Noticed a set of Titans for sale and was going to check them out. Did a bit of research and found a couple of posts on TB about them and Volans that said they were a bit fragile and prone to cracking. Anyone know much about them, they would be going on the 745Ti (with spacers of course) running 215/45R17 if I decide to do it. I wasn't really actively looking but have contemplated this for down the road and these are local so it's easy to check them out.

I can't answer your question directly - but in my experience, wheels are rarely fragile if they are OEM. The abuse that people put them through is what gives them this reputation. Drive a high offset wheel into a curb and it will bend, yup it will. Smash into a bathtub sized pot hole at 60 km/h and it'll pancake. Drive it normally with some care and attention and they are ulikely to be a problem. I have a Tethys that is bent...probably by someone in an XC going over a curb - I don't think I could inflict this kind of damage with normal driving.

That seems to be consensus I found in general, keep them aired up, avoid the big stuff if possible and you should be OK. It was towerymt that was quite adamant from personal experience that the Titans were fragile and he is one of the people on TB that I trust so it gives me some pause. That said alot of other people have run them without issue so maybe Mike is just hard on wheels. I know I don't plan on hooning them, so like you said avoid the obvious stuff and carry on.

I talked to the seller last night and asked him why the one rim had no tire and he admitted it was a total blowout, but that the rim was fine, hmmm... I can't see them till Monday so we'll see what they look like. He's asking $150 for the 4, "because they need refinishing", so I am expecting them to be less than perfect. If they weren't local I wouldn't bother but I'm curious more than anything now.

Had a look at them last night and the rim that lost the tire is not as bad as I expected. It appears to be straight and uncracked although it is, obviously, ground up all the way around both of the rim edges. The other three need the odd bit of rash filled and scuffs touched up and painted, not great but DIYable.

Any ideas what it would cost to have the 4th rim professionally repaired? For them to match after repair it probably makes the most sense to have them all done at once, but will the final cost be worth it compared to finding a better set to start with.

I bought the 17" set of these viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2835,for what he is asking it is hard to justify refinishing/repairing a used set. They were just about brand new,only a few blems on the back side of one...nothing really noticable, I have them installed on my 245 (20 & 32mm adapters)with the same tire size you are contemplating. I should try them on my 945.

Professional means a few hundred per wheel to have it welded if that's what's needed. As long as the bead lock is intact, I could weld the one up if you like.

Thanks for the feedback guys, I agree that at $150 plus the cost of pro refinishing this set definitely doesn't make sense. If it was the usual bit of rash/scuffing then it's worth it with doing the work yourself. I also keep falling back to the idea of buying replicas as well, in particular the RWD offset Peg's that iPd sells so no spacers required.

Craig, many thanks for the offer of welding the worst rim but I don't want (or to ask you) to get in to that level of restoration as I think other better deals can be had. This is isn't a priority for me right now, although if the right deal comes up I'll do it this one just doesn't work for me right now.