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Old 03-15-2018, 08:08 PM   #1
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Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: North Georgia
Posts: 2,910
Ford Transit 350HD Wheel Options

After having one of the new, improved, bolt on, fugly OEM Wheel Simulators "launch" on the road I started looking for new wheels for our TS. Note: FWIW the simulator hold down lugs were tight. All of the OEM mounting hardware came off the wheel with the simulator...

The good news / bad news is there aren't a lot of wheel choice for the Ford Transit 350 HD dually chassis. I only found three replacement wheel options:

1. Alcoa Wheels. A set of four, with hardware, is about $1,700 at BuyTruckWheels.com. See Here.

2. Ford has optional aluminum wheels for the 350HD. But when you look at buying them as parts, which require a core fee, they are over $900 a wheel...plus a $100 center cap.

3. Forest River...at least Coachmen anyway. Coachmen offers optional aluminum wheels on their Orion Series Transit 350HD based motor homes. A set of four, with shipping, was about $1,400 thru my local Sunseeker dealer.

Note: Any FR dealer can order parts from any FR division. You don't need to go to a Coachmen dealership.

After considering the Alcoa and Coachmen offering we went with the Coachmen wheels.

Here are a couple pictures of the Coachmen wheels mounted on our TS:







The wheels are made for FR by Hi-Spec. They were shipped in very good boxes with plenty of padding and protection.

Even though these are a Coachmen option there was one issue with the wheels.

Disclaimer: I don't know how Coachmen does their installs.

The problem is the inner rear dual wheel valve stem. There is no way you can align the aluminum wheel over the inner steel Ford wheel, without completely blocking access to the valve stem.

Luckily I had already installed the DuallyValves kit for use with the Wheel Simulators. That meant I had a six inch long inner valve stem already installed. We carefully bent that valve stem to allow access. If you look at the third picture you can see the valve stem poking thru at about the 2 O'clock position. Maybe this isn't a perfect solution but it works.

If any of the tire / wheel experts here have a better solution please let me know! I run a TST 507 TPMS, with flow thru sensors, so I need solid valve stems.

Here are the Forest River Part Numbers for the wheels and the wheel cap:

C01297691 Rim 16 Inch
C01297692 Rim 16 Inch
C01297693 Wheel Cap

The wheels were shipped with the Wheel Cap included in the wheel box. I was not billed for Wheel Cap as a separate line item, just the Wheel Part Numbers.

I'm happy with how these wheels look and even more important my wife really likes the new look.

My wife was following me in her car when my "Wheel Simulator" decided to take off. She stopped to retrieve it from a muddy ditch , so she wanted rid of them as much or more than me.

This was an interesting upgrade. I'd never "blinged" a motor home before...

I'll try and answer any questions...
__________________
Wayne
2024 Sunseeker 2150SLEF / Ford E-350 chassis on order.
2024 Coachmen Northern Spirit 1943RB
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2370, 2371, 2380, 2390, 2391, ford, ford transit, transit 350hd, wheel

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