While walking through the expansive SEMA Show’s 1.2 million square feet of floor space, it is easy to get tunnel vision and/or distracted. The many distractions are usually wild and over-the-top vehicle builds. The booth vehicle displayed in The Wheel Group booth stopped me dead in my tracks and drew me in with a highly modified 2023 Ford F-350 Superduty called Bronczilla.  This thing looked rad and the craftsmanship was off the charts.

But what they had displayed on the wall is what really caught my attention. We spotted in the center of the booth a forged Dirty Life Wheels wall display that presented a half-machined forged wheel and two other wheel cutaways.

SEMA 2023: Forged Off-Road Race Wheels From Dirty Life Wheels

Jason Weidmann, brand manager for The Wheel Group, walked us through the significance of the forged Dirty Life Wheels and some of the direct advantages for off-road motorsport applications. At the top of that list are wheel strength, durability, and weight reduction.

Next on the Dirty Life Wheels display, Jason went on to show us the Dirty Life Wheels DUAL-TEK Series cutaways. These are another high-quality and multi-application off-road ready wheel. Off Road Xtreme learned a little about the DUAL-TEK wheels last year but had yet to see a real-life example of how they work.

The display demonstrates this in the cutaways that clearly show the difference in the ring style and configuration. The standard variant allows for the look, protection, and reinforcement of the ring with the tire seated traditionally on the inside of the wheel lip. In the beadlock style, the wheel allows for the tire to be mounted on the outside of the wheel and the tire bead to be locked or pinched down by the ring.

It is a simple idea, and the main benefit is to be able to buy one-style wheel and gain multiple-use functions depending on one’s needs at the time. A perfect example, for me, is when I first began building my truck into a prerunner, it was planned that it would see more street use since it was my daily driver. Now, the truck has been built up and is not typically driven on the road. Having the added performance benefit of a true beadlock would be an awesome but also an expensive upgrade.

On the other hand, if I had a dedicated off-road racing vehicle like a 6100 Spec Trophy Truck, the forged Dirty Life Wheels would be the ticket! The Triton Engineering machine owned by Todd Miller was looking pretty epic, prepped and ready for its next race at the 2024 King Of The Hammers desert race event.