My 03 Laramie had the polished steel skins over aluminum. My 06 has the polished solid aluminum which is probably the best looking stock set of wheels I have owned,IMOA. When I traded my old truck, the dealer asked me had I changed out the wheels on the 03 Laramie. He said usually the Laramies come with Aluminum alloy wheels instead of the "Cheesey" steel covered. They didn't seem to think they were cheesey when they sold me the truck!!!

 

Same here. My 03 has the chrome covers. But it seems like every other Dodge I see has the aluminun wheels.

And I agree with you about the looks of the aluminun wheels. They look really good. Wish I had a set...but my steel wheels will do for now.

 

My Laramie came with the chrome steelies. They ordered it that way.

MikeyB

 

You can check all with a magnet. Amagnet won't be attracted to alminum.

 

Mine=chrome clad steel.

 

My SLT with Big Horn package came with 17x8 Forged Alumminum wheels. I had a set of chrome clad on my 2005 1500 and I didn't like them as they rust real fast.

 

I got the chrome clads on mine. What a POS. Talk about cheezy! That was the first thing i removed.

 

One thing to note-- the Aluminum wheels, whether they are chromed or not, (my 2004 Laramie came with the aluminum, no chrome but a kind of "clear coat" over them) are forged and from Alcoa and are of very high quality. They are, however, built to Dodge specs...

 

mine came with these, 04.5



thinking it all just depended what the dealers ordered or swapped to make a customer happy.

 

I can't really tell from the photo, but if those have a machined/polished finish on the face of the wheel, and a gray metal flake looking finish on the parts that curve inward, those are the same as the wheels that came with my truck.

I think they were the only factory aluminum wheel in 03...

 

yep, sounds about correct.

they are now black so I could not look at them now.

 

When I ordered mine I got the premium aluminum wheels with chrome lug caps. I didn't like the look of the glued on hubcaps.

 

Once they are on a truck, I don't think the chrome clad aluminum ones look bad.

The style that came with mine- machined/polished on the aluminum face with metal flake gray powder coat and gray center caps I think look ok, especially with a silver truck, but they just don't look like they belong on the top trim package...

The fully polished ones with the chrome colored center caps (comes on the Big Horn, I think) are the factory wheels that I think look best.

 

When I ordered my `07, the Laramie J's came with polished aluminum, and the Laramie H's came with chrome clad aluminum. This is an aluminum wheel with a chromed thin sheetmetal skin glued to it. Mine are now relegated to winter use.

 

Mine was an 04.5 SLT and it had the forged aluminum wheels. They were a grey color with a clearcoat over the grey part. The outer part of the rims was polished bright and think the center was also polished. Got a set of 06 wheels and they were also forged alum but very highly poslihed everywhere you looked at them. Not glued on chrome on steel wheels. Now my 07 Big Horn has the same wheels, forged aluminum with a highly polished surface.
Just thought I'd add to this discussion.