumference, and it will probably protect more than more spokes, spread out thinner. Also the construction and material would have a huge say.
The first set of rims that came with the car were the XR 17s. They have 5 spokes, thick, but had inside buckles everywhere. I changed over to PDW C-Spec2 (relatively cheap rims) 17s, also had 5 spokes but were thinner. Had them for about 5 years and not one dint, absolutely perfect. My current rims (procast, same mob as PDW I think?) have 9 spokes, thinly spread out, and already has a small outside buckle. Its 18s though, with less tyre section width, and the dint was made from hitting one mutha of a pot hole.