FWD and RWD rim diff
11-08-04, 04:34 PM
#16
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It's unfortunate, but a lot of wheel manufacturers that sell wheels to the US do not care much about educating their customers about wheels.. they're just in it to make a quick buck. This is evident in the number of "knockoff" wheels that are all sold under different names, but are essentally the same low quality wheel coming out of second rate plants in either the Filippines, Taiwan, or Korea (and now also mainland China). It also doesn't help that the majority of the US consumers dont' care to educate themselves on esoteric stuff like wheel fitment... which is why companies like Axis ends up calling their low disk wheels "Maxis lip," to promote its greater amount of lip, vs. informing the public that the reason it has a greater amount of lip is because the mounting pad is thinner (thus, a lower disk) to fit over smaller brake caliper applications.
With that said, the invention of the hubcentric ring was also meant to accomodate the uninformed, and essentially, ignorant. It basically saves people who don't torque down their wheels in the appropriate star pattern from having imbalance problems. But all that hassle can be avoided just by making sure that you torque your lug nuts in steps, with the wheel elevated above ground, and in a star pattern. As long as you do that (which you technically have to do even if you had hubcentric rings on your wheels), then as the first two opposing lug nuts tighten, their conical seats will center the wheels for you.
Oh yah, and about the topic of the subj heading, again, the avg US consumer doesn't care much about wheel fitment, so the manufacturers don't think they need to know anything about offsets. So in another cost-cutting maneuver, most of them figure it's easier to just make wheels in set standard offsets, and call them either FWD (higher offset) or RWD (lower offset). For a lot of people, the mere mention of the word offset confuses them, but the question is, is that because they choose not to learn about wheel fitment, or is it because the manufacturers choose not to educate them?
With that said, the invention of the hubcentric ring was also meant to accomodate the uninformed, and essentially, ignorant. It basically saves people who don't torque down their wheels in the appropriate star pattern from having imbalance problems. But all that hassle can be avoided just by making sure that you torque your lug nuts in steps, with the wheel elevated above ground, and in a star pattern. As long as you do that (which you technically have to do even if you had hubcentric rings on your wheels), then as the first two opposing lug nuts tighten, their conical seats will center the wheels for you.
Oh yah, and about the topic of the subj heading, again, the avg US consumer doesn't care much about wheel fitment, so the manufacturers don't think they need to know anything about offsets. So in another cost-cutting maneuver, most of them figure it's easier to just make wheels in set standard offsets, and call them either FWD (higher offset) or RWD (lower offset). For a lot of people, the mere mention of the word offset confuses them, but the question is, is that because they choose not to learn about wheel fitment, or is it because the manufacturers choose not to educate them?
11-08-04, 08:48 PM
#17
Originally posted by OneTonVIP
It's unfortunate, but a lot of wheel manufacturers that sell wheels to the US do not care much about educating their customers about wheels.. they're just in it to make a quick buck. This is evident in the number of "knockoff" wheels that are all sold under different names, but are essentally the same low quality wheel coming out of second rate plants in either the Filippines, Taiwan, or Korea (and now also mainland China). It also doesn't help that the majority of the US consumers dont' care to educate themselves on esoteric stuff like wheel fitment... which is why companies like Axis ends up calling their low disk wheels "Maxis lip," to promote its greater amount of lip, vs. informing the public that the reason it has a greater amount of lip is because the mounting pad is thinner (thus, a lower disk) to fit over smaller brake caliper applications.
With that said, the invention of the hubcentric ring was also meant to accomodate the uninformed, and essentially, ignorant. It basically saves people who don't torque down their wheels in the appropriate star pattern from having imbalance problems. But all that hassle can be avoided just by making sure that you torque your lug nuts in steps, with the wheel elevated above ground, and in a star pattern. As long as you do that (which you technically have to do even if you had hubcentric rings on your wheels), then as the first two opposing lug nuts tighten, their conical seats will center the wheels for you.
Oh yah, and about the topic of the subj heading, again, the avg US consumer doesn't care much about wheel fitment, so the manufacturers don't think they need to know anything about offsets. So in another cost-cutting maneuver, most of them figure it's easier to just make wheels in set standard offsets, and call them either FWD (higher offset) or RWD (lower offset). For a lot of people, the mere mention of the word offset confuses them, but the question is, is that because they choose not to learn about wheel fitment, or is it because the manufacturers choose not to educate them?
It's unfortunate, but a lot of wheel manufacturers that sell wheels to the US do not care much about educating their customers about wheels.. they're just in it to make a quick buck. This is evident in the number of "knockoff" wheels that are all sold under different names, but are essentally the same low quality wheel coming out of second rate plants in either the Filippines, Taiwan, or Korea (and now also mainland China). It also doesn't help that the majority of the US consumers dont' care to educate themselves on esoteric stuff like wheel fitment... which is why companies like Axis ends up calling their low disk wheels "Maxis lip," to promote its greater amount of lip, vs. informing the public that the reason it has a greater amount of lip is because the mounting pad is thinner (thus, a lower disk) to fit over smaller brake caliper applications.
With that said, the invention of the hubcentric ring was also meant to accomodate the uninformed, and essentially, ignorant. It basically saves people who don't torque down their wheels in the appropriate star pattern from having imbalance problems. But all that hassle can be avoided just by making sure that you torque your lug nuts in steps, with the wheel elevated above ground, and in a star pattern. As long as you do that (which you technically have to do even if you had hubcentric rings on your wheels), then as the first two opposing lug nuts tighten, their conical seats will center the wheels for you.
Oh yah, and about the topic of the subj heading, again, the avg US consumer doesn't care much about wheel fitment, so the manufacturers don't think they need to know anything about offsets. So in another cost-cutting maneuver, most of them figure it's easier to just make wheels in set standard offsets, and call them either FWD (higher offset) or RWD (lower offset). For a lot of people, the mere mention of the word offset confuses them, but the question is, is that because they choose not to learn about wheel fitment, or is it because the manufacturers choose not to educate them?
on the other hand though, some manufacturers (especially those low end companies), and even worse some wheel shops out there, they dont' care about offset and they try to come up with all the stupid terms that only make things even worse. fwd wheels, rwd wheels, etc.... that's nothing but more confusion. to be honest, i have talked to shops where they can't even do good offset calculations, and after couple of questions it was clear to me they didn't know what they were talking about.
so that's why i say it's both ways, people need to learn, but if they are not asked to (shops not pushing for it), so they always try to get away...
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