Category: Blog

Heavy-duty trucks and buses require regular wheel polishing to ensure wheel-end safety and a professional appearance, which is why choosing the right wheel polishing company is one of the most important decisions you’ll make for your trucks’ wheels. Furthermore, partnering with a reputable company that manufactures quality wheel polishing equipment or provides comprehensive wheel maintenance services can improve your wheel polishing efficiency and lower operating costs. Here are five considerations to keep in mind when choosing a wheel polishing company for your fleet, service shop, or transit facility.

1. Experience

An essential factor when choosing a wheel polishing company is how much experience it has.  If the company has been in operation for less than a year, then it will still be working out the kinks with manufacturing, operations, etc. Additionally, a younger company may not know how to handle any wheel polishing issues that may arise which is why you should select an experienced company as it’s more likely to have “seen it all.” 

2. Rigorous Standards

The wheel polishing company or system you select should have rigorous standards in place for its products, training, safety protocols, and customer service. If purchasing wheel polishing equipment, the manufacturer should emphasize adherence to quality and safety standards to ensure your system will perform correctly and efficiently. If looking for a wheel polishing services provider, look for a company that has a culture of providing exceptional services and value as well as one that owns quality wheel polishing equipment.

3. Industry Associations

Similar to the previous point, look for a wheel polishing company that is a member of an industry association. Being in an industry association shows that the company is staying on top of important, ever-changing issues, trends, and legislation that are impacting the industry. For example, VIS is an active member of associations such as – the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), and ATA Tech and Maintenance Council – because we’re committed to safety, advocacy, and education for the transportation industry.

4. Reputation

Whichever wheel polishing company you choose, make sure it has a great reputation. You can find reputable wheel polishing companies by getting referrals from other shop or facility owners, searching online for reviews and testimonials, checking the Better Business Bureau, and researching what wheel maintenance equipment they use. While knowledge and experience are important, they won’t count for much if the company doesn’t have a reputation for manufacturing quality products, providing exceptional services, or satisfying customers. After all, if the company’s products and services are unreliable, then your vehicles’ and drivers’ safety are put at risk. 

5. More Than Polishing

When it comes to providing a polishing service, a company should be offering more than just polishing. Your wheel polishing company should be inspecting for fine cracks, elongated bolt holes, metal corrosion, bent rim edges, and OOS violations.  Any valuable wheel polish service should include proper and thorough inspections to ensure wheels don’t just look great but are safe on the road. 

Wheel Polishing Equipment You Can Trust

Before you choose a company, keep these five considerations in mind to make the process easier and protect your truck and bus wheels from subpar products and services. Your vehicles’ safety and wheels are too important to leave to chance. At VIS, we’ve been in the transportation industry for over 20 years and manufacture automated polishing equipment like the VIS-Polish and VIS-Shine to make aluminum wheels shine like new and perform optimally.

Polished aluminum truck wheels not only look great, but they’re also an essential component of a wheel maintenance routine. Aluminum wheels will dull over time due to road dirt and other contaminants which means they need to be polished frequently to keep them shiny. These five tips on how to clean and polish aluminum truck wheels will make your wheels glisten brightly and better protect them from corrosion and brake dust buildup.

1. Prep or wash the wheels.

How to clean aluminum truck wheels. Cleaning aluminum truck wheels prior to polishing will remove superficial dirt to check the condition of the wheels. Using an aluminum wheel cleaner, rinsing with a hose, or pressure washing loosens dirt, grease, grime, and brake dust on the wheels. However, avoid using strong detergents as well as alkaline or acidic cleaners since they can damage the aluminum’s surface and leave dull areas. Make sure the wheel is at ambient temperature before applying cleaning chemicals.

Try cleaning inside the hand holes and around the stud holes for even better results. Use a soft-bristle brush (not a wire brush) while applying water to scrub the surface, hand holes, and stud holes. Then rinse the wheels off before moving to a sanding or polishing process. A thorough pre and/or pre-wash is crucial for successfully polishing aluminum truck wheels.

2. Remove oxidization.

If you discover oxidation, which happens when bare aluminum wheels are exposed to oxygen and water, then it will need to be removed from the truck wheels before polishing. One way to remove heavy oxidization is to run the aluminum truck wheels through the VIS-Polish, an automated wheel polishing machine The VIS-Polish system’s automated sanding cycles remove heavy oxidization quickly and easily to restore the wheel’s shine.

3. Use a machine to polish and buff.

How to polish aluminum truck wheels.  Reduce time and labor spent polishing and buffing aluminum truck wheels by using a machine to do most of the hard work. Machine polished wheels can be done in a fraction of the time it takes to do it by hand. Also, polishing by hand presents many health hazards due to exposure to aluminum dust, continuous vibration, and exposure to moving parts. A machine can reduce or even eliminate these health hazards.

4. Dry the wheels.

Water spots are a quick way to ruin the shine on perfectly polished aluminum wheels. The process of cleaning aluminum wheels should always include a step where you gently dry them and wipe away any brake dust. Avoid cross-contamination by using a separate microfiber towel that is designated only for drying and wash it separately from other towels.

5. Maintain and inspect aluminum wheels between service times.

Once wheels have been sanded and polished, keeping them clean and shiny will allow for easier checks on the wheel condition. A portable on-wheel polishing machine like the VIS-Shine is a maintenance and upkeep tool that helps keep the shine of your polished wheels between maintenance service times. It is able to clean, polish, and buff a wheel in 10-15 minutes which is much less time than doing it by hand and allows for quicker, more thorough inspections. 

For All Your Wheel Polishing Needs

VIS offers equipment for polishing and cleaning aluminum wheels for trucks with the purpose of extending their life and safety. We manufacture and distribute a wide range of products for the trucking and transportation industry such as the VIS-Polish: Automated Aluminum Wheel Polishing, VIS-Check: Undercarriage Diagnostic System, Squirrel: Wheel Safety Device, VIS-Shine: On-Truck Wheel Polishing, and BrakeMate™ brake maintenance system.