The names Interco and Alcoa are household words to many of us in this sport. Alcoa builds arguably the finest and strongest aluminum wheels for OEM's and the aftermarket and Interco is famous for its Super Swamper tires. Of course, Alcoa has always offered its hot-die forged wheels to the truck market and, now, Interco has made the decision to introduce the TrXus Mud Terrain tire, a load range E tire especially for those who use their trucks for work as well as fun.
|  | Let's talk about the wheels, first. Steel wheels are strong, but are quite heavy and will bend upon impact. We used to think that was fine, until we bent a steel wheel in the backcountry and, while pounding it back into shape, the wheel split apart. Cast aluminum wheels are porous (in other words, they might leak) and can shatter upon the impact that will bend a steel wheel. Two-piece aluminum wheels are usually too lightweight for heavy-duty use and are only as strong as the fasteners used to hold them together.
MT by Alcoa Challenger wheels are hot-die forged. Only hot-die forging gives the strongest metallic grain structure, following the shape of the wheel. Alcoa's presses exceed three stories and exert up to 8,000 tons of hydraulic pressure to form a hot ingot of 6061-T6 aluminum into a wheel. Alcoa's MT wheels have tested to strengths four times greater than cast aluminum and nearly double that of steel! Maybe that's why you'll find Alcoa wheels on jet aircraft, heavy trucks and even the M1 Abrams tank (and now, our Dodge).
The MT by Alcoa Challenger wheels we chose are the #268481 16x8" eight-lug with the proper backspacing to run on a Dodge Ram pickup. The wheels came with great looking center caps, lug nuts and chromed lug covers. They sport a beefy 3,000-pound load rating, too! Check out other aluminum wheels and see what their load rating is. We think you'll be surprised to find that many of them are only half that.
Interco's new TrXus tire is a great match to the MT by Alcoa Challenger wheels. The load range E is REALLY a load range E (some tires we've tested seem kind of wimpy for the E rating), with extremely thick and strong sidewalls. With all this |
