So I typically have an aversion to wheel spacers but this just looks right.
I'll need 2 to 3 inch spacers to make them work. Can I make spacers safer? Loctite the nuts?
So I typically have an aversion to wheel spacers but this just looks right.
I'll need 2 to 3 inch spacers to make them work. Can I make spacers safer? Loctite the nuts?
2-3" (!) will be bolted to the hub. I don't see a problem with that, it's the same way the wheel is attached.
I've had 2" spacers on my trans am for 15 years or so. First with 17s, then 18s, and now with 19x10s. I dailied it for years with spacers. Beat the snot out of it. You'll be fine as long as your torque them correctly.
Ive autocrossed and hpde'd for years on hubcentric wheel spacers.
Its fine. Dont overthink it.
Just have to keep a closer eye on wheel bearings. Instead of checking them only when doing a pad slap, check for play at every other oil change
iansane said:...You'll be fine as long as your torque them correctly.
With a torque wrench. Evenly to spec. With proper nuts and studs.
Or just grab a breaker and tighten them to 1/4 turn less than failure and die gloriously.
If they are designed correctly. My brother almost went into Lake Pontchartrain when some wheel spacers wobbled the lug nuts off and the wheel came off.
You will die, though I'm not sure if wheel spacers will have anything to do with it.
No.
Some chatter that may (or may not) help:
Project BMW M3: Spacers and Square Wheels for Our E46
Project BMW M3: Installing Wheel Studs and Wheel Spacers
Yes, we have video.
Use billet machined ones, not the cheapy cast type.
jharry3 said:If they are designed correctly. My brother almost went into Lake Pontchartrain when some wheel spacers wobbled the lug nuts off and the wheel came off.
I really don't mean this facetiously, but I do think y'all got the order of events backwards. Unless there was something very odd about those spacers or the lug studs were not updated to compensate for the added thickness- and that's where I legitimately don't know and would like the full story if there is - spacers won't cause a lug nut too loosen. Or at least not in any way I can think of, so if I am missing something then please correct me. And I know pretty much all this could be interpreted as a sarcastic or condescending tone, so please understand that is not the case!
Gonna go out on a limb and say we could probably all use another 2-3"
I ran 1.5" on the mudstain for 2020. That said, I wasn't exactly pushing the limits of traction or speed. Those wheels make my pants tight. Do it.
The Zoomboni uses adapter/spacers and gets pushed pretty hard.
A better stress test on the was a set of 3" spacers I used on a SRW class B RV a few years back. LOTS of weight on those rear wheels and the spacers were fine.
They're fine.
(20mm on the front)
and these are OEM wheels
Well built bolt on spacers are fine. I've been running them on the Jeep for years with no sign of any issues.
You can do whatever you need to in order to get those C5 mags on that Vette.
cyow5 said:jharry3 said:If they are designed correctly. My brother almost went into Lake Pontchartrain when some wheel spacers wobbled the lug nuts off and the wheel came off.
I really don't mean this facetiously, but I do think y'all got the order of events backwards. Unless there was something very odd about those spacers or the lug studs were not updated to compensate for the added thickness- and that's where I legitimately don't know and would like the full story if there is - spacers won't cause a lug nut too loosen. Or at least not in any way I can think of, so if I am missing something then please correct me. And I know pretty much all this could be interpreted as a sarcastic or condescending tone, so please understand that is not the case!
My dad had a friend of his make the wheel spacers for his pickup truck. (I am not ever sure why because he did not have a tire rubbing problem with the 10-15 Armstrong mud grips on his '67 F-100. - a superb tire by the way - Dick Cepak bought the design from Armstrong to sell in his offroad shop.)
The lug nuts were tight with thread exposed. We owned a tire store so we were very familiar with how to tighten lug nuts. The rear wheel almost came off once when I was driving. Fortunately on a slow road. I felt a wobble and pulled over and saw the lug nuts were loose. I re-tightened them and went to the tire shop. I told my dad what happened, that the wheel spacers have something wrong with them and you should take them off. I was 17, he never believed anything I said because he always knew better. Plus the wheel spacers were his idea and he was never wrong. So fast forward about a week and my brother, who I also told about the faulty wheel spacers, was driving across the 24 mile Lake Pontchartrain bridge and had his almost diaster.
After that incident, which involved police and tow trucks, my dad believed me and threw away the wheel spacers. Basically my brother would have died if he had gone over the side of the bridge. You could see the scar the dragging brake drum made in the concrete for years afterward if you knew when to look.
I'm still runnin 2" spacers on the C10 and have a pair of 3".
In reply to jharry3 :
But what aspect of the design was wrong, exactly? Was the spacer too soft and it crushed? That's the only thing I can think of that'd cause a loss of preload, but it would have to be really porous (not impossible for a bad casting)
To play devils advocate- a few weeks ago we had a Sentra SE-R on our autocross course, with spacers and slicks. The wheel sheered off the spacer. It was bad.
Definitely gone now said:To play devils advocate- a few weeks ago we had a Sentra SE-R on our autocross course, with spacers and slicks. The wheel sheered off the spacer. It was bad.
Any evidence this would not have happened without the spacer? The common assumption is that the lugs do not carry shear; this is done by the friction between the clamped parts. If the lugs were not torqued correctly, this failure would be expected with or without the spacer. A couple posts above claims the spacer caused the lugs to loosen which would mean the spacer would be the culprit, but I can't see a realistic reason why that would happen with a normal spacer. That post also claims the spacer was not normal. The reason I am so interested in this topic is because I use that assumption (friction carrying shear instead of the bolts) a lot and think I understand its limitations, but the more real-world data I can get, the better. The catch here is the word "data" often gets lost in anecdotes.
I've been racing with the BMW CCA. Virtually the entire field runs spacers as big as my head. As long as you run high-quality, hub-centric spacers (H&R seems popular) and convert to wheel studs, you'll be fine.
The few times I've ever heard of anyone running into trouble with spacers was when they used extended lugnuts instead of studs plus nuts.
I would also avoid "conversion spacers" where you bolt the spacer to your hub and then bolt the wheels to the spacer itself. That seems like a bad idea for track use.
LanEvo said:I would also avoid "conversion spacers" where you bolt the spacer to your hub and then bolt the wheels to the spacer itself. That seems like a bad idea for track use.
Personal preference here, but I would rather a set of bolt on spacer/adapters over a set of slip on spacers and longer studs/lugbolts.
I haven't had any issue with spacers... I regularly run 25mm in the front and 15mm in the rear when I run my E36 spec Apex wheels on my E34 at the track. I have Motorsport Hardware 86mm studs and they've held up great. They made it through many off-track excursions and survived me totaling the car by rolling it.
Define "horrible death"
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