The part under the tire that nobody budgets for
Wheels get treated as permanent. Tires are consumable, wheels are the thing the tires go on, and most fleets have never costed them separately.
They are not permanent. A commercial wheel corrodes, a rim takes a hit, a bead seat pits, and an OTR wheel lives in conditions that would be hard on anything. The usual discovery is a tire that will not hold air on a wheel that looks acceptable from six feet away.
Replacing one costs considerably more than refurbishing it, and on OTR sizes the gap is wide enough that it is worth asking before ordering.
What refurbishing covers
Stripping, inspecting the wheel for cracks and damage, correcting what is correctable, and refinishing. The outcome is a wheel that seals, runs true and goes back into service.
Not everything is recoverable. A cracked wheel or one damaged in a way that compromises its structure is replaced, and a shop that refinishes one of those is doing nobody a favor. The inspection is the part that decides it.
When to send a wheel in
- A slow leak that survives a new tire and a fresh valve.
- Visible corrosion at the bead seat or around the bolt holes.
- A vibration that returns after rebalancing, which points at the wheel rather than the tire. See tire and wheel balancing.
- After an impact that damaged the tire, because the wheel took the same hit.
- At retread time, when the tire is off anyway and the wheel is accessible at no extra disruption.
The last one is worth building into the routine. Pair it with retreading, which this store also collects for, and the wheel work happens inside downtime you were taking anyway.
OTR wheels in particular
A wheel from a loader or haul truck is a substantial piece of equipment with a price to match, and it works in rock, heat and abrasion.
Albuquerque is one of 13 Purcell locations running mining fleet services and one of 41 running OTR services, so the wheels and the tires on them are handled in the same place rather than at two suppliers. For a site, that is the difference between a machine down for one visit and a machine down for two.
About this store
The Albuquerque store is the only Purcell location in New Mexico, managed by John Puchi, carrying agricultural, commercial, industrial, OTR, track, trailer, and UTV and ATV tires.
The nearest Purcell locations offering wheel refurbishing are Tucson, AZ and Colorado Springs, CO.
See the national wheel refurbishing page for all 42 locations.