I discovered back on 7/1/11 that one of the Moto Metal Skull wheels on my new 2011 Dodge Ram was cracked in multiple places (same as you described). 4 out of the 5 skulls had multiple cracks, so bad that the center section was about ready to break out. I haven't even had a chance to get my truck off-road.



I contacted the dealer (in Idaho. I live in N.Ca) and they shipped a new wheel to me without hesitation.

I shipped the wheel back to the dealer and they called me to say how shocked they were and mentioned how lucky I was to not have a complete wheel failure and resulting wreck.

I stayed with these wheels as I figured this might have been an isolated incident. Was I WRONG!

As you can probably understand, I made a walk around my truck everytime before driving it and checked every wheel.

On 9/7/11 while checking my wheels before departing for work, I discovered I had 2 more wheels with cracks in them. Again, 4 out of 5 skulls were cracked! That's 3 out of the 4 original wheels with major failure.

Contacted the dealer again and their first words after hearing this were "let's get those wheels off there now". I picked out a new set (XD797 Spy's this time) and they shipped them to me right away, again free of charge and rightly so. They even paid for the mounting/balancing at my local shop.

I do have to say that Wayne at Dave Smith Motors in Kellogg, Idaho really stepped up and handled the situation. Thanks Wayne!


There was no way I will ever driving anywhere on MM Skull wheels or take the chance on any wheel from Moto Metal. Tried contacting the manufacturer and they were absolutly 100% useless in helping to resolve the situation.

Last I checked there has not been an official recall of these wheels but I can only hope that the manufacturer steps up and gets these things off the market before someone is seriously injured or killed.

My opinion/advice....if you have these, get them off now! If you're thinking about getting them, DON'T!

 

Apperently in the United States there are no requirements for conducting strength/fatigue/impact resistance testing of wheels ; there are only some recommendations and guidelines. Pretty scary actually. Makes you wonder how much actual engineering goes into some aftermarket wheels - if any, or if its just about the bling factor.

 

Anyone with a water jet CNC setup can make anything they want and sell it with out any degree of testing down there, just look at the stuf they do on American chopper. I do understand that they are different apps, but they jsut come up with a picture and cut it out and throw it on a bike with no clue if it will come apart on the first pothole.

 

Wouldnt this fall under jurisdiction of DOT? Motometal should be reported to DOT - especially if they cant even give you the time of day.

 

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but I found this on the net and I never surf into this area of DTR....

I have MM Skulls on my truck and DO NOT have any cracks. They are not quite a year old yet. I look closely though expecting the cracks will come.

I haul pretty heavy with these wheels. I know I put over 8,000 pounds on the rear axle. I believe the wheel is rated for 3,600 pounds.

Mine are the 18" x 9". Is it only the 20's or 16's that have the cracks?

There is a lifetime warranty on the structure of the MM wheels.

Should we be running hub rings?

 

I had the 18x9's.

With where the wheels cracked, I don't see where hub rings would help. Look at the pic I posted. Every wheel crack in the same area.

If you're going to keep them, check them every time you get in your truck. After the first one cracked, I never got in my truck without doing a walk around. Thankfully I did this.

 

I check all the time, just a habit of mine. I found 4 broken studs a few weeks ago, just out of the blue... Right after I drove down a bad Iowa gravel road. The shop I limped it to said the original installer, Discount Tire, should have removed the retainer clips on the rear drums. I paid $200 to have new studs installed and drove it straight to Discount where they paid me $200 in cash and ordered two new wheels. They did a rotation and balance and the two wheels that had broke the studs wobbled. The tech said he couldn't balance the wheel in that condition. I said fine, order me two new wheels and you're paying for them. The manager then looked at them and said lots of wheels are worse than these and they were fine. No dice buddy. Order me new wheels....

When the new skulls came in they pulled off the wheels that had broke the studs and one wobbled on the balancer and one didn't. Then they couldn't remember if they rotated the wheels last time or not. I knew they did because I marked them, but I let them play out their game. They decided maybe they should check the other wheels, so all four were pulled and three wobbled, both the wheels that were good last time wobbled, and one that wobbled before was now straight. I really scratched my head then!

All the tires were taken off and just the wheels spun. Three wobbled. I told them to put the new wheels on the balancer and they wobbled too! We finally figured out the cones they use suck and they can't center the wheel properly. One spin and they would wobbled really bad, then they'd loosen the wheel and retighten it and it was perfect. After a few hours I just had the new wheels installed and got out of there.

 

SCARY!..... I imagine you're looking for a new tire shop

Glad to hear you're checking those wheels each time you drive. Good luck with them!

 

Darn tire shops....I know a few guys,including myself that had rims damaged..Now I watch them...I've spent months restoring vintage rims on my project cars and some rims you can't find anymore...

I guess Moto Metal has been renamed...One fellow who was selling rims down in the US,said he found problems with fronts cracking..

I'm looking at Vision rims...Haven't found one problem on the internet yet with cracking or even peeling chrome..

 

Sounds like you need to have them either back cone the wheels or pin balance them.

 

That was the first thing that came to mind when I was reading your story. The balancer we had at the tire shop I used to work at had issues keeping dually wheels spinning true. The bigger machine that was used for 19.5's and semi wheels was too big for doing pick up wheels.

 

Thats scary, one reason why I like steel wheels on pick ups. Usually aluminium will get a small crack, then it will expand with corrosion from the inside out untill it comes out as a major break.
Many of those rims are not rated at the full capacity of the truck and in some cases only for on road use only.

It is scary to think so many do not know this.