Do I need the retainer rings on my dually?

[Rachet]

Getting rid of the stainless steel wheel simulators. They have the steel retainer rings attached to the back of each simulator. I've been searching for bare rings online and haven't had any luck. Do I need those rings or can I just tighten the lugs directly to the wheels? I could pull them off of the simulators but I want to keep them intact so they can be sold.

 

[Stoney]

Yes you need the retainer..that gives you the center for the life to tighten you'll notice the actual rims do not have recesses for the lug nuts to tighten into.

 

[Stoney]

I actually think I have a complete set of extra rings from a truck we scraped..I'll look in the morning..if I do your welcome to them

 

[Rachet]

Yes you need the retainer..that gives you the center for the life to tighten you'll notice the actual rims do not have recesses for the lug nuts to tighten into.

Thank you for clearing that up!

 

[Rachet]

I actually think I have a complete set of extra rings from a truck we scraped..I'll look in the morning..if I do your welcome to them

Thank you! I appreciate the offer but I think that I'll sacrifice the simulators and use the retainers so that I can use the center caps.

 

[Rachet]

Last time on "Do I need Retainer Rings On My Dually?", I decided to sacrifice my Pheonix wheel covers so that I could use the centers to reuse the center caps. Basically, because the attachment points for the center caps are attached to the stainless steel part of the wheel covers. I have removed all six of the wheels from my rig and had the tires removed and junked. The tires were over nine years old. I am now in the process of reconditioning the steel wheels. This is an east coast truck so the wheels are in need of de-rusting and paint. I just don't like the look of wheel covers and I wanted to show you guys what I came up with. The color of the top coat is a dark gray metallic. I wire brushed the loose rust then used a rust reformer to convert the remaining rust to a paintable surface. Attached are before and after images. After prepping the wheel I used a self-etching primer. A flat black was used as the base paint was used on the wheel to get a darker tone. The center was sanded and cleaned with denatured alcohol, and gloss white was used as the base paint and gives it a subtle contrast. I had some leftover Autobot emblems that fit the center caps perfectly.