Cracked Jayco mag wheel

Warren-Pat_01 · Guru

Cracked Jayco mag wheel

wasn_me · Guru

In a previous life (work) I used to do a lot of mechanical failure analysis work. This required attending a lot of training & information courses.

On one course the instructor said he would never run mag wheels on his car. His reckoned they could be damaged (cracked) today by hitting a gutter, pothole or whatever, & not fail for months, years into the further.

He believed some car accidents put down to blown tyres could possibly have been damaged mag wheels failing.

The police used to run steel wheels on their cars so they could chase bad boys over gutters, median strips etc. I notice lately a lot of police cars have mags.

Must admit Mags do look nice

Cheers Pete

macka17 · Guru

MFG's like Jayco
would NOT be putting good quality anything on their vans.

Especially if You go back roads. Dirt or corrugations.
I'd fit 3 steel rims on there. Heavy Duty Light truck ones.
Thicker and heavier. with LT tyres 10pr rating too.

10pr A\T's sized to match if dirt and off road veh..

My D-Max has mags (Nissan D22 heavy duty ones).
But only with the road. HT tyres on them.
Mainly round town and inter QLD trips.

With van and Interstate runs. I have a set of H\Duty Light Truck steel rims.
with Bridgy 10pr. LT 697's on them

If your tug has Toyota 1 ton van size rims, with suitable hubs

THEY. are very robust LT rims to have.

I always (normally) have 2 sets of wheels for my tugs.
Mags, and H\T Tyres for local work

with a full set of Steely's and Bridgy 697 10pr A\T's on them
for van and interstate.

The Good Touring tyres last a lot longer then.
and a set of H\T's near new are always cheap as and easy to get hold of.

MOST of the modern Utes and ATV's come with HT tyres on them.
Which a LOT of owners switch straight out for A\T's and Muddies.

I got my 4 x D22 mags. brand spankers. (under 10km on them dealer to tyre shop)
Del for $230. Melb to CQ.
With a 5th for spare. S\H steelie for D-Max for $25.

this set of road tyres cost me. with 30km's on them. Installed and balanced $65 ea.
($127 ea New. 265x70x16 10pr H\T)

Check on Trading Post, Ebay. AND local tyre places.

Off to by-by's see Ya

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

Chances are damage was done hitting a curb.. Nothing beats larger dia wheels that can be changed from tow vehicle..

iana · Guru

Just a bit of info about cracks, cracks are never a straight line, but follow around the crystals in the metal. A scratch which can look like a crack will be a straight line. The metal crystals in steel are very fine, but in aluminium alloy the crystals are quite coarse, and should be able to be seen by the naked eye. If you clean the area and have a look at the suspect crack with a magnifying glass, if its straight, i.e. it doesn't follow the metal crystals, its not a crack.

Desert Dweller · Guru

The hard core 4x4 fraternity always have steel rims on their vehicles due to showy alloy wheels cracking quite easily in the rough stuff.

They sometimes have alloys for around town & change over to a set of steel rims plus spares for trips.

Not sure if it's right but we were told that Beaurepaires supply rims for Jayco? Might help you?

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

Like most things, there are good products and lousy products.
If I could get suitable ones, I have always used forged (aluminium) alloy rims off road. The lower weight improves suspension performance.
All trucks and all rally vehicles use alloy wheels. Don't blame the material.
The ones on your van wold be budget priced cast aluminium (not forged aluminium and not magnesium). Even those should not fail under normal use.

Cheers,
Peter

jrg · Senior Member

Brought new Coramel in 2010 left from Perth drove to Adelaide and had a slow leak in one tyre .Took the tyre to a dealer who advised the trye was fine but the was a hair line crack in the mag put a tube in it and used as a spare .I advised the dealer straight away and 6 months later on return to Perth rang and supply company ( memory lapse to Fleetwood rang to arrange a new rim. He advise there were 10 mags supplied to Fleetwood with cracks I was number 8 so there were 2 more out there.
Bottom line the crack might be manufactors fault not Jayco and have been there since new.

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

MAY not even be a crack ? Just porous alloy !! Too many air bubbles..Not cast under pressure..

macka17 · Guru

If you are going to weld it.
Just drill stopper holes at each end of crack and preheat rim.

SOME.. You can dapending on casting.

Most Rally cars we used had steelies.
You dent' you can bash back and carry on.
Mag's you dead.
serious mags cost a fortune. Mainly company and factory cars\trucks.

and ALL dirt veh's I've driven and raced.
We normally (If using) just use the mags on road tyres to get to places on bitumin\dirt.

rockylizard · Guru

Gday...

This comprehensive article on Steel vs Alloy wheels is worth the time to read all the way through -

http://www.4wdaction.com.au/articles/2012/age-old-rivalry

Cheers - John

PeterD · Guru

Have yu priced and found the availability of steel replacement wheels? Maybe they could get you away in your 2 weeks time frame.

landy · Guru

Aus-Kiwi wrote:

MAY not even be a crack ? Just porous alloy !! Too many air bubbles..Not cast under pressure..

A lot of aluminium parts used in the automotive industry are porous when made and have to be treated to stop engine coolant passing through them, water pump bodies manerfolds etc. a lot of this work used to be done by a company in Coburg that was called impregnation services, apparantly they used to recieve some interesting propersitions.
Landy

macka17 · Guru

Landy.
Talking that trick.
Yrs ago, when my daughter was young. she worked in Mitzi's Adel.

I drove cranes locally, and did a lot of work in the Engine factory at Lonsdale.
with a mobile crane.

You'd be surprised how many BRAND NEW. CAST engine blocks came back from the repairers (welders)
and were put into the Valiants as new cars with NEW donk's.
Just a little extra metal in there with the welding of casting cracks.
Some you could near put your fingers into.

The later model Ally blocks got same treatment.

DOn't know where they went or came back from.
But they were by the truckload. Once a week.

Apparently. (The truck driver said) He did the same at the Holden Engine Plant too

Makes you wonder, don't it.
and one of the reasons I only ever bought Ford.

Warren-Pat_01 · Guru

Where do I start with all of these replies?
Firstly I went to a wrecker & bought a second hand (+?) mag wheel - it will do as a spare until I get back to Toowoomba.

Regarding having wheels one can swap from vehicle to van (vice versa), I have a hiccup. The tug is a Nissan Patrol with 265x70x16 tyres (& mags). The van has 235x75x15 wheels & tyres! The rim is 6" wide which seems to be a rare size these days (not certain what the Nissan has).
Cost Van wheels are $334, Nissan (I've heard) are $800+ each!

I did some hunting around Townsville & found the Jayco wheels can only be sold by Jayco agents!! Steel wheels of that size are rarer than the mags! I did see one at the wrecker but I found it difficult to lift it!

Keith, I'll check with Beaurepaires (they weren't open on Saturday morning).

Macka, I like your U-beaut collar too! However I'm not that desperate to even try to weld the wheel (might have done if I was stuck in the bush). How dare you criticize the quality of Jayco products? It was made in that place of high quality - the PRC!!

Hopefully I won't have any more tyre/wheel troubles - the last flat I had was when I owned my Nissan MQ (had that for 16 years, the GQ for 12 & I've had the GU for 4). The last blowout I had was on my first & last Toyota (FJ135) in 1976 near Betoota.

Thanks for your answers - they'll give me something to read.

Warren

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

Just paint inside mag ? To seal porosity..

landy · Guru

macka17 wrote:

Landy.

Talking that trick.

Yrs ago, when my daughter was young. she worked in Mitzi's Adel.

I drove cranes locally, and did a lot of work in the Engine factory at Lonsdale.

with a mobile crane.

You'd be surprised how many BRAND NEW. CAST engine blocks came back from the repairers (welders)

and were put into the Valiants as new cars with NEW donk's.

Just a little extra metal in there with the welding of casting cracks.

Some you could near put your fingers into.

The later model Ally blocks got same treatment.

DOn't know where they went or came back from.

But they were by the truckload. Once a week.

Apparently. (The truck driver said) He did the same at the Holden Engine Plant too

Makes you wonder, don't it.

and one of the reasons I only ever bought Ford.

That does not suprise me Macka, I think its fairly run of the mll for ally castins. Oh except for Ford parts of course. You and Phill C should get on well. biggrin

Warren-Pat_01 · Guru

Hello Keith,
Beaurepaires (Townsville) said there was a steel generic wheel available ex Brisbane but they couldn't tell me anything about it (weights, use). Had I realised it was cracked (yes it goes all the way around the spoke) before I ordered the tyres, I would have looked at getting similar 16" steel wheels to what our Eagle had (providing the strength was adequate).

The company we bought the van from suggested the weight on the wheels is the GTM ie ATM minus Ball weight so the wheels do have some leeway (130Kg) before they are overloaded!!! I would have preferred a bit more but if I were to build a car or caravan, it would weigh 5 tons!

Cheers,
Warren