Cop Wheels - Super Coupe Wheels. Question on welds

I've never owned or seen these type wheels in person. Are the wheel centers stitch welded or solid bead of weld to the outer wheel?

I'd like to use these type wheels on my car trailer but have read several articles about car wheels not being "strong enough" for trailer wheels - and the most common comment I've seen about the lack of strength in car wheels is the stitch welding.

Any comments, experiences or opinions welcomed!!

Thanks all!

I have some out in the garage I can take a look at today. I doubt they are fully welded. I can tell you they are much heavier than a standard rim.

They are no different then any other passenger car rim thats not designed to be used out of there scope, plain and simple.

Want to look spiffy, have some proper rims made or have your oem rims altered if possible,the grade of material just might be up to snuff.

Its all fun and games till the wrong rim for the application comes apart and the high end lawyer points this out in court.

Have two sets, they have four 6 inch welds equally spaced around the inside perimeter, avoiding the notches.

Can't imagine a street car (or a cop car) exceeding their limits.

They must have some load specs associated with them somewhere.

(My 2 cents)

Joe

The 15x7" Cop wheels are Heavy Duty, that's the reason they were part of the Police Pkg. They are heavier than the std 15x7" steel Mopar wheel. I don't know about the 15x8" Super Coupe wheels, I doubt they are HD.

The heaviest axles that use the 4.5" on 5 bolt pattern hub are refered to as 3500lb axles. They are refered to as that, but the mfgs rate them with a 2990lb max load, so all you need is a wheel with a load capacity of 1500lb min, even the std steel wheel should handle that.

The next axle size up is the 5200lb and uses a 6 bolt lug hub.

FWIW, I use 14x5.5" Rallyes on my trailer.

They have four 6 inch welds around the inside perimeter. Personally I wouldnt hesitate to use them on a car trailer. I have used much less without any problems.
Be careful if you go with the repops, they are probably not made with the heavy steel like the original ones were.

Why not take one to your TN dot and ask them if its an ok rim? Or a lessor evil is a trailer dealership.

I really could care less if you use them but ive seen many jacked passenger car rims used with the "proper" tires that were tore up, many trailers get in a decent bind backing up and I myself have bent real trailer rims and broke shackles over time.

Good luck, whatever you do.

Cop wheels have about 2 pounds of extra steel in them. That is the only measureable difference over stock 15X7 wheels.

Trailer wheels should be stiffer and thicker, because trailer wheels do deal with a lot of stress.

You can see how much a regular car wheel can bend when making a tight turn slowly with a trailer (car hauler). I have seen full size hubcaps come flying off of car haulers when taking a turn. I would not recommend ever installing full hubcaps on a trailer with car rims.

I would recommend using the right wheels and tires for the job.

Ive been using the 15×7 cop wheels on my car trailer for over twenty five years, lots of miles and more than a few big loads with no problems.

I used 15 X 7 ralley wheels , in the past I have used 15 X 6.5 ralleys , pulled a lot of miles and not had any problems with my car trailer. Had more problems with the regular white spoke trailer wheels on my 12 foot box , than my car trailer.

Frank

I had a few minutes to kill so I called the local trailer dealer and was told the proper tire is 10x more important then the proper rim.

I was also told with enough use and abuse any steel rim can be made to crack/fail.

Preventive inspection of the tires,rims,springs, shackles are the key.

Learn something new every day.

For what it's worth, those wheels in the original post are Magnum GT wheels, same as SuperCoupes, but with 1" less width. Same though strength-wise as well

I believe the OE style wheels you are thinking of using are somewhat desirable and expensive? Correctly rated trailer wheels (1750 lb minimum?) are pretty cheap. I know which I would use.

I've seen people use Rallye wheels on their trailers!