[bolink654]

I get woke up by the wife this morning, saying she has a flat tire at the end of our road. We live "were the blacktop ends"... or rather a mile from were it ends. She has a bad habit of thinking 35mph is slow on gravel. 45 is what she'd run if I didn't hound her about it, 50 if she was in a hurry. Granted, I've been over 100 on the same roads, but I was younger, dumber, and had more money then. She thinks it's OK to drive that fast, because at her mom and dads, they do and never have any problems, but that is in "the bottoms" were the roads are gravel, and just gravel. In the hills here we have large rocks poking up (you will drag bottom if you straddle them, best to go slow and put a tire on them), and large rocks (softball to basketball size) all along the edges.

Anywho, I throw a bottle jack in the truck (I have the scissor jack in her trunk... but why), jack it up, get the lugs off... and I have to kick the wheel multiple times before it lets loose. Thats odd. Then I pull it off and see the above. Well, so much for "we'll just get the tire patched"

So she hit something, likely a rock, prolly going too fast, dents the rim, the dent comes round and hits the bottom of the strut/top of the knuckle there, pushing the dent back out partly, then locking the wheel up, were upon she drug it 50ft or so, eating the tire down to the wires.

Should I get it aligned? It seems to drive just fine.

 

[carsrus]

Nah I wouldn't worry about getting it aligned. The metals pretty beefy in that area, nothing happened.

 

[Zembonez]

I'd also vote for just replacing the tire and driving on. As long as it doesn't wander or pull I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[bolink654]

I drove it with the fullsize spare on, buuut my fullsize spare is a 185-65 so it's a bit smaller, hence I had to put it on the rear.

It did pull a tiny tiny bit, but I think that is caused from the smaller tire. We'll see once I get a new wheel and properly sized tire. Hopefully today, but probably tomorrow. Most of the junkyards are closed today, round here.

 

[SilverSoarer]

Since it's a steel wheel - it can be hammered back in shape - should be under $10 to do so and have it rebalanced and installed at a tire shop.

 

[BamZipPow]

Yer better off gitting some aluminum alloys vs trying to repair that steel rim. It will never be the same.

 

[Chris Crash]

I'd grab a new rim instead of fixing that one. Normally I'd say good time to upgrade to alloys as well, but since your wife has a habit of speeding on the gravel road, I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[SilverSoarer]

I've gone off roading on steel wheels and bent a wheel similar to OP.

Took it to a tire shop, and they had it straightened in 15 minutes, and balanced perfectly - drove another 5 yrs with that wheel with no issues.

 

[bolink654]

Yeah, I've bent steel wheels on other things (as in, non highway vehicles) and beat them back...

I tried it on this but I couldn't get it to hold air at the dent. It has a gouge in the outside, that made a raised portion on the bead area.

I thought the same about alloys. And she's been wanting a nice set of rims since she got the car. Now I am glad we don't have em, if we did, this mistake would cost alot more.

 

[SilverSoarer]

Yeah, I've bent steel wheels on other things (as in, non highway vehicles) and beat them back...

I tried it on this but I couldn't get it to hold air at the dent. It has a gouge in the outside, that made a raised portion on the bead area.

I thought the same about alloys. And she's been wanting a nice set of rims since she got the car. Now I am glad we don't have em, if we did, this mistake would cost alot more.

A good tire shop can fix that...:deadhorse

 

[kobej05]

oh but thats driving normal speed for them.

 

[kobej05]

i like the dead horse beating lol

 

[bolink654]

I got a rim at the junkyard for $10.

I see no reason to fool with a bent one, so long as junkyard rims are $10.

My current tires only have 15,000 or so left on them, so I just grabbed a cheap Douglas Extra Trac from wally world and put on it. When the other 3 are worn out, the Douglas tire will have 30,000 left in it, so it will go as the spare, and I'll get rid of that 185-65 tire that I currently have as a spare.

 

[CarryMeBF]

I grew up on gravel roads (on farm). You will ruin tires (and other things) if you go over 40mph. Don't do it!

 

[Guest]

the easiest fix might be to just get a new wife

 

[fltwd56]

My parents live on a gravel road and the fastest I run on gravel is between 10-15 mph. If I've recently washed the car it's even less. People hate me because I will not let them pass me on gravel. Once back in 98 I loaned my mother my super clean off lease black Cadillac STS and I was at the house waiting on her to return that afternoon when I hear this roar coming down the road. Who was it? Turns out it was my her in my beautiful now brown STS doing what appeared to be at least 40mph. and when she pulled in the rearview mirror was danging from it's cord as it had been jarred enough to fall off of the windshield. Wash, wax, and rearview mirror reattachment later the car looked as good as before. She never asked to drive that car again. Then again growing up she was always hard on cars like that.

Jeff

 

[Silent Runner]

Funny reading this stuff... Back when I was a young crazy driver, we'd do 50-60mph on gravel roads all the time. Heck, my Mom drove 50 mph on gravel roads. We rode in great big 1960's, and 70's boats that drifted all over the road anyway, gravel really didn't seem to faze them all that much, it just made more noise. You usually only got 100k miles out of them before they were junked anyway, so you never even worried about rock chipping them up. Now a good rail-road crossing was the ultimate "Dukes of Hazard" opportunity, how much air?!:lol:

Wouldn't even think of driving the Camry that way now.