Tire rim protector dents wheel rim over pothole???

[laup]

I am just wondering.. do tires with rim protector (extra rubber around the rim to protect the rim from curb damage) make the rim more susceptible to pothole dent? I mean, when the tire hits a pothole, would the extra rubber actually serve to transfer the impact more directly to the rim? I have a set of Eagle GT and two of my wheels are bent on the rim from potholes but the tires are OK. I think the wheels would've been OK if not because of the extra rubber pressing against them when the impacts occur.

[CapriRacer]

Originally Posted by laup

I am just wondering.. do tires with rim protector (extra rubber around the rim to protect the rim from curb damage) make the rim more susceptible to pothole dent? I mean, when the tire hits a pothole, would the extra rubber actually serve to transfer the impact more directly to the rim? I have a set of Eagle GT and two of my wheels are bent on the rim from potholes but the tires are OK. I think the wheels would've been OK if not because of the extra rubber pressing against them when the impacts occur.

The force needed to deform a wheel is HUGE! In order to do that, the tire has to bottom out (insides of the tire have to be pressed together) For practical purposes, the tire isn't there!

It may not seem like it, but the rubber in the rim protector is quite soft and doesn't offer a whole lot of extra resistance compared to what happens when you hit a pothole hard enough to bottom the tire out.

Oh, and the tire are probably not OK. If the rims are dented, 100% of that force went through the tire when it bottomed out. I would replace the tires rather than have them blow out at high speed.

[laup]

No actually the force to make MY rim bent should not really be that great. I got those feather light alloy rims - 13.7lb for a 16x7. Only the lip is bent. It's happened to me twice these two years. The last time it happened the tire was OK - no leak or anything. I don't know about this time as I haven't check the tire pressure. But it seems to be holding up. In any case, I thought the extra rubber made the lip bent.

[laup]

I just got one of the bent rims replaced. After the bent rim is removed from the tire I examined the rim closely. The outer lip has been bent multiple times. The inner lip however is perfect. I am now convinced that the reason the inner lip is perfect is that there is no rim protector on that side of the tire. I will stay away from tires with rim protector from now on.

[jdmccright]

I don't think the Feature will prevent all rim damage, but should at worst spread that single-point force out along more surface of the rim to prevent the loss of air. Had that happened, you would have lost control of the car or at least been stuck with changing a flat tire.

I've never seen any tires sold that advertise this as a feature, but it is a lot more common now. I just figured it was to make the tires look like they have a flatter sidewall.

Finally, all metal will bend or break if hit with sufficient force that is applied fast enough. perhaps the rubber there is built up enough to absorb some of that impact force through deformation, but even rubber has limits to how fast it can deform to protect the metal.

Hope this helps!