Dangers of Wheel Spacers (Long read)

IF you don't agree, become more renown that the guy that I met with to discuss this then I will consider your arguments. I am not telling you not to use them, just trying to educate from one of the best sources on the planet. Notice he does the same, just addresses the topics, but does not tell me yes or no.

These are the exact words of my professor's response in our discussion. In his words, "I have worked out more dynamics problems, especially relating to automobiles, than anyone else on this planet, save 5 or 6 individuals".

 

Wow! Honestly, I have been using mine and have no complaints. Life is too short to skip out on stuff like this. All that high tech talk gave me a headache! lol

 

Good to know. I thought it would just wear out the bearings quicker.

 

k i understand wheel spacers are bad, but what about the spidertrax adapters?? whats the difference between this and having a wheel with different back spacing? i still haven't heard of any complaints bout the spidertrax adapters

 

No complaints here with my spidertrax. And I have done some pretty gnarly stuff

 

Thank you so very much for finding someone qualified to answer (and possibly finalize) a debate. Rep to you.

Now here's my rebuttal:

I park my truck on jack stands every night, and at every grocery store. No more static load. I win.

But seriously, I respect your search of fact over biased fact.

 

It's the same thing- The moment-arm is displaced force- No matter how much you pay or how high quality the part is that gets used to displace it.

A wheel with the set back space pushes/pulls on the hub/lug studs directly. If you add a spacer with the same rim- The rim then pushes/pulls on the spacer, and the spacer in turn pushes/pulls on the hub- creating a torque force (or moment arm) at both the rim/spacer interface and the spacer/hub interface.

Just like I said last time- Your truck won't implode cause you use spacers- but the forces are different and can cause premature/improper wear.

 

They're not the best things to put on by any means but they make small cars look nicer when the wheels are flush with the body.

I'll probably never use them though, in the end you're still on stock suspension with stock everything running a 2 inch wider track.

 

Thanks guys, I have been trying to meet with him ever since that one hostile thread about them so I could back it up with a concrete source. I perfectly understand the statics around them, but I have not taken dynamics yet. So I figured who better the talk to than the guy who wrote our dynamics textbook.

After about a week of correspondence I finally met with him and recorded our conversations just to transcribe it on here

 

I saw that heated debate and stayed clear as I knew I couldn't explain it well. I did R&D with DACE Manufacturing for Remote Control cars and our biggest single product was wheel adapters (spacers).

We always saw an increase in bearing wear and the scrub radius change was really noticeable on the track when racing. The pros would swap bearings every race day and sometimes during the day depending on conditions.

In a racing environment, sometimes a wider or narrower trac would offset the scrub in the tight turns and sometimes the increased camber rise would be desirable, so they were an option that many racers tested with in practice to decide what to run in the heats/main event.

- so my experience reflects what your Prof wrote. I agree with his assessment

 

Thanks for the corroboration! I don't have a problem with wheel spacers at all, I just had a problem with new/low post guys coming in and asking if there is any risk in running them, and people telling them "No there is none at all, I have run them for years with no problems". But I found myself with insufficient understanding of dynamics to back my claims up so I went to my professor.

 

Oh and no offense JD! I just don't like that advice given to people who are considering them and know nothing about them.

 

No worries. Everyone is responsible for their own actions. If they dont do enough research and something happens, its their bad. lol
Nice post. i tried rep'ing you but I need to rep others first. it wont let me.

 

haha no problem. My new come back to arguments of there being no risk in wheel spacers given to new guys is going to be this:

 

haha. I take that class(statics) next quarter. At my school its an 80% fail rate.

 

yup mine is about the same haha. Best of luck to you in it

 

Thanks.

 

In fact i withdrew from it my first semester