you don’t even need a workbench in order to craft wheels.
The first level of the Grease Monkey perk will allow the character to craft their own wheels on hand. To craft your own wheels, to begin with you will have to unlock a certain perk through leveling up. It is a lot harder to gather all of the necessary materials in order to craft wheels but at least this is a guaranteed chance that you will get wheels. If you aren’t one for chance you can also craft your very own wheels. Explore gas stations and loot all of the containers inside for a good chance to find some wheels of your own. Going to places like mechanic workshops and gas stations throughout the map is your best chance for this. You can also just simply loot some areas and find wheels. You will notice a little wheel symbol appear on the bottom left of the screen if you were successful in getting a wheel. Use a pickaxe or stone axe on these to break them apart. Getting a wheel through this method relies on chance as it isn’t guaranteed that a wheel will drop every time you break apart one of these old tires. You can use a tool to break apart this to get guaranteed plastic and possibly a wheel if you’re lucky enough. Break apart old tires for a chance at getting a wheel