Aftermarket wheels are by far the simplest way to improve the look of your vehicle and have become increasingly popular in Trinidad & Tobago. New and used wheels are available in every corner of the country and are being fitted to everything from AD Wagons to Range Rovers.

Factory wheels (alloy or steel) are designed specifically for your vehicle in regards to rim diameter, width, offset and bolt pattern, and when choosing aftermarket wheels many of these characteristics are considered. Often overlooked though is the center bore of the wheels. The diameter of the center bore of your factory wheel is ideally matched to the diameter of the hub on your car. However aftermarket wheel manufacturers have to cater for a wide range of hub diameters (so that the rims can be fitted to several different makes and models of vehicles), so the center bore is usually larger than what is required.

For example using a Vernier caliper I know the center bore of my car is 64.1mm in diameter (you can also find this information online if you look hard enough). The wheels I am mounting have a center bore of 73.1mm. As a result there is a gap between the hub and the wheel which usually results in the wheel not being centered on the hub. What happens in cases like this is that the lug nuts are uses to center the wheel which can be somewhat difficult to achieve. In my case also the the aftermarket wheels have bolt holes that are also larger than the studs (again so that the wheels fit a wide range of vehicles), which also makes centering the wheels difficult using the lugs alone. Having wheels that are not centered properly will result in vibration.

Hub centric rings are used to fill the gap between the center bore of the aftermarket wheel and the hub on the car. I know some of the larger rim/ tire shops carry them, or you could have them made up at a machine shop. I bought the ones shown below online relatively cheap (again you need to know what size you need for your particular application) and they are made of plastic which works just as good as the metal ones.

I would always recommend using hub centric rings when fitting aftermarket wheels to any vehicle. Besides eliminating the vibration (assuming your wheels and tires are balanced), they make fitting the wheels that much easier (especially for European cars that use wheel bolts as opposed to studs).