Best wheel material? Forged, steel or alloy.

Looking around at getting new wheels. I love the look of the trd pros and rumor has it that they are strong and light (according to toyota). Not really wanting to use spacers if it can be avoided. Do we have a thread on what is a superior material for wheels? I'm sure there are trade offs to every type just wanna here what ya'll think.

 

Steel is cool and all. If it gets bent you can usually bend it back and keep rolling. But literally every set of steel wheels I've had has gone out of round and made balancing impossible.

Alloy is basically just cast aluminum. Great for most every day use, and most light to medium off-roading. But if it does get damaged/bent, is is pretty much done. Needs to be replaced.

Forged is aluminum that has been, well, forged. Meaning it was hit with a big hammer which aligns the grain structure, increases density, some other nifty metallurgical things, and makes it stronger. Being a stronger material, you can use less of it, making forged wheels lighter, but not necessarily stronger than an alloy wheel. Of course, you can also get forged wheels that are stronger than alloy, but they will usually be heavier as well, unless some very clever geometry is used.

At the end of the day you just need to decide what you want out of a wheel and pick what best matches your needs.

 

I haven't read of am aftermarket wheel failure yet. Just pick what you like. I've been running Level8 MK6 wheels for 2.5 years now, heavy towing (near max towing capacity) and hard offroading. Also ramped my truck once (long story) they've been great.

 

If you want to go exotic try these:
Titanium - strong as steel half the weight, super expensive
Carbon Fiber - super strong and rigid, good for racing, brittle so may be an issue on potholed streets
Magnesium - exotic race wheel stuff of the 60s. Flammable as seen at LeMans. Alloys not so flammable but Mg is reactive and corrodes so wheel have a shelf life
Forged Al alloys - great choice but expensive
Cast Al alloys - OEM material of nearly all cars. Perfectly adequate for normal driving