Is is possible for a tire rim to get bent?

[dpam]

We have the standard aluminum rims on our 2010-3150rl. I recently bought a new Maxxis tire and the tire shop told me they could not balance the tire/wheel because the rim is bent. The rim looks normal to me, but they said the rim could get bent by going over railroad tracks and pot holes in the road. Anyone experience a bent rim, and if it is bent can it be repaired?

[racerjoe]

yes a rim can get bent. I would have the tire shop show you, pull the tire off and have them spin the wheel on their balancer to show you it is bent. You could have a bad new tire and they don't want to show you. New tires are not perfect,some will not balance. have them prove it.

[grayghost03]

Forged wheels can bend, most cast will break before bending. Forged will bend at wheel circumference or they can bend at spokes, one will give a lope effect(circumference) and the spoke bend will give you a wobble. Don't even think about re trueing wheel, very expensive. I race offroad for a few years. It happens.

[mhs4771]

How in the world could something that happen on the "Fine Highways" on which we travel!! In reality it's a wonder it doesn't happen more often. You know things are bad when travel on County Roads, even dirt roads is better than on many of the Interstates.

[Art-n-Marge]

One reason wheels don't bend more is that the rubber tires take the damage. I have not had any wheels get bent but I have seen them. Only a real good wheel shop can tell you if the wheel can be straightened out since the type, size, extent and location of the bend can matter. They could tell you if straightening a wheel will cause fatigue or another future failure. All the bent wheels from people I knew got replaced, not repaired.

Aluminum wheels are more prone to cracks. One cracked on the truck I own and the tire could not hold air because of it. I have not personally had any bends or sometimes it's called "warpage".

I really like racerjoe's advice!

[CamillaMichael]

Have not had that problem with an RV, but did have a bent rim on a car...insurance covered it and then made up for it by raising our rates a year or so latter.

[DQDick]

The rim on our spare is just slightly bent. That's why it's the spare. They could almost balance it but not quite. Yes they showed me. Since I dumped the Marathons soon after we bought the rig I believe it was bent when we bought it. Having driven back from Goshen last year being passed by numerous Monty's, being delivered, some of whom had to be going 80mph or more it's not surprising something could get damaged.

[1retired06]

Those delivery guys get paid by the mile, and time is money!

[Lee F.]

Why were you replacing one tire? If you had a tire failure and the rim came in contact with the ground that could have bent it. You could ask Treadit, the supplier of the rims to Keystone.

[dpam]

No the rim didn't come in contact with the ground because of a flat. The axel was out of alignment and the one tire wore excessively, so I had a suspension machine shop do an alignment and I replaced the tire with a new Maxxis.

[Thunderman]

My tire shop said they could not balance a tire due to the rim being bent. Since then the tires have been rotated a number of times and not one person has said anything about the wheel being bent. All is well...