Thinking of buying cheap Chinese made rims or knock-off's ?

[two40]

We better get used to these sorts of things. Pretty soon everything will be made in China. Although, there certainly is some good quality stuff that comes out of there as well.

[philz]

Yes, but if they keep making sh*t like this, there are some things that won't be made in China.

This is pretty stupid...

The image below is of a Holden dealer supplied copy VE GTS wheels.

This is obvious $$$ grabbing, and not even the integrity to stay loyal to your company.

[Tony]

A friend of mine owns a tyre business. He has a yard full of broken Chinese made alloy wheels. The worst offenders are the large diameter, spindly, mega bling jobs.

Apparently there is a lot of dodgy gravity cast wheels coming out of The Philippines too. I should also note that the genuine Holden SS rims I bought to replace some "pot holed" ones on my ute were made in Thailand according to the box!

[philz]

The Philo ones are ROTA, which copy every Japanese wheel design under the sun.

[Lokiel]

I'm amazed at the stupidity of people who buy cheap low-profile rims and fit them to high performance or heavy vehicles - Darwinism at work!

[sliq]

The Philo ones are ROTA, which copy every Japanese wheel design under the sun.

LIES.

name one.

kidding.

[Guran]

This is why we have Australian Standards and ADRs. Not sure what the relevant ones are for wheels, but will look into it when I return from holidays (unless someone finds it first). There's nothing wrong with Chinese/whatever made products provided they comply with relevant standards.

[philz]

But the funny thing is, you have Chinese made things which comply with ADR's and you have FIA approved things but aren't ADR blardy gumbyment

things: Helmets, race seats, etc.

LIES.

name one.

kidding.

Btw they just made a Rota te37v

[Benny]

This is not just a new thing either.
I clearly remember when I was a kid, seeing a young guy in a hot Ford Customline that had just got a new set of Road Knight wheels.
These were alloy centres affixed to a steel rim and were supposed to be pretty good in their day.

This guy reved the car up and dumped the clutch, only to have the centres spin out of the rear wheels and drop his car to the roadway causing all sorts of damage, to say nothing of the damage done to this guy's ego.
The 2 rear, now hubless wheels continued on for some time before hitting a parked car and damaging it too!

Personally, I blame the importers for bringing in these shoddy wheels, as they know they are cheap copies and yet foist them onto people as being just like the originals.
Having the OEM names and centre caps on them only masks the dangers that lie beneath, and if I was Ford or Holden, I would sue the pants off these guys for infringing on a trademark - at the very least, let alone that their customers are taking their lives, and the lives of their family and friends at risk by using these inferior wheels.
Why aren't the RTA doing something about this?
It's obvious that these importers are breaking the law by selling non-approved wheels to the general public and so they should be caught and prosecuted, otherwise more of these POS's will flood into the country.

Gravity casting is not the best system for making wheels, and from the looks of those photos, the metal looks to be very thin too.
Personally, I always look for either die-cast or forged wheels as gravity casting can leave big air holes in the metal, and that certainly does not ad to its strength and a gravity cast wheel is always heavier than a similar die-cast or forged wheel as you need to use more metal to get the same strength.

[philz]

axis wheels do copies as well.. which one are you looking at?

And yes you can blame the importer.. but you can also blame the customer.

For example:
$1500 for 15" Enkei Rpf1's.

But not many people are willing to spend that much on some wheels, especially your average consumer.
So they ask... "do you have anything cheaper"
The seller/importer.. sorry I only sell good quality wheels here.

Customer walks out... walks down the road.. sees a store with Enkei RPF1 replica... for $700 with tyres... sold.

[7Hazi]

...Well their 'few changes' sure ruined that wheel

[philz]

[
Apparently they found the original mould and did a few changes for modern technology !
http://www.axiswheels.com/view-wheel/og-sakura

BULLSHIT they found original moulds.

Hayashi yayoi




One is flat, one is convex, not to mention spokes are wrong.

[charlie_91]

i agree only half decent copy axis makes is the mesh one but even still ..

[philz]

Hayashi are the only company that make them.

they made them in the 70's, stopped for a while, then reproduced them.

They are the holy grail of all Japanese rims.

It's not an SSR mesh which is a copy of BBS.

[7Hazi]

I think what lets down a lot of the oldschool wheel copies is the lip design... I have noticed that most of the reproductions do not have a stepped lip and therefore don't really look like the original (and look pretty crap to be honest). There a few good/really realistic looking copies out there (Konig B-bomb, Konig rewind (4x114.3 deep dish one), Rota grid V, Drag DR20). I am kinda 50/50 with the whole fake wheel thing. On the one hand who cares? They look the same, they serve their purpose as a wheel and they are cheap. Its understandable that some people would go this way if they can't justify spending $2k+ on a set of rims. On the other hand would you buy a fake Rolex and then go around showing it off proudly? I also feel it's a bit unfair to the Jap wheel companies (SSR, Rays, Work - pretty much all the ones that are getting copied). Personally I will always prefer to buy genuine as opposed to reproductions but I don't think it's right to put crap on people just for buying fakes (not saying that anyone here is - have just seen a lot of it on the internet).