Five Things To Think About When Buying Rims (and Wheels)

When you're buying OEM quality rims and wheel models, you’re investing in your vehicle’s safety and style all at once.

So how do you make these decisions? We have one of the best and biggest catalogs of cutting-edge rims and wheels on the market. Here are some things to think about as you shop:

Large Front Brake Calipers

Some large vehicles, like the Colorado truck, tend to have larger front brake calipers, which can require specially sized rims and wheels. We did a blog post on this recently, so think about that as you're filling your shopping cart, and make deliberate choices, reading the specs and everything else in product descriptions. 

Off-Roading

Will you be doing extensive off-roading in your vehicle? We do have rims for jeeps and other operating vehicles, but you may want to choose specific types of rims that you can continually get dirty. Others in our catalog are really made to show off in a clean and sparkling condition!

Wheel Offset

The wheel offset is the distance from the wheel centerline to the hub mounting surface.

Here’s how experts explain it at Autoily in a way that we think is pretty instructive, overall. 

“An offset of zero indicates an even alignment of the wheel with its mounting surface. Additionally, a negative offset makes the wheel push out of the vehicle while a positive offset makes it move inside.”

Then the vehicle owner looks to affect one of those outcomes: a negative or a positive offset. 

We also did a blog post about this not long ago, where you're looking at maintaining the proper wheel offset for your type of vehicle and the vehicle’s use on the road.

As we have mentioned often, people drive a lot year-to-year. So investing in the right equipment is key!

Steel or Alloy Rims

We also break down the difference between steel and alloy wheels.

Steel wheels can be more durable and more affordable, while alloy rims can be more impressive on the whole.

Do these tips help you to figure out which types of rims and wheels you want for your vehicle? 

After all, your vehicle moves on four wheels, and that has a lot to do with the safety of your vehicle, as well as how it looks on the street, in the driveway, or in a parking lot.

Also think about protecting your rims from theft if that might be an issue. Some of these rims have a significant value (in fact, most of them do) so it’s worth thinking about vehicle security, along with other concerns like protecting catalytic converters, which some thieves have started to focus on. 

All of this is instrumental in getting the rims that are going to make your vehicle look and drive its best.