Oval lug holes in steelie wheel?

[joeydurango]

I just had these 15x8 six-lug OEM steelies powdercoated. Looked them over before taking them to the PC place and didn't notice anything odd. Now that they are bright and shiny and I'm ready to put 'em on, I noticed that all the lug holes aren't perfectly round. None of them look damaged... they just don't look perfectly round, particularly in the bevel area. See attached photo. Some are better than others, the pictured one is probably the worst. Is this common? Or will this be a safety issue?

[special-K]

They get beat out/enlarged like that when studs come loose. I suspect someone sold you bad wheels. My powder coat shop would have inspected and advised me before coating. I had to toss one of my 8-lug Accurides because I didn't torque one wheel down and it got loose enough to enlarge the holes. Sorry to say thins, but not good.

Edit: I meant to say "...when the lug nuts come loose"

[joeydurango]

Thanks Tim. Thing is, they're almost all like that to some degree or another, hard to believe that ~20 out of 24 studs would have come loose at some point. And none of them look really "damaged", just malformed - almost like poor QC during manufacturing. I'm wondering if A) somehow the powder is thicker on some areas than others, or B) if it is the wheel, if the bevel would level out somewhat under nut torque (probably not on this last one, but hey). Anyone else care to chime in with experiences, photos, ideas? Thanks!

[Grumpy old man]

Use new lug nuts , bolt them on and run them , if the new tires were balanced correctly you'll know if there's a problem with them if a vibration occurs , I would keep a close check on them .until your confident with them .

[trac209]

I've seen this on brand new steel wheels before,personally I doubt that will effect anything. The bevel of the nut is what holds wheel the hole doesn't ride on the stud.

[jocko]

Considering aftermarket wheel companies sold unilug pattern wheels back in the day, which were MUCH more elongated than that to fit different 5 lug bolt circles, I'd say you're plenty safe to use these. I suspect if we all checked our lug holes, so to speak, we'd find them a little worse for the wear.

[special-K]

Powder coat lays on very uniform by the very nature of the beast. When I looked earlier I thought it looked like less "meat" than normal in the bevel. That is what I ended up with and didn't want to risk a tire coming off or snapping studs on a heavy work truck. I don't like uni-lugs, never used them and never will. I have heard plenty of stories of lost wheels with those, too. I always do lug nuts in a cross circle pattern. With the holes not round I'd take care to be sure wheel centers where generally you can assume so.

[bluek5]

Better box them up and send them to me just to be safe. Yours don't look any worse than the ones I have.

[Gromit]

I have been told (by a rep at Wheel Vintiques) that at least the six lug OEM 1970 C10 steel wheels were hubcentric - which I take to mean that the center hole of the wheel fits closely around a lip or ridge on the brake drum or hub... Maybe that could be a factor? If tolerances were difficult to maintain in manufacturing of drums in relationship to (the of course separately manufactured) wheels so the hubcentric feature was meant to compensate?

[joeydurango]

Well, I guess we'll find out how they work. I'm going to at least try them, got too much in them now! Thanks for all the responses, super helpful!

[Gmc.guy]

I would use them no problem. I have a set of these in 15x7. They have some threaded holes for the rally caps. These I will not use. The holes are very large and by the marks from the lugs it had flat nuts not the factory style ones They were in the back of a parts truck I bought.

[special-K]

I agree to use them. I was just saying my own preference has always been to avoid uni-lugs. I don't like the idea and prefer to stay with wheels made for my specific application and stay away from one size fits all wheels designed to save the wheel company money.

My feelings on hubcentric are I think that has basically been proven to be unimportant. I agree to have a wheel bare on both lugs and hub center would be best, but it's not necessary. How can one wheel be fine baring only on studs and another need both (all wheels bare on studs) when there is no other difference in the wheel? Chamfered lug nuts seat a wheel on center by nature of design. With all 5, 6, or 8 torqued down it creates one solid mass. I think lug centric wheels exist because it was determined that hub centric complicated things. If the wrong wheel with too small a center hole was mounted, the wheel is not seated on the studs fully and that is where you run into problems. All those wagon wheels and other early custom truck wheels were one size fits all. Ford used the largest center diameter so all wheels were made that large. No one ever had a problem from that. I certainly have never had an issue with running wheels baring only on the studs, I'm talking up to one ton trucks that hauled weight on a daily basis to earn their keep.

If a wheel centers on the studs and is fully seated against the hub you will have no problems.