The problem with R6 rims 

Since leaving JHB over a month ago on our trans-Africa trip I’ve had two rims fail in exactly the same way: through the welds between the dish and the rim.  There is no obvious problem with either the rims (both only had about 10 000 km on the before the failures) and there’s no problems with the axles or any other part of the drive train: no overheating, no wobbles, no noises, no leaks.

Stuart, who runs a Livingstone 4x4 Hire and Foley’s Land Rover workshop here in Zambia, tells me he’s seen this often when R6 rims are used with vehicles that are heavy.  The dish is set deeper, pushing the tyre about one inch further outward (makes the vehicle look better), thus allowing for slightly more flex between rim and dish.  Over long kilometres of corrugated roads and bouncy sand tracks, a heavy Landy will cause these fatigue failures.  I estimate the life wheel life under these conditions to be about 4000 km.

In my case the back left wheel came off the first time in Cape Town at 20 km/h.  The capstan saved the wheel from coming off completely and the brake drum from gouging a furrow into the tar (there’s a new use for a recovery capstan !).  The second time (30 km outside Walvis Bay) we heard the wobble on the back left wheel once two welds had given up and changed the wheels before any damage occurred.

I’m advised that the older versions or series vehicle rims are better because the disg is not set as deep.  The best to date are apparently the “wolf” rims, identified by the 5 mm thick steel and 12 or so 1” holes in the dish.  The flip side of these wolf rims is that Stuart manages to import them from the UK (when available) at approx R 1000.- per second-hand rim (before duties and taxes).

Any sponsor out there willing to send me six wolf rims should please address them to Thomas Rutti at the Lilongwe General Post Office, Malawi or the Dar es Salaam or Arusha General Post Office, Tanzania (send me an e-mail so I know to go there).  Failing this, I will have to check every weld on the road wheels every day until the rims are all used up and replaced by something that works better.