Ford E-series vans...wheel prob

[GrumpyPawPaw]

Every E-250 of E-350 van we have had eventually has prob with the steel wheels bending. THE 350, GOT ALLUM WHEELS, WITH NO MORE PROB. Ya'll seen the same thing? (please no Ford haters. just the facts) :

[martyinlincoln]

Don't think they have ever replaced a wheel on our E350's. Plenty of ball joints though.

[Random]

Are you using the same mechanic every time you have a problem?

Are these trucks driven in city primarily?

I've never heard of anything like this and I know a thing or two about Fords. I've owned about a dozen of them and worked on more than I could count. My personal truck has almost half a million miles on the factory steel rims, with a heavy diesel on top of them and allot of off-road driving with no issues.

[mark beiser]

Make sure your tire shop, mechanic, etc., is using a torque wrench when tightening the lug nuts.

Stop running into curbs.

[Eddie1KRR]

All my shop vans are ford as well, and never seen or heard of that problem.
Mainly ball joint and expensive alignments due to need of shims.

My brother did run into a rim problem recently on one, but it was caused by incorrect lug nuts. They were to small externally, and reamed out the holes to the point where he had to get new rims in the front as the lugs were walking all the way through the rim gradually.

[GrumpyPawPaw]

Yeah, we have done everything by spec, torquing, etc. You would think ford would 'straighten" out this prob after so mant years! But dosen't show up till post warranty. Not many curbs out here. My guys prefer the dirt tracks.

[syndicated]

Ford doesn't make the rims, China does.

[GrumpyPawPaw]

Ford puts the rims on their trucks!

[76olds]

To the best of my knowledge, never had a bent rim (2 different vans since 95).

Our roads are bad here, tons of potholes.

[coolwhip]

2005 extended E250 here...rims are just fine.

[GrumpyPawPaw]

1999 thru 2008, e250 & E350" same prob. Never could get the balance right. Took em to several places, including truck frame and front end specialty shop.
But the alum wheels solved it.

[mark beiser]

I've never had an issue with the wheels on a Ford van, but alignment has always been an issue due to how all but my current van is loaded out.
I designed and built the shelving for the cargo area myself, and specifically set it up to have roughly even weight distribution from side to side.

Because of this, my van sit level, and on a level freeway, will continue in a straight line if I let go of the steering wheel.
Coming up on 50k miles without needing an alignment.

Every other van I've had in the last 20 years leaned to the drivers side because most of the weight was on the same side. The lean affects the alignment of the front wheels because of how the front suspension works.
All of them had a pull to the right, my last van would damn near make a right hand turn if I let go of the wheel...

[GrumpyPawPaw]

I set ours up myself also. eg: the guy (with the butt crack half way up his back) sits on the opposite side from the 7 refrigerant bottles.