Front wheel trim damaged by tires on 3500

[RMostert]

I replaced all tires with Pirelli in March. By May, both front wheel trim rings had rotated about an inch and a half, bending the valve stems way too far, and most of the plastic keepers had broken off the trim. Discount Tire replaced the rings at their cost... . but now, with only 3,000 miles, both the new trim rings did the same thing. It appears that the Pirelli tires were designed for use on alloy rims instead of steel and have a 3/16" lip that sticks out from the sidewall. The trim ring fits down inside this lip, barely, and when the wheel rotates the lip is pushing on the trim causing the damage.



If you've had this problem and found any kind of a solution, please give me a shout. I'm not going to buy replacement trim to put on unless it will stay clear of the lip on the tires.

 

[Prairie Dog]

I had this same strange problem when I first put radial tires on a vintage ford. My fix was to install steel valve stems. 30 years later it still works for the ferd.

 

[HBarlow]

The solution is easy from my point of view. Demand that the tire dealer remove the Pirellis and replace them with a quality truck tire like Michelin or BF Goodrich.

The customer is not expected to always know what the right tire is but the tire retailer is and is responsible when something goes wrong.