A wheel for Miss Doozie

We want to get new tires for the front while we are here in Virginia. We also decided that we would keep a spare, so we're planning to mount one of the "old" front tires as a spare and carry it on the tire carrier that we got at Quartzsite this year. To do that, we need to get a wheel to mount it on.

We were looking for wheels like the ones on the bus... I called the tire place, and they gave me a price on a steel wheel or an aluminum wheel... the aluminum wheel at $285 was over double the price of the steel wheel at $125. I decided to try to look for a used aluminum wheel - called a couple of "junk yards" near the farm here in Virginia but they did not handle items for "big" equipment. I then called a place that had been mentioned on an RVers forum that is located in Kentucky - Visone - they let me know that I could find the specific information about our wheels on the rim of the dual or tag axle.

I had never noticed the printing on the aluminum wheel... this is the first part of the text...

This part identifies it as "Accuride" and in the beginning part on this picture is the part number: 28608ABP

This was on the tag axle - it has the same information but formatted a little differently. It turns out that the first set of characters (on the top line here) seems to be a unique identifier (serial number) for the wheel.

I called Visone back with that information, and they went off to try to find a wheel in their inventory for me. Meanwhile, I did some research about Accuride wheels online and called Accuride to find out where I might be able to get a new Accuride wheel. The information I found online had let me know that the letters at the end of the part number (ABP on ours) indicates the finish - ABP means that both sides of the wheel are polished. They also have AOP (Polished Outside) and AIP (Polished Inside). The lady I spoke to at Accuride indicated that I would not be able to get a new "ABP" (I guess they don't make them anymore?), and that for a spare, they would recommend that I get "SP" which means "Standard Polish" (I *think* it is not quite as brilliant a polish, but our wheels aren't all that brilliant anyway). She also indicated that I should be able to get a wheel through Fleetpride.

I called Fleetpride and they located a 28608SP in Bowling Green, KY at $372.26, plus I would need to pay freight. Meantime, Visone called me back with a price of $500 + freight for a wheel in "great condition". I'm starting to think that this is becoming more challenging than I expected!!!

At this point, Dwayne and I had about decided to get a steel wheel. To validate my thinking, I went over the information with Jimmy and we found a note that made Jimmy realize that a steel wheel would not be as thick as an aluminum one, and thus a steel wheel spare would not work on an inner dual (SO many things to think about!). He had also let us know that there is a truck salvage yard in Richmond, so we're going to call them tomorrow (Monday) to see if they might have a used aluminum wheel that we can get. I *think* I know what I want to ask them for now... and it might be that the original price I got from the tire shop will be the best after all!