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Aluminum Wheels

Aluminum wheels comprise the vast majority of the aftermarket wheel selection. Aluminum is lighter than steel while maintaining similar tensile, torsion, and stress resistance. It is available in large quantities on earth, and is easy to extract from ore compared to many other metals. All of these factors make it an ideal candidate for replacing steel in many venues, and the wheel market is no exception to this trend.

Aluminum wheels are normally lighter than steel wheels, but there are occasions where an aluminum wheel works out to be heavier than a comparable steel wheel. This is due to structural differences with how the wheels are made. If you’re looking at wheels meant to be displayed without hub caps, the two most prevalent finishes are brushed aluminum, and chrome.

Aluminum is softer than chrome, making aluminum wheels more prone to scratching than chrome wheels. However it is normally less expensive to have an aluminum wheel than a chrome one.  This is because of the large time and labor investment required to chrome plate a wheel. All in all, aluminum makes a versatile wheel material that will be used for the foreseeable future.

 

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