In life it’s important to learn from your mistakes so before I get any further in this post let me state that this is not an attack against Rotiform. I’ve never talked to anyone at Rotiform nor dealt with then in any way shape or form so I have no axe to grind.
They have a strong standing in the aggressive fitment community and I’m a fan of more than one of their designs so I have no slanderous intent.
This post (like my last about cracked wheels) is just an outsiders view of a situation I’ve been following.
In early April I noticed a picture of a horrifically cracked barrel floating around instagram and was pretty surprised to learn that the barrel in question shipped –not originated from– Rotiform in California.
The wheel in question belongs to Nicolaus Pro (iamnicpro) who happens to drive this pretty tidy Benz wagon (which I’ve actually had a draft started about forever but that is besides the point).
After waiting four months for wider barrels to arrive he put his wheels together and tossed them on his Benz wagon only to have them fail shortly after with no warning.
Like any respectable company Rotiform shipped him out a set of replacement barrels post haste but unfortunately these barrels were also not long for this earth taking an exit the exact same way the first ones did.
Nic is running 205/45 on 10″ wheels which is quite the stretch but the barrels do look pretty thin in the photos above so based on the information available it’s hard to say which was a great factor in the failure.
From what I’ve read Rotiform doesn’t actually manufacture these specific barrels and they are sourced from an unnamed company which several other wheel builders use. The fact that there could be a lot of these barrels rolling around is a little troubling.
Hopefully someone from Rotiform sees this post and will add their two cents in regards to what might be causing this in a civil (ie don’t release the hounds) manner.
Until then I wish all the best to Mr. Pro in getting this issue resolved and his future wheel set-ups.
Sucks to roll hard, be careful out there.
Edit:
Since I wrote this Rotiform actually refunded Nic in full and has stopped selling barrels from this manufacturer. Alls well that ends well it would seem.
Site Updates
You can catch me this weekend at the Canadian Sport Compact Series season opener.
Good times will be had there but if you want something a little closer to the city check out Spring Fling.
Flashback Friday
Here’s a quick peak back at last years CSCS opener.
With the amount of camber he’s running, the stretch he’s running, and the fact that he just added wider barrels, do you think it could actually be the barrel’s hitting the ground on bumps/potholes/uneven surfaces that caused the failure?