Wheel Spacers; Good or Bad?

[Chad Swaffard]

Hey all,

I am thinking about adding wheel spacers to my 2016 JK Unlimited Rubicon. I installed a Teraflex 2.5" lift and right now it still has the stock 255/75/17. I want a bigger over all tire (possibly 35's) but I want to keep my stock Rubicon rims. The factory back-spacing will probably not allow a tire that size on it without rubbing so that's when the wheel spacer idea came to me. I have run wheel spacers on all of my Polaris Rangers without any problems ever, but the Jeep is twice the weight of my crew fully loaded.

Any experience out there?

 

[Blue Baby Sound]

This kind of spacer/adapter is bad:

This kind of spacer/adapter is OK:

I run a spidertrax spacer on the wife's with no issues. Teraflex 2.5" lift, Rancho CA brackets, spidertrax 1.75" spacer with 315/70/17 Duratracs.

 

[Chad Swaffard]

Your Jeep looks good. Thank you for the input. I would think that applying the correct tourque and checking them at every tire rotation would work.

 

[Blue Baby Sound]

Thanks, so does yours!
Red thread locker on install. When you check torque set it a little lower than the original install as to not break the thread locker.
Wife's is 15k as pictured with no backing off of the spacers.

 

[NMC_EXP]

Seems to me that shifting the tire outboard will put more load on bearings and any other rotating parts in the hub.

 

[Burb One]

I have spacers, because I like my stock wheel on my suburban. Eventually I will get properly backspaced wheels.

Spacers are not the ideal situation. It's just another spot something can fail. Saying that, the quality ones with studs are fine. Make sure they are properly installed at torque with red locktite, and I recheck them every 10k ish.

Also, with "properly backspaced wheels" technically the spacers and a properly backedspace wheel will put the lever arm on the bearings/ hub etc. at the same point, because both move the mass of the tire/wheel out to the same point. Spacers might be a tad worse, because they add a bit of mass, as the mass of the wheel portion it contacts will be at the end of the spacer, so more mass of the wheel will be further out instead of without spacers, where that wheel mass will be where the "spacer" would be, but that's negligible.

 

[Blue Baby Sound]

Seems to me that shifting the tire outboard will put more load on bearings and any other rotating parts in the hub.

You're correct, but when going wider on tires there's no other choice. Backspace must be decreased by a wheel with lower backspace or a spacer. In the case of my wife's Jeep 4.5" BS was the goal. Factory wheel was 6.25", we used a 1.75" spacer to get to our goal.

My Jeep went from a 10.5" wide tire to a 13.5" wide tire. Wheel/tire weight increased from the factory 65 pounds to 134. Factory unit bearings lasted about 40k. The wife's Jeep is an 85 pound combo, I expect 80-100k out of hers.

 

[Fishrising]

Hi there, I am running 285/75/17 (33.8x11.2 by math, actually says 34x11.5 on the tire as well) Falken Wildpeak A/T3Ws with 1.5" Spidrertrax spacer on my JKU with a 1.75" Rock Krawler Budget Boost.

They measure just under 33.25" tall and a hair over 11" wide at 33ish PSI.

Here is before versus after (255/75/17 stock KMs vs 285/75/7 A/T3W), without the spacers:

The spare mounted, before I added back my bike rack and a washer on each stud (now the tire doesn't touch the 3rd brake light):

And here is with the wheel spacers installed, the tires barely stick out past the stock fenders, and tuck in nicely when articulated. Before wheelspacers the front tires rub on the sway bar at full turn in reverse. After the wheel spacers were installed they rubbed on the front air dam. Cutting out a 5"x5" square out of the end of the air dam alleviated that problem.

So, the spacers helped me alleviate some tire rubbing, then introduced some more (which I rectified), and gave the Jeep a better look in my opinion. I also have a sneaking suspension, articulation wise, I will do better in my current setup with the spacers than without. I too like the stock Rubicon wheels, and did not want the added expense of new wheels, so the spacers are working for me. Just make sure you install them per manufacturers specs....

 

[SilicaRich]

I would say as long as you don't run any absurd spacer width you should be good. Also, make sure when mounting the spacer it is flush (rubber mallet helps) and you use Loctite.

 

[Blue Baby Sound]

Also make sure you remove the factory rotor clips.

 

[Northridge4x4]

I have run the spider trax 1.5" for 50k issue free miles, Its all about making sure you install them correctly. Its scary seeing some come in with the acorn nuts backwards!

 

[kojackJKU]

I have run the spider trax 1.5" for 50k issue free miles, Its all about making sure you install them correctly. Its scary seeing some come in with the acorn nuts backwards!

SAY WHA? thats unbelievable. I ran a set of teraflexes for 150,000. No issues.

 

[DaveNay]

I have run the spider trax 1.5" for 50k issue free miles, Its all about making sure you install them correctly. Its scary seeing some come in with the acorn nuts backwards!

How do you put an acorn nut on backwards???

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[Northridge4x4]

How do you put an acorn nut on backwards???

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They are open ended and tapered

 

[DaveNay]

They are open ended and tapered

Ok. That's not what I would consider an acorn nut, hence the confusion.

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