Wheel Spacers

[BowtieWrangler]

Are wheel spacers alright to use on a Jeep? The 8.8 i have is 58.5 inches which i believe is narrower then the Explorers. Being that its 58.5 inches that makes it 2 inches Narrower than the Dana35 at 60.5 inches. So a 1 inch spacer on each side would make up the distance nicely. I just remember in the past hearing that wheel spacers are bad on the studs or axles? Since i have no first hand experience with using wheel spacers. Will wheel spacers hold up becuase they deffiently would correct the lenght issue.

the only thing i do know for sure is that cast aluminum is supposed to be very weak especially when wheeling.

[PavementPounder]

Older designs were prone to breakage due to poor design and material choice. Modern stuff is much more reliable and popular, especially with 8.8 swaps. The aluminum ones are fine on lighter vehicles. I run steel spacers all around on my Ram.

[BowtieWrangler]

thank you............so if i wanted extra assurance go with still but the Machine Aluminum should be alright?

[Grandman]

I have been running spacers on my 8.8 for some time . No issues with them at all .

Bought them about a year ago so id say there a modern material .

[Haggar]

The key with spacers, especially aluminum ones, is to torque them to correct spec.

Drive for about 20-50 miles, remove the wheels, and recheck/torque them. If you drive a lot on the road, I'd check them again, maybe after 100 miles, then every once in a while, like at oil changes.

There have been cases of them loosening up due to the differences in thermal expansion between the aluminum spacer body and the steel wheel studs.

I run them on the front of my Toyota. I'd say I have 500 miles on them over the course of the year, with some heavy off road use, no problems with them.

[Grandman]

haggar there spacers not adapters . If you remove the wheel theres nothing to check tightness on

[GreaseMonkey]

Originally Posted by Grandman

haggar there spacers not adapters . If you remove the wheel theres nothing to check tightness on

Depends on how think you're going. Getting super long studs with a chunk of steel or aluminum between the hub and wheel isn't that great of an idea.

I used Spidertrax 1.25" spacers on my lifted KJ I had. For the first few months I had to keep re-tightening, but other than that they held up fine. Doing any suspension work or even brakes was a PITA because it was like removing 8 wheels instead of 4.

Doing my wheel hubs once the wheel spacer lug nuts rounded off and I had to drill them out. For the cost, getting a set of black wheels with the proper wheelspacing is the way to go.

[Cooter]

Personally, I would just get or make wheels with the correct backspacing.

[BowtieWrangler]

Originally Posted by Grandman

haggar there spacers not adapters . If you remove the wheel theres nothing to check tightness on

the spacers i am refering to bolts directly to the axle studs, then the spacers have studs sticking out of them which the wheel bolts to the spacer studs

by the way i have brand new rims for my stock axles , so i will not be purchasing new rims

[Haggar]

Thats what I'm referring to. Not the little rings that don't have studs.

Here's what I run: They are 6 lug spacers from marlin crawler:



They have their own lug studs which are pressed into the spacer. They do not alter the pattern, just add 1.5" thickness per side. Cost is about $85 a pair, at least from Marlin. But those are 6 on 5.5".. Check spidertrax.

Here they are installed on my Toyota: You can see the 6 holes, thats where the spacers are bolted to the hubs. Then the 6 new lug studs pressed into the spacer. Thats a reason you don't want to overtorque them. I'ver heard of someone having the stud spin in the aluminum when they tried to remove it(also overtorqueing can make the studs snap under a shock load).




In general, follow the rules and they are perfectly safe. I'm leary of going beyond 1.5-2" or so, but in reasonable sizes, I see no problem

[BowtieWrangler]

those are exactly what i was talking about

[fr3db3ar]

I'm running the same as Jesus .....for over a year and no problems. They allow me to run multiple sets of stock rims with different tires and not have to buy new rims for every different set.....stock rims can be a lot cheaper to obtain