I've run spacers on many of my sporty cars and have always loved them. I've never had one complaint other than they can be a pain to remove, especially if you don't use some anti-seize on the mating surfaces. When it comes to cars, I drive HARD, and have never felt unsafe at all due to spacers. When installed correctly, as long as they aren't extremely wide, what's to fear?

That said, I come from European cars that use wheel bolts, not studs/nuts. So a spacer for me meant I sourced a longer wheel bolt.. and at that point you're basically just using longer bolts with lower offset wheels. Everyone who claims wheel-bearing issues is being overly-sensitive to the issue. Sure, more stress is added, but how much? We are all modding our vehicles here and "adding stress" all over. Spacers don't add any more stress than aftermarket, lower-offset wheels, add. But if neither of those mods are for you, that's perfectly cool.

Anyway, I've held off on spacers for the 4Runner because 1) I'm not keen on the bolt-on style, and 2) rocks hitting the side of my truck when off-road. To alleviate both of these concerns, and hopefully attain a nicer stance, my interests are in something custom.. so I wonder about y'alls thoughts?

I'm thinking something like a custom 1/2" plate spacer, and then fitting studs that are 1/2" longer than factory studs. The spacer would just slide onto the studs and sit there, and is only held on by the sandwich between the hub and wheel. Functionally, the biggest difference is that I'd then be using longer studs (which are essentially just bolts), so I think their physical properties should be considered since they may now stretch differently than the stock studs would, etc. Can anyone think of any reason this wouldn't work well, or any issues I might run into?

Cheers.