Do you use wheel spacers for wheeling?
- Thread starter PioneerOverland
- Start date
Buliwyf
Viking with a Hammer
My Drw has a huge front spacer. But the tires still sit far in. No extra width. That spacer is a bit beefier than the POS brodozer nonsense out there as well. The bolts rust in place pretty quickly, they ain't going nowhere, and the axle is designed this way. This is definitely an apples to oranges comparison.
I would never run an aftermarket wheel spacer on anything. Get the correct wheels, and trim your fenders to keep the tires tucked in properly.
I would never run an aftermarket wheel spacer on anything. Get the correct wheels, and trim your fenders to keep the tires tucked in properly.
Cruisn
Adventurer
Like I said earlier, I have had no issues with aftermarket. so take what you want from that.
Mine are aluminium, machined fit, and grade 12.9 studs. no issues to date.
use red lock tite during installation to help
if I change rims I will also change tyre size, all the sudden its a 3000 exercise or 300 for quality spacers.
Mainly due to wanting to move down form an 18" rim size.
LandCruiserPhil
Expedition Leader
I have run custom hub centric and wheel centric along with the lowest price spacer on Ebay over the years and never an issue. The lower price spacer requires more attention when installing but are runnable without issue.
rayra
Expedition Leader
I've been wearing them for ~18mos, but roughest off-road use is forest access roads and some high desert washes. And a lot of hard fast highway miles. No trouble, good apparent quality, torqued properly, check them whenever I have the wheel off for anything else, never found any trouble.
billiebob
Well-known member
Factory installed is completely different from bolt on in the driveway.
Sure correctly installed and torqued but you must know how many driveway mechanics do not have a torque wrench.
This is one of the easiest bolt on mods to do wrong.
I fail to see anything argumentative in my post.
nickw
Adventurer
Excuse my ignorance - but are folks all talking about the same thing here? I see some of the pics showing the hub-centric bolt on style, but there are the 'slip' on style that require longer wheel studs too. The slip on style seem to come in thinner options but in some cases offer you all the spacing you need due to minor tire rub and also don't require an extra set of studs....but may require longer aftermarket studs, not sure if this is better or worse than the bolt on style.
85_Ranger4x4
Well-known member
Everybody is rah rah ree on the hub centric thing, make sure your hubs are hub centric compatable before you go that route.
My Ranger front axle is wheel centric, it doesn't really even have a base to try to do any hub based centering. So check that before you start ordering stuff.
My rear axle has nice bosses for hub centric spacers/wheels though (1996 Explorer, originally had hub centric wheels)
Steel wheels vs alloys will effect the need for stud length too. If you put the spacers on with steel wheels you can get by with more compared to the next guy with alloy wheels which are thicker.
My Ranger front axle is wheel centric, it doesn't really even have a base to try to do any hub based centering. So check that before you start ordering stuff.
My rear axle has nice bosses for hub centric spacers/wheels though (1996 Explorer, originally had hub centric wheels)
Steel wheels vs alloys will effect the need for stud length too. If you put the spacers on with steel wheels you can get by with more compared to the next guy with alloy wheels which are thicker.
D
Deleted member 9101
Guest
While I have never done any serious off roading with spacers, I have had them on plenty of vehicles over the last 25 years. Never once had a problem. Even on a 5.Slow spraying a 2 stage 150 shot they held up fine.
CampStewart
Observer
That analogy is apples to oranges. Spacers can also be used to put the contact patch and scrub in the stock location when using non stock wheels.. Contact parch and scrub are often changed when using non stock wheels and larger tires, changes often made for clearance and.or stability .
rayra
Expedition Leader
'Stability' is why I got them. Early on in my ownership of this Sub I took an interstate freeway transition road with a reducing radius at way too high a speed and came damned close to rolling it. Felt like I was fully off the passenger side suspension and I was using every inch of the pavement between the paint line and the iceplant, foot off the gas, hoping I could keep it on the road long enough to settle down and reach the merge. Really felt like I was on two wheels.
I had 2" spacers (4" overall increase in track width) installed within two weeks. Had been driving Tahoes for years, the extra rear length, tired coil spring, body roll in this tired Sub really caught me off guard. I'd driven that same transition in our Tahoes many times at similar speeds. All vehicles K1500s, Z71s. But I'd put 2" of suspension height on this Sub and about 300# in the cargo area. The rear end really wanted to come around as the body roll rapidly got worse.
So now I drive it a tad bit slower in curves. Still need to stiffen up those rear springs.
Just looked it up, looks more mild than it drives. The road also isn't cambered/canted properly. Descending and off-camber. Really though I was going over, which would have put me in that slick crap and shot me across 4-5 lanes of converging traffic at about 45deg, with me on the side taking the hits.
I had 2" spacers (4" overall increase in track width) installed within two weeks. Had been driving Tahoes for years, the extra rear length, tired coil spring, body roll in this tired Sub really caught me off guard. I'd driven that same transition in our Tahoes many times at similar speeds. All vehicles K1500s, Z71s. But I'd put 2" of suspension height on this Sub and about 300# in the cargo area. The rear end really wanted to come around as the body roll rapidly got worse.
So now I drive it a tad bit slower in curves. Still need to stiffen up those rear springs.
Just looked it up, looks more mild than it drives. The road also isn't cambered/canted properly. Descending and off-camber. Really though I was going over, which would have put me in that slick crap and shot me across 4-5 lanes of converging traffic at about 45deg, with me on the side taking the hits.
Ran/still running 1" wheel spacers on my Tacoma for over 25k now. Never had a problem. I check it every 3k with my oil change. Never had a lug come loose on the spacer or the hub.
Installed 1.25" on my ZR2 a week after I bought it. Almost 12k miles now and same thing. Rotated twice and nothing came loose. I don't plan on swapping for a proper offset wheel since I can destroy the cheap factory wheels for free.
Both trucks have seen their share of off-roading. I run OEM wheels on both trucks and wheel spacers are the only way to get the stance I want.
Installed 1.25" on my ZR2 a week after I bought it. Almost 12k miles now and same thing. Rotated twice and nothing came loose. I don't plan on swapping for a proper offset wheel since I can destroy the cheap factory wheels for free.
Both trucks have seen their share of off-roading. I run OEM wheels on both trucks and wheel spacers are the only way to get the stance I want.
Peter_n_Margaret
Adventurer
It is illegal to use wheel spacers in Oz.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome
Victory 4x4
Member
We have run them on a lot of different vehicles without issue. Buy them from a reputable manufacturer and torque them properly and you shouldn't have issues. We use red Loctite on the vehicle's wheel studs, but you will get different opinions on that.