The Pros and cons of wheel spacers

Under or over tightening can cause a stud to sheer off. That's about it. Or really crappy studs.

 

Can I ask what the hub centric deal is?

 

I just ordered the venum. They appear to be just as good as the name brands. 1.25". I hear BORA makes good stuff if you can wait, theirs go down as much as 3/4".

 

Physics. Just physics.

You lengthen the lever the tire has to use to stretch the studs, which makes it easier to bend/stretch/snap them. In a normal setup, the hub centers the wheel, and the only force applied to the hub is the stretching caused by the wheel hitting objects and transferring that energy to the studs. If you offset, you increase the length of the lever the wheel has to apply the stretching effect. As an example, you can probably tighten the lug nuts as tightly as you can pull them with a standard 1/2" ratchet handle. But with a 24" breaker bar, I can pop a stud off pretty easily because going from a 12" level to a 24" lever doubles the torque you apply through that lever. This same force multiplication applies to the ball joints as well. I knew a young kid that ran with 12" offsets on a truck with homemade hydraulics. Looked pretty cool until he called me for a ride home. When I got there, the front two wheels were apparently bent upward. But in reality, they had just pulled the bottom ball joint apart and dropped the frame to the ground in the front.

 

Wheel spacers also put more strain on the bearing, acting as a fulcrum extension it puts more strain on the bearing in a negative manor. The further out the wheels are, backspacing or spacer the faster they wear. It's not a serious issue but another con that should be listed.

 

Anyone have experience with the 3/4" BORA spacers? The 1.25" spacers push my wheels out just a little further than I'd like. I think the 3/4" may be more what I'm looking for. It would be nice if I could find a hub centeric 1/4" spacer. I literally just need a little push to clear my calipers.

 

Except, I believe a wheel that has less backspacing sends more force back to where the intended load was.....intended. This issue is exasperated with spacers that act like levers, like a pry bar, on the hub. Most quality wheels I've seen have stock backspacing or maybe 4" rather than 4.5". Mickey Thompson makes one with a 3.5" back spacing that I'm probably gonna get as I ran them on my XJ and they they were super tough. Currently I'm running 1/2" Baer Billet spacers with extended studs. If my theories are sound, I have little to worry about and shouldn't do any bearing damage. #justsayin

 

I put Bora 1" spacers on my 3rd gen about two weeks ago. On Bora's recommendation, I had them retorqued after some use. Then, on Friday I had them retorqued again to spec for my own peace of mind.

I've put about 1000 miles on them over highway, country roads and mountain pass (with compacted snow and ice) conditions. Every time they were retorqued, there were no issues.

Having said all that, I am planning to buy a set of SCS wheels once they come available.

TLDR - I've 1" Boras on for about 1000 miles over various road conditions with no problems and regular maintenance.

 

I had spidertrax 1.25" spacers for 3 years on stock sport wheels before switching to 4.5" backspaced aftermarket wheels. Both had the same leverage effect. Replaced my first set of wheel bearings after 120,000 miles. I'd venture a guess that with a stock setup, wheel bearings probably wouldn't last much past 150,000 miles anyway so it seems pretty negligible to me.

 

You basically have 2 options when centering a wheel. It can be centered by the hub itself or by the lug nuts. In hub-centric, the inner bore of the center hole of the wheel is the same size as the ring on the wheel hub. The wheel then rides on this and is supported and centered by the hub.

 

Just want to make 100% clear in my feeble brain. Running a 4.5 bs wheel with a .75" spacer for example only, would be same amount of stress on ball joints ect. as a 3.75 bs wheel?

 

Yes, with additional mechanical joints and weight.

 

just threw on some 1.25” wheel spacers however i did not catch the brand. i went 31x10.5-15 and the rim was touching the brake caliper..so these spacers really helped.