Manufacturing Process: Cast

Material: Aluminum

Coatings: Primer, powdercoat, clear topcoat

Application: 1997-2006 TJ Wrangler

Size: 17" x 8.5"

Bolt Pattern: 5x4.5

Offset: -15mm

Approximate Backspacing: 3.6"

Made In: China. And for the record, we’re not happy about it. At AEV, we remain committed to American manufacturing, and we would much rather have our wheels manufactured in the US. But right now, you can’t get wheels made in the US at aftermarket volumes.

What happened? Most of the US wheel manufacturing used to be based in California. In the early nineties, China targeted the wheel industry as a strategic growth industry. They set up incentives for the construction of wheel manufacturing facilities, began offering export credits of 22% on wheels, and fully subsidized the cost of new tooling. US plants couldn’t compete. Most US manufacturers ended up selling their equipment to China, created partnerships with the Chinese plants, and became middle men importing wheels back to the US.

Today, the only cast wheel plants left in the US are for high volume OE wheel programs. So unfortunately, buying from China is a necessary evil of being in the aftermarket cast wheel business. We have made the effort to buy from a high quality Chinese plant. Our plant also produces OE wheels for Volkswagen, Audi, BMW and Harley Davidson, among others. Our supplier has Americans on the ground in China who oversee our programs for us, and we have been over to China to inspect and visit the plant.  

When lower volume manufacturing becomes feasible again in the US, we will be first in line. Over the past 20 years, the Chinese government has stopped subsidizing tooling, has been phasing out the wheel export credits, and as of 2011 they finally eliminated the wheel credits. We hope that in time, US plants will be able to compete and we will start to see some volume move back to the US.

Difficulty Level: Easy

Estimated Install Time: 1 hour (does not include tire mounting)

Click here for our wheel install and care guide