Hellbound13, wich Procomp wheels are you running and what size rings did you get??

 

I have the rock crawler wheels and I bought 71.5 x 82 mm hub centric rings.

Where should I be inspecting for these cracks?

Oh and the best part is this off road shop mostly deals with Wranglers. All the owners have them, and they install bumpers, wheels, lifts, ect..

I am just disgusted with them.

 

You need to examine around the lug holes and in between the lug holes and center opening of the wheel. You should be fine, but without the rings your wheels coud have possibly moved around while driving placing stress on the wheel it wasnt designed for. The JK (at least my 09) uses both hubcentric wheel placement and Lugcentric lugs. If the wheels you have use the same you might just be ok, if not I would definitley have a look at them carefully. If the shop that did the work is reputable they might just replace the tie-rods and steering box for you to keep from getting a bad wrap.

 

well I doubt I need a new box now it was just replaced under warranty 2000 miles ago. The tie rod seems good, no movement when I shake it. My question is if the JK is set up for both hub and lug centric why was it so bad before I installed the rims?

 

Thanks for proving that the wheels need to be hub centric. I agonized over wheels and rings for a couple of months. There are lots of threads where people are saying they are running lug centric wheels without problems, but I'm not sure everyone realizes how much of a difference it makes. The question is if you run without hub-centric wheels and you end up having axle problems, will a savvy dealer rightfully deny a warranty claim?

I went with the AEV Pintler Argent hub-centric wheels. Very happy with them.

Are you running the hub caps with the rings? The Pro Comp wheels I looked at I thought had rather cheezy plastic caps. Couldn't see how to run rings and the caps, but probably wouldn't have run the caps anyway.

 

Thats a great question and I am honestly not sure. I mean if you get into the nitty gritty of it you would have to take into account the thickness of the wheel material at the mounting surface, the structural properties of the lugs (stretch under torque, deflection, tensile strength, etc). My honest guess as to why it was designed with both is because that is the strongest mounting method and DC figuring at least some offroading went with it. The problem in this thought process though is you would have to assume the aftermarket wheels are stronger then stock (ussualy true) and dont need the hubcentric properties to help carry the load, But if they were designed to be both hubcentric and lugcentric like my stock wheels for example, then putting all the load on one or the other may over stress the material or design from which they were made.

Long answer short, they were made to be installed one way, and installing them improperly (such as without the rings) MAY cause issues, there for in my opinion only, that is enough for me to conduct a thorough inspection of my wheels (if I were in your position).

 

Cool thanks for tip. I will check them. I am hoping that this was not the reason my camber was off so much and that it was the bad ball joints. I guess Ill know when I take it in for an alignment this week.

As far as the center caps go, I never got any (big surprise with this off road place) so I have none. Are they needed? I thought they served a cosmetic purpose only?

 

Cosmetic, I'm sure. Just a weak link to break on the trail.

Do you have a pic of your wheels? Did you do anything with your hubs like rattle can them or are they "natural" (i.e. rust colored)? Either way, I'm sure they look great.

 

Glad you found an easy way to fix your problems!

I have similar symptoms, but I'm not sure if this would be a possible fix. Do all wheels/rims need these? I'm looking at this diagram:



and the last time I took one of my tires off and put it back on I'm pretty sure that the inside of the rim did not have that indentation and laid flat against the hub.

 

I need some hub centric rings! How do you figure out what size you need?