Unlike some of the other modifications that can be done to a truck, when it comes to wheels it was a little bit easier for us. First question is steel or alloy. Generally speaking it seems that alloys can take more of a beating before they get damaged, however unlike steel wheels when you do hit them hard enough they crack and break. Whereas steel wheels bend and can be fixed with a big hammer and a shifting spanner. Wanting to be self reliant in the bundus, we decided on steel wheels. The other option you have with steel wheels are split rims. It is essentially a wheel that has 2 parts that bolt together. The advantage is that it is easier to take the tyre off the wheel. The downside is that you have to run tubes, and even then the tubes tend to chafe through if they get sand inside. Our truck came standard with 16 x 8 alloys. We wanted steel wheels but only 6” wide to go with our Mud Terrain tyres. After many hours spent trying to locate after market wheels (6 x 16) that would fit the Lnadcruiser, we eventually realised that we would have to go with original items.
In the end this was EXTREMELY expensive, but these were some very stout wheels. They must weigh at least 20kg each and are easily as strong as the alloys we had on. Cry once at the price but then peace of mind.
You can weld steel wheels as well.
We managed to get safely through Chile and Bolivia and are now in Peru, Cusco to be precise. Everything is fine apart that most of today´s day we´ve spend in police station :( Someone broke into our car and stole our digital camera and some other valuables (toilet bag-believe it or not). However, he was kind enough to leave us the car, so we are moving on!