15 x 8 wheel question.

[racsan]

about a year ago i got a set of 15 x 8 steel "D" window wheels, only ran them from spring until fall, they have a slight vibration even though ive had them balanced twice, im running 255/70 tires on them, so its the same height stock, just about a inch or so wider. they were advertised as a 4" backspacing but upon measurement they are really a 3.25 backspace. im considering ditching these rims and going back with my stock alloy "deer-paw" rims and using the year old 255/70 tires on them, but if i go ahed and continue to run these steel wheels, will the 3-1/4 backspacing cause my wheel bearings and ball joints to wear out quicker? the tires are just beyond the edge of the body in the front and dead even with the flares on the rear, im leaning towards going back to the alloy wheels, but i hate to go through the hassle of swapping tires around, unless its a good idea based on ruining the ball joints and being hard on the front wheel bearings. the brand of rim i bought was "bart wheels" ive since read where others have had issues with this brand, they are made really heavy and were only $50 per rim, but either the weight of these wheels causes problems or they just arent welded together quite "true". if i end up not using them i'll either toss them in the scrap steel pile or save them for a trailer. thoughts on keeping/tossing the year old wheels?

 

[4x4junkie]

Sounds like the wheels aren't true if you've had them balanced and they still vibrate (though it's also possible the tires themselves aren't true, something I dealt with on a set of Goodyear MT/R-Ks a bit over a year ago).

Shouldn't be too real hard to tell by spinning the wheel and looking at the bead sealing surface area of the wheel (any more than a mm or so runout is bound to cause vibrations)

3.25" BS shouldn't affect the ball joints... Bearings should be OK too as long as they are quality bearings and the preload set correctly.