Just a little early in the build, but ....

I've been thinking about switching from my 15x8 Stockton Series 22 rims to 17x9 rims on my black SAS'd '97 for the last year. I finally decided to move forward on that during our last trip to Moab. I'm using the '97 as a guinea pig for working out stuff before I get into this build. If they work out well, I'll use the same on this build.

Stockton Wheel Service - Heavy Duty - Military - Light Truck - Off Road

After a lot of surfing I decided to go with Stockton rims again. Mostly because I can't find anyone that will build custom rims that are useable on the highway and because I'm already familiar with Stockton's product quality.

I decided to go with the Series 24 rims (with 8 holes instead of the usual six). I could have gone with the Series 22 but I wanted something different.

I also decided to install 'rock rings' - which are just stiffeners that fit around the rim lip to help prevent taco'ing the rim lip/bead area. Which I managed to do three months after I bought my first set of Stockton rims. Anyway, even on 15x8s I still beat the crap out of the rim lip and bead area. That's not going to improve by going to a 17x9 with 2" less sidewall and less pinch.

In order for the rings to go on without interfering with the valve stems, Stockton is relocating the valve stems to about 1/2 way between the outer face of the center section and the first curve in the rim. With the rings in place it'll be almost impossible to scrub a valve stem off on a rock. Also something I'm looking forward to not having happen again.

After spending a couple nights looking for ready-to-weld-on rock rings I gave up in disgust and decided make a set myself. 90% of everything I could find alternated between tacky and useless. The 10% left just didn't really appeal to me and everything was in 1/4" - I want 3/16".

Back to Solid Edge 2D. It didn't take long to mock something up. I don't have the outer rim dimensions so this was just an excercise to come up with a design and see kinda what it would look like. The following are what I ended up with ...





I did the yellow before I knew they'd be able to relocate the valve stems so the divot isn't necessary. I also - duh - forgot that laser cutters STILL need some metal for wastage so you can't do the diagram like you would draw on paper. :rolleyes: So, the red rings have the logos correctly laid out.

Everything is to scale - 2.25" ring on a 17" rim and I tried to make the rim look as close to the Series 24 as I could with my limited abilities.

Not too bad. Except I just realized that I'll NEVER be able to sell these to anyone without a Mitsu if it turns out I don't like them.

Edward