City routes bend wheels
A truck that runs the open highway rarely touches a curb. A truck or van that works the city does it all day: tight turns into loading zones, pulling close to the curb for a delivery, squeezing around parked cars in a narrow street.
Most curb strikes are glancing and seem harmless. Each one, though, puts a load on the outer edge of the wheel, the flange, that it was never meant to take sideways. Over months the flange can bend slightly, and the wheel can be pushed out of round.
Neither shows much from a distance. What they produce instead are symptoms people blame on something else.
A slow leak. A flange that is no longer true lets the tire's bead seal imperfectly, and the position loses air a little at a time.
A vibration that survives balancing. A wheel that is out of round shakes no matter how carefully its weights are placed.
Uneven tire wear on that one position, as the tire runs on a wheel that is no longer quite circular.
What to look for on route vehicles
Scrapes, gouges and flat spots on the outer edge of the rim, especially on the right side, which faces the curb. Any position that keeps needing air. Any vibration that came back after a balance.
Those are the wheels to send for inspection, whatever the rest of the vehicle looks like.
What refurbishing involves
An inspection first, to establish whether the wheel is sound and true enough to be worth restoring, then the work to bring it back. The national wheel refurbishing page covers the process.
A crack ends the wheel and it is replaced.
Wheels are often the reason a balance does not cure a shake, and a vehicle that has hit something hard enough to damage a wheel is worth an alignment check too. Both are at this store.
Other stores nearby
The Salt Lake City Truck Tire Center and Ogden also refurbish wheels.
About this store
This is the Salt Lake City Commercial & Consumer store, managed by Brian Morris. See the Salt Lake City page for the city's other listings.
See the national wheel refurbishing page for all 42 locations.