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Dayton or Dunlop Wire Wheels ??? What is best

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M

musme

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I am in process of buying wire wheels for a BN2. I am planning on 60 spokes

I am deciding beetween Dayton or the Dunlops offered by Moss.

The dayton are 50 dollars more expensive each. But the price is not the main deciding factor.

Should I buy dayton or Dunlop ?? Do they have the same quality ??
Are they as good ??


Thanks in advance
 
.....I have Dayton's on the Healey Chevy, and have been very pleased.
 

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Make sure the 60 spoke wheels will clear your front brake drums, I have seen this problem on some Healeys.
 
I have Dayton's for 19 years. Outstanding quality. No experience with Dunlops. Make sure you have new or like-new hubs for your new wheels.
 
Hey Musme,
Like Healey100 said, I think the 60 spoke wheels could be a bit of
a problem on the front brake drums. I put 60 spoke on a BN4 and the
spokes would actually push up against the edge of the break drums
on the front. Did not seem to be a problem on the rear as I recall.
Personally I like to stick to as original as possible. I am not sure
but are the Dayton wheels a bit wider ?
Regards,
Mike
 
I have Dayton 60 spoke on my 64 BJ8 with no problems. I prefer the stainless spokes. I have heard of problems with the chrome plating on the brand made in India. Have a good day!

John
 
On my "M" I have Dayton 48 and have only replaced 3 spokes in the past 6+ years. I've had no experience with Dunlop. I'm happy.... :banana: Oh and yes I average 2,000 - 3,000 miles of driving a year on highway and secondary roads. Agatha doesn't like gravel but has known to tackle a few when there was no option. Also heed Healey100's advice. Hate to say it but he knows what he's talking about... lol
 
I have heard complaints about the Dunlop wheels in the past. I don't know if those problems have been resolved. If you are concerned about fitting a 60 spoke to the front, you may want to give Hendrix Wire Wheel a call. I had some custom rims made with an offset that would work with my BJ8. Them guys know our cars, Allen Hendrix owns a Healey himself. Hendrix
 
Dunlop design wheels are made these days by MWS (Motor Wheel Services)and are top quality products made in India with no problems. However, the offset of the inner row of spokes on the 60 spoke lacing will in fact interfere with the outer perimeter of the drum brakes on the fronts of Hundreds and 100/Six's.

Though I haven't used Daytons, they do in fact make a 60 spoke wheel with a different offset to overcome that interference problem.

I personally don't care for Dayton's silver grey paint shade, it's a bit too dark, while the MWS (Dunlops) are quite accurate in that department.

We have installed and used the MWS wheels for decades now with absolutely no problems reported. We install 48 spoke painted wheels on the drum brake cars and 60 spoke painted ones as requested on the later disc wheel cars.
 
I vote Dayton 10 years zero problems, my race tire shop says they are balance better, "truer".

Dougie
 
My experience;

Dunlap chrome spoked wire wheels purchased new in 1970s and first used in 2005. Alan Hendrix and Jerry Anderson warned me
that any chrome plated spoke wheels tend to break no matter who made them or when they were made. Something about trapped nitrogen bubbles under the chrome makes the steel very brittle. I already had the wheels so I was going to use them and see how long they lasted.
After 5000 miles of driving, I discovered that I had twelve snapped spokes on one back wheel, nine on the other back wheel.
One of the front wheels had two ends snapped loose and one of the front wheels had none. I discovered this the day before the Mrs. and I were supposed the attend a club drive through the mountains and only because I washed the car and cleaned the wheels. Otherwise I may not have been around to write this today.
I bought new Dayton 60 spoke stainless chrome hub wheels from Hendrix and have not had a bit of trouble since. I have at least 10000 miles on them now.

I don't want to bad mouth Dunlap wheels because they probably make good painted wheels. Just stay away from chrome plated spoked wheels, no matter who's name is on the box.

Ed
 
Interesting. Mine are chrome and I've been quite pleased with them. ((They're Dayton)
 
Hi Judow,
Are you certain what the spokes are made from ? The Daytons that I have are chrome plated hubs and wheels but the spokes are made out of stainless steel. If you bought them from Hendrix, that is the only kind they sell.
You have to look very close under a strong light to see the difference. The spokes are polished stainless and look almost like chrome.

Ed
 
I bought 2 sets (10)of Daytons from Moss in the '80's, 72spoke w/stainless spokes. The chrome on the center hubs rusted within 2 years.Spokes look &lasted quite well, not happy about chrome though.I used lots of wax&elbow grease to try and keep them clean to no avail.
 
Dayton chrome wheels have stainless steel spokes.
 
Ed - I do believe you are correct but darn they sure look good. (Think our leader will call this cussing - I'm a lady and would never do that.) :angel:
 
Just a friendly heads up...

I recently bought 4 Dayton chrome 60 spoke wheels from British Wire Wheel. The wheels arrived well packaged so there's no issue with BWW. But I took them to a local wire wheel specialist (Woody's Wire Wheels in Denver, great shop) and before mounting they put them on a truing stand and every single one was not acceptably true. They thought they weren't even acceptable under Dayton's standards, and certainly were not OK under their stricter in-house standards. So they needed to be trued, and then resealed since I'm running them tubeless. I suppose I could have sent them back, but did not want to hassle with the whole repacking/shipping thing with the chance of having the same thing happen again. So I fixed it locally. Just be sure to check the truing before you mount tires. BTW, the new wheels work beautifully and cleared up a 55mph+ shimmy. I have no experience with Dunlops. Good luck!
-Tom
 
FWIW, I bought 72-spoke Dayton chrome/stainless from BWW about 20 yrs ago (the original owner of BWW sold them out of his garage). Anyway, I had them trued, sealed and new tires mounted a couple years ago. In soaking in a caustic solution to remove the old seal, large chunks of chrome came off the hubs. The guy who did the truing said that had never happened before, and I didn't hold him responsible. I used a two-part chrome/wire cleaning product from Eagle 1 for many years, until it became unavailable a few years ago. Coincidence, or did the Eagle 1 product cause this problem, and was removed from the market because of it? The Eagle 1 product appeared to be an acidic compound that could only be left on the wheel briefly and had to be 'neutralized' by the second solution. My gut tells me it caused the problem, but have not heard of any other issues with this product (the current Eagle 1 product is a one-stage solution only).

Supposedly, Dayton now has an 'evertrue' process that is supposed to guarantee trueness indefinitely. Do your Daytons claim to be 'evertrue,' or something similar?
 
Bob: I'm not sure if your question was directed to me, but I was the post just before yours so...

My Daytons were purchased pretty recently, maybe 6-8 weeks ago, and had just been delivered to British Wire Wheel (they had been on backorder) so they must have been recently manufactured. They had a few stickers on them but nothing mentioning an "Evertrue" process; nor was that mentioned on British Wire Wheel's website, at least not that I recall. So if they have improved their product, great, I can only speak to my experience which left me disappointed in the truing of their delivered wheels. Oh well, c'est la vie, no?
-Tom
 
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