Need Help Choosing Wheel Liners/Simulators. Photos Needed.

[Scott & Heather]

With all of the really important posts about engine problems etc. being posted, I kinda feel bad about posting something so entirely vain as a question about dressing up the shoes on our coach, but this is tough and I could use some photographic help. I've seen wheel liners on some coaches and they honestly look...um....like wheel liners. I know I won't get an Alcoa look using liners, but I also know there are some liners out there that actually look pretty sharp utilizing different hole and lug/hub patterns one can get a nice looking liner that really might trick even a careful eye into thinking there are some nice rims inside that rubber. Anyone here have photos of liners on there coaches that they would be willing to post to help me decide. So far I like Hub King...Phoenix appears to have style I might not like. Thanks in advance....

[lostagain]

 With wheel liners, you won't be able to look at the nuts to check for tightness, you won't be able to put your hand on the hub to feel for heat to detect a bad bearing, or notice an oil or grease leak. Things I do pretty well every time I stop while travelling. Sure you can remove them to do all that, but to me anyway, wheels look better bare. You can get your wheels looking pretty sharp with some nice paint.

JC

[scanzel]

Different options. You could get all your rims blasted and then painted with a good automotive paint and then add lug nut and center hub covers. Least expensive except for getting sand blasted and painted. Powder coating is also possible, more durable that paint. I chose the complete wheel covers, I have 24.5 wheels and tires. The ones I have are made to have three of the lugs nuts in a random pattern hold it on and then the lugs covers go on to dress it up further. I can remove three lug nuts to take the cover off to check tightening. They cost me $1200 at a truck tire dealer.

[John316]

Scotty,

I could have given you ours. After we had a cracked rim, which was hidden by our beautiful stainless simulators, I promised myself that I would never run them again.

Now we have regular looking white wheels that are rusting a tad. Maybe someday we will pull everything. Break all the wheels down, sandblast the rims, then powdercoat them. Until then, I like seeing them.

FWIW

John

[Scott & Heather]

Scanzel:Do you have any photos of your rig with that setup? Curious for sure. Still looking for photos. Thanks for the great advice about keeping the rims accessible...still not sure I'll refrain from liners. Thanks guys!

[Ed Hackenbruch]

My bus came with simulators on the wheels. The wheels were old and ugly. I just replaced them last year after i found that two were cracked. I left the two simulators on the back because the hubs need to be cleaned up and repainted, but i ended up selling the ones off of the front. One of these days i will pull the backs off and sell them too. Originally wanted to buy Alcoa's but did not have the money when i needed it. Turns out that i like this look just fine.