Cray Wheel problem in the rain
09-18-2013, 12:21 AM
#1
Heel & Toe
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Cray Wheel problem in the rain
** if you ever plan to drive in the rain or might get caught in the rain and have certain after market wheels you need to know this **
I did some searching on this forum and did not find any reference to this problem, but did find references off this forum but not with the Vette community. If I missed it in my search, sorry.
I have a 2012 GS, with 19/20 Cray Hawk wheels. I really like these wheels however twice in the 2 months I have had them they developed a serious issue. When driving in very heavy rain (totally not planned) the car started to shake very badly, even after getting into the dry roads again. What solved it was to stop and start again. At first I could not figure it out. What it ended up being is that these wheels and other like it have a reverse lip on the back side of the rim and a ring in the front which allows water to accumulate on the inside (brake side or inner barrel) and is forced against the rim due to centrifugal force and unbalances the wheels. When you stop the water falls down only leaving a small amount of water on the bottom so when you start rotating it again there is not much to unbalance the wheel again.
Based on the volume left after stopping and calculating the volume if all the way around the rim there is about 2.5 quarts of water on the rim when they are full and moving and that is per wheel!
Cray was contacted by my installer and they know of the issue and stated other wheels have this issue as well...no lie there. They informed us to go to iforged.com and buy (my $) 4 Water Channel Diverters. These mount on the valve stem and stay in the center area of the rim and do not allow the water to accumulate. Personally I think this is a band-aide fix and TSW (wheel maker) should fix the problem themselves before someone gets hurt.
Who else has noticed this?
Anyone else have a fix without drilling holes through the outer ring?
** I would highly recommend not buying any such wheel that does not warn you about this and provide a reasonable solution. Plain and simple this is a serious safety issue and a poor design **
I did some searching on this forum and did not find any reference to this problem, but did find references off this forum but not with the Vette community. If I missed it in my search, sorry.
I have a 2012 GS, with 19/20 Cray Hawk wheels. I really like these wheels however twice in the 2 months I have had them they developed a serious issue. When driving in very heavy rain (totally not planned) the car started to shake very badly, even after getting into the dry roads again. What solved it was to stop and start again. At first I could not figure it out. What it ended up being is that these wheels and other like it have a reverse lip on the back side of the rim and a ring in the front which allows water to accumulate on the inside (brake side or inner barrel) and is forced against the rim due to centrifugal force and unbalances the wheels. When you stop the water falls down only leaving a small amount of water on the bottom so when you start rotating it again there is not much to unbalance the wheel again.
Based on the volume left after stopping and calculating the volume if all the way around the rim there is about 2.5 quarts of water on the rim when they are full and moving and that is per wheel!
Cray was contacted by my installer and they know of the issue and stated other wheels have this issue as well...no lie there. They informed us to go to iforged.com and buy (my $) 4 Water Channel Diverters. These mount on the valve stem and stay in the center area of the rim and do not allow the water to accumulate. Personally I think this is a band-aide fix and TSW (wheel maker) should fix the problem themselves before someone gets hurt.
Who else has noticed this?
Anyone else have a fix without drilling holes through the outer ring?
** I would highly recommend not buying any such wheel that does not warn you about this and provide a reasonable solution. Plain and simple this is a serious safety issue and a poor design **
09-25-2013, 10:32 PM
#2
This is something I've never heard of. I have the same car and am waiting for the same set of Crays to arrive. I live in San Diego so hopefully this won't be a problem for me. Really good info though. I'll log it away for future reference. Thanks for doing this write up.
09-28-2013, 08:36 PM
#3
I had the same problem with my Kinesis wheels. Almost rattled my fillings out on my trip to BG in the rain. It was so bad I couldn't even keep up with the caravan had to stay around 55 mph. I discovered the cause in the parking lot when talking with another member who had heard of it before. Thought I knew everything 
10-12-2013, 12:50 AM
#4
Heel & Toe
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I got the water deflectors installed today. We did some testing on the spin balancer and it looks like it really gets rid of water well. They are rubber and you can trim them to adjust as needed. You do have to dismount the tire. Now to find a heavy rain storm...well maybe I wait until it finds me.