SSW wheels

Anyone have any experience with SSW wheels?

I’m currently on icon 3” lift with iron UCA’s, as well as a set of -10 off set wheels.

was wondering if I would have any issues with the -25 offset that kmc makes. I don’t mind cutting if I rub at full turn on 265/70/17’s.

wheels in question : https://sswoffroad.com/collections/wheels/products/stryker-matte-bronze-17x9-0-25

 

welcome

 

Welcome!

Personally I'd avoid SSW IF you want to do any wheeling aired down. There is almost no safety lip in the wheel design and this causes constant debeading for my buddies running them. I haven't seen this issue with my RRWs and they offer a -25 offset option as well. Of course if you air down often you may want to consider method bead grips or true bead locks.

To be clear, for road use they're a great wheel. My concerns are only relevant if you plan on airing down for a trail.

Edit: Another consideration is you're on limit of the rim width spec with a 265/70/17. Most tire manufacturers approve 7-9" wheel width for that tire size. 8" being the nominal spec.

 

Imo they are quality wheels. And have a good look. I suggestion looking a factorystylewheels.com. they take the trd styles to a different level. Better offset, width and lighter weight.

I'd stay with wheels with a 4.25"-4.5" backspacing unless you want more poke( which equals more rubbing)

 

Reading up on this, could you educate me on what you mean by safety lip for wheel design? I thought all normal wheels are the same until you go true beadlocks.

 

A "safety lip" or "bead seat" on a wheel is a raised ridge or lip inside the tire-bead section that helps retain the tire's position on the rim, especially in case of a flat or blowout.





This is what that SSW wheel looks like:

 

All wheels have safety humps but some brands are more pronounced than others. Ime SSW doesn’t have much of one and I’ve seen a lot of tires debead because of this.

Here’s a screenshot from methods website. You can see the inner safety humps and the bead grip grooves here.



Both of these design features make method bead grips a very good option for someone who wants that extra security for airing down but doesn't necessarily want bead locks.

There are other brands that do similar things. KMC does off knurled bead seats. Notice the very pronounced safety humps on these wheels:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/about-kmc-knurled-bead-seat-feature.752423/

 

Here’s one of the rigs running SSW wheels we had trouble with.

He debeaded twice on one trail. At 18psi... First the rear. Then his spare.



I'm not convinced it was JUST the SSW wheels in this case. But seeing three rigs with the same wheel have this problem is enough for me to avoid them.

Other considerations:
-This rig had a very heavy rear bumper. That extra weight didn't help the tire.
-Could have been a weaker sidewall. I do not know if these were C or E rated tires.
-Could have been a narrow tire for that wheel size. I am not sure of the size, but I do know it was a 9" wide wheel.

 

gotcha, as far as RRW goes, would you recommend the hybrid bead lock or just regular flow form wheels?

 

The Beadlock rings are expensive and require additional maintenance. Also they are not DOT approved and most tire shops won't touch them. So I generally wouldn't recommend beadlocks. I'd start looking at bead grips or another mfg's knurled bead seats option. Icon has an interesting design as well but I'm not a big fan of them personally.

I'd only run the RRW hybrid bead locks if you plan to run them as beadlocks. This requires the purchase of the bead lock rings as well.
Otherwise, get the regular ones. They are lighter.

I only got the Hybrid ones because I wanted to run beadlocks when I move to 35s... But now the wheels are pretty beat up so I'll probably just move to Method 703's.

 

Methods with bead grip FTW.