In the past we have made our own wheels, but last year due to a shortage of help in our machine shop, we opted to buy the 6" IFI wheels. Without them, we would have had a lot of trouble finishing our machine and making weight.
Having said that, we did have some problems with the wheels. The biggest problem was that the three parts of the wheel that the tread gets attached to were prone to getting bent and indented on our wheels. This made the tread loose and of course the wheel looked funny because it no longer was round. Please keep in mind that our wheels were fairly protected by the bumpers and the chasis, but yet they were getting hit hard enough on the treads by the ramp and other machines to cause the three rim sections to bend and collapse in the middle (the side plates were fine).
The other problem we had was with the PEM nuts and philips head screws. Several times we had to deconstruct the wheel and bend the three rim plates back (not that easy during competition). Some of the PEM nuts came out and just spun making it difficult to disassemble (We used self locking philips head screws the ones that have plastic on the threads) instead of using loctite which became a real problem when the PEM nuts broke loose. In hindsight I would not recommend using self locking screws with PEM nuts.
It looks like the new design addresses the problems we had. The extra tangs in the center of the rim sections should give the rim sections support in the center which is where our rims bent inward and the use of Socket Head Cap Screws are much better than Philips screws. Overall looks like a much better design.
Now if only there was a better way to attach the tread
