Does the Wrangler Sport come with steelies?

[Turaven]

Dumb question time.

There's a thread elsewhere here discussing possible delivery delays stemming from an FBI raid on an alloy wheel manufacturer that supplies wheel to Stellantis. I, of course, took the moment to pride myself on being a cheap bastard and ordering a 2023 Sport with steelies and not having to worry about it affecting me.

However.. I started thinking. Does the Sport come with steelies? If you Google pictures of "steelies" they don't look like the traditional steel wheel design. If you build a Wrangler sport the wheels are described as "black steel styled wheels." Everyone refers to them at steelies, but they don't look the part, and the wording from Jeep can easily be interpreted to mean alloy wheels deliberately styled to look like steel wheels, or as steel wheels with style added so they don't look like cheapo steelies.

So again, dumb question, but has anyone actually weighed the things or stuck a magnet to them to see if they're aluminum?

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[The Fixer]

If you ordered a base Sport with crank windows, you're getting steelies. I rocked them for a year before scoring the Rubicon takeoffs.

 

[four low]

Base Sport, not "S", steel, same as Gladiator base Sport, a good source of take - offs

 

[flyer92]

My '21 Sport rocking the steelies....and yes, they really are steel!

I am actually considering switching to a set of Rubicon takeoffs, but was just curious if the alloys are significantly lighter. I would think yes, but they also seem to be much thicker than steel rims. Thoughts?

 

[Turaven]

My '21 Sport rocking the steelies....and yes, they really are steel!

I am actually considering switching to a set of Rubicon takeoffs, but was just curious if the alloys are significantly lighter. I would think yes, but they also seem to be much thicker than steel rims. Thoughts?

I'm not sure of the weight of the wheels, but the Rubicon wheel has larger tires so even if you're saving 5lbs a wheel you're going to be adding probably 5+ extra pounds of tire, so it's a wash as far as saving weight. Obviously you get better tires so that counts for something.

 

[Valpo Jeep]

From my reading the Sport has black steelies and the Sport S gets 17 inch aluminum 5 spokes.

As for going to the Rubicon wheels the weight difference is part of the equation, there is whole debate about unsprung weight and stopping power that can happen. I will fully admit that I have only read about it but not looked into greater detail to understand it other than to say larger wheels could mean you need better brakes.

 

[Mikeoso]

 

[flyer92]

I'm not sure of the weight of the wheels, but the Rubicon wheel has larger tires so even if you're saving 5lbs a wheel you're going to be adding probably 5+ extra pounds of tire, so it's a wash as far as saving weight. Obviously you get better tires so that counts for something.

Agree on the additional weight of the larger tires, which is one reason why I'm only upgrading from 245's to 255's. I suspect the weight increase with slightly larger tires is minimal, while the weight decrease with aluminum rims is much more significant....but then again I've only ever had steelies, so I can't say for sure.

 

[OceanBlues]

My '21 Sport rocking the steelies....and yes, they really are steel!

I am actually considering switching to a set of Rubicon takeoffs, but was just curious if the alloys are significantly lighter. I would think yes, but they also seem to be much thicker than steel rims. Thoughts?

Highly unscientific here, but looking at wheel options on Quadratec's site, the steel wheels appear to be lighter than the alloy Rubicon wheels (30 pound shipping weight vs. 31)
*note the steel wheel isn't the exact Mopar wheel you get with the Sport, just one I found on Quadratec that seems very similar.

Steel Wheel
Rubicon Alloy Wheel


Stamped steel is incredibly strong and can require much less material to be structurally sound than Aluminum... though obviously there are design limitations to making them look as cool as some alloy wheels...

 

[flyer92]

Highly unscientific here, but looking at wheel options on Quadratec's site, the steel wheels appear to be lighter than the alloy Rubicon wheels (29 pound shipping weight vs. 31)
https://www.quadratec.com/products/92702_3100_07.htm
https://www.quadratec.com/p/mopar/r...d-accents-jeep-wrangler-jk-and-grand-cherokee

Stamped steel is incredibly strong and can require much less material to be structurally sound than Aluminum... though obviously there are design limitations to making them look as cool as some alloy wheels...

Good point, and appreciate the unscientific research! Starting to think this might be a wash, as Turaven stated earlier. In any case, I didn't intend to hijack this thread, so if you or others are interested, you may want to check out further discussion at:

https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/sport-to-willys-takeoffs.97883/

Thanks again and happy Jeepin'!

 

[Heimkehr]

Does the Sport come with steelies?

...the wording from Jeep can easily be interpreted to mean alloy wheels deliberately styled to look like steel wheels, or as steel wheels with style added so they don't look like cheapo steelies.

The Sport comes equipped with steel wheels as standard equipment. A tortured interpretation of the ad copy isn't necessary.

 

[At Risk Ute]

Hell yeah.

 

[Jim_n_Tx]

2021 Sport

 

[Hennessey17]

Mine was the base Sport (manual windows and locks) and came with the steel wheels and all season highway tires. I really liked the way it drove on the highway tires... and they're pretty good tires... but they're boring truck tires. I wanted to buy a set of Rubicon takeoffs, but I found a set of the Sport S machined wheels with all terrain tires for half the cost. I really like the Rubicons, but I'm starting to really like the Sport S wheels (in my picture)... I think I might just put beefier tires on when these wear out.

 

[Jezones]

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