Pickup Man, I have to admit that I have never seen the spare tire on any of my trucks in the last 5 years. Your question made me go out and look. My '01 spare looks like it came off of a boat trailer. It's a plane old steel wheel. Nothing like what's on the XL or even the Work Series trucks.

The XL rims look like the standard XLT wheels, at least in the '97 model year, except that it's painted steel instead of aluminum.

I just saw a Work Series this afternoon and the exterior is exactly as bskouby described.

The XL has chrome where the Work Series is painted grey, at least on the white Work Series I saw today.

 

I'll bet it's white too. I don't think I have ever seen a WT anyother color?

Just for the record, I have the XLT, but have the 5 spoke steel wheels with the plastic chrome covers. The spare wheel has all the holes in it.

 

I thought they were aluminum, but I must have been mistaken. Looking at your picture, they look like they're chromed, though. I've only had Lariats, so haven't paid detailed attention to the other series. I do know, that the XL rims look just like yours do except they're painted grey.

 

I'm not sure how it came off the lot when it was new, but I'm willing to bet it was with these steel wheels. Under the cover, they are just painted gray. I've been looking at getting new wheels, but I would prefer chrome over polished, but they (chrome) cost so much more. Even looked at the chrome steel aftermarket wheels, but I'm finding that the load ratings for them are lower then that of my tires. Not good. Here's a closeup of the wheel covers I'm running now.

 

Mitch, those are covers? All this time I thought wheels like that were chromed steel! Man, am I confused now! I'm going to have to find a few of them in parking lots and take a really good look at them. Hope nobody is offended when they see my big a$$ as I'm bending over looking at wheels.

 

They're not too bad for being plastic. Most people think they are chrome steel when they see 'em in person. You do have to look really close to see that they are fake.

Held on with these really cheesy clips. A real PITA to put on and take off. Luckely, you don't have to remove the whole cover to take off the wheel. Just the center cap. So rotating them is not as bad as it could be.

I'm always looking at what tire size people are running. Getting pretty good at guessing the sizes. Then I'm bending down looking to verify it. Only been caught a couple of times. All you gotta say is "great wheels man, where'd you get them?" Then they get this big ol' grin on their face because you complemented their ride.....