Help me make a decision.....

I absolutely love the AEV pintlers in argent. The problem is as everyone knows they are so expensive. At 199 a rim, it would cost about $1054 for all 5 shipped to my door. I only have the funds for just the rims at this time, so I would have to run them with the stock rubicon bfg's, until I could afford 35s or who knows by then it could be 37s......

For only $211 i could have 5 cragar soft 8's shipped to my door and I would also then be able to buy 35's.

So..... should I buy my dream rims now and wait for 35s OR
should I buy the soft 8's and the 35s now

Thanks.

 

You can always add the wheels later. If you're like me, I change things every so often anyway. Go for the 35's.


On a side note, what bumper do you have?

 

If I were you, I would save up for what you really want.....I bought the AEV Pintlers a couple years ago now....totally love them....an awesome wheel....one of the best looking wheels out there IMO....

Better off to save up for what you really want, rather than regret not getting them down the road. Keep running your OEM's until you can afford 35's on the AEV's...I wouldn't bother mounting the oem BFG's on them.....

 

If it were me I'd take the Cragar's and 35's now. Heck, if it were me, I'd take the Cragars.
But, these are YOUR dream wheels; it's your Jeep. So, you should definitely get the AEV's.
Maybe you could get Cragar's now, save some coin, sell the Cragars, and buy the AEV's later. Another option would be to get the Cragar/35 set up now, sell that set up later down the road when you have coin for the AEV's and 37's

 

I wouldn't waste the cash on the AEV wheels. Buy cheap wheels now if you need them.

 

Its the or-fab stinger

Thanks for the replies guys, any more opinions???

 

I'd reccomend the AEV Pintlers. If you really want them, you'll get them eventually, then you'll have to sell the cragars and then get new tires for the 17" wheels.

35's will be awesome offroad, but you'll have to regear, etc...

 

i've had my lift kit on the garage floor for a month or two,just got the aev pintlers last week and next week they all go on when i have the time.so if you are not in a hurry,i say get them now.imo there is not a better looking rim out there.good luck with your choice.

 

The Cragars are much heavier than the Pintlers. That puts a lot of unsprung weight on the Jeep. The Cragars are not hub-centric - balancing may be an issue.

That said, there are a few issues with the Pintlers you should look out for.

If you have a 2008 or later Jeep, the TPMS valve stem is vulnerable to trail rash. If you don't want to live with the lights, and don't have a TPMS programmer (like a Procal) you'll need to band the TPMS! Easiest (and cheapest) to do that when you first have the tires mounted. See here:

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/jk-talk-26/pintler-wheels-weak-point-valve-stem-protector-85540/

If you scratch them, you'll need touch-up paint. The raw aluminum really stands out. If you do any rock crawling at all, you WILL scratch the lips. For touch-up paint, see here:

http://forum.aev-conversions.com/showthread.php?t=183

They are good wheels. They are hub-centric which helps with the balancing. They are quite strong, but have their weaknesses. You'll need to have a thin-wall socket to remove them. A Gorilla Wrench works well. There have been reports of cracking. See here:

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/modified-jk-tech-2/aev-pintler-wheels-cracking-64147/

The center caps have several broken tabs already. AEV offered to sell me replacements for $10.99. Not cool considering they are less than a year old and have only been handled by Discount Tire. Still working on AEV to send me replacements for free (STILL so far no go).

I've been happy with mine, but I wish I would have known about some of the down sides. I believe many of the other aftermarket wheels are worse in some regards, so I'm not totally disrespectin' AEV. I guess there's no such thing as the "perfect" wheel.

 

I'm sure I am in the minority on this, but I don't like the looks of the Pintlers.

They look too much like a factory wheel with all that backspacing. Or at least they LOOK like they have a lot of backspacing. I like my wheels to have more depth. I know a lot of people like to keep their stock alloy wheels and add spacers. I don't like that look either. Once again, I like wheels with more depth. And although alloy wheels are lighter, I like the looks of steel. And black wheels don't cut it for me. If black ones aren't clean, they look cheap in my oppinion. Like cars without hubcaps. Black AND chrome together on wheels look great. But ya gotta have some chome on those wheels.

I have the Cragar 16 x8 chrome soft 8s. The Soft 8s were my second choice in my price range. My first choice were not made in a 16 x 8. Be advised on the soft 8s. Mine are 16 x 8 and they very lightly rubbed the calipers in the front. About 1/2 hour with a Dremell to debur the rims and the calipers fixed it. And the rub area on the wheels is the flash left on the large holes. Only the flash nearest the center of the wheels on those large holes are in the area that need to be deburred. So you don't need to debur the holes all 360 degrees. just the part closest to the lug nuts.

But if you like those ugly looking Pintlers, go for it!