Wheel spacers are safe and work great for 99% of people as long as they are installed correctly.

Now this thread can be closed.

I second this motion; NOW it can be closed!

NZDZRT

I concur. I've been on Spidertraxx for over a year with ~12k miles. I've been off-roading (numerous over night trips) and long road trips with no issues. If you correctly torque them to the recommended specs, there shouldn't be any issues.

Tell me again, why is it necessary to use wheel spacers?
Seems the better idea would be to use wheels/tires combo that fits correctly.
Just my thoughts.

Nothing but ugly aftermarket truck wheels exist with the exception of like maybe two styles and the stock offset makes the 4Runner look puny from the factory. Spacers make it look much more aggressive. You could make a case for advantages of track width, but that'd just be kidding ourselves.

Almost all of these situations tend to be preceded by "my car was worked on by a shop within the 7 days prior to this happening" - circumstantial evidence, sure, but I think you can come to a pretty successful conclusion based on it.

sometimes there isn't a wheel that fits the bill. especially in 17". wheel offset, and width choices are terrible. I bought new wheels, and STILL ended up having to run spacers. there was really no other choice.

Ran spacers on my previous FJ over 7 years with no issues even wheeling fast on desert trails. It comes down to either the lug nuts were over tightened or left loose when they break all the studs like that.

It wouldn't be any wider than what im running with spacers right? I was able to kill most/all of the rubbing with the liner push-up technique and maxing out the castor on the alignment

My thoughts exactly XD

Ok one more question, Can I replace both the OEM studs from the wheel hub, and replace the spacer studs with arp studs?

yea but thats kind of expensive and overkill, and won't do anything to protect you if someone can't/won't follow directions (i.e. grease monkeys) on installations and tire rotations.

I'd only replace them if you HAD to replace them, as in you snapped a stud already which is quite common

I had a set of fat bobs garage wheel spacers very similar to the spider tracks on my 3rd gen 4Runner. They where professionally installed by fat bobs. About a week later I started hearing squeeking on bumps. On the freeway 75 mph the rear right tire came off passed me like I was standing still. I managed to pull over and had a very hard time braking. I watched as my tire bounced off the median and bounced into a parked highway patrol car in the center lane. He kindly put in on his hood and brought it back to me lol. I’ve heard of others loosing the front tire and rolling/dying. As cool as they look and although I see people that are getting away running them for years I’d never chance my or my families life again. If I where anyone on here running them I’d have my but puckered up all the time at high speeds/towing waiting for the ideal time to loose it. Running those your just increasing your chances one of the 10 studs/lugs will go essentially doubling your chance of a failure. Not worth it!! There company didn’t even refund me my money on the expensive spacers and did a horrible paint/repair job. Wouldn’t recommend them on anything!!!

Did you remove the wheels and retorque the lug nuts after 30-60 miles? Did Fat Bobs use Loctite on the studs coming off the hub? Did you pull over to see what the squeaking was?

When my hub cradled itself in my wheel as I was cruising down the road, I knew something had happened. Each and every lug was still intact with no damage. Prior to that, about 1.5 miles up the road, I had noticed a grinding/clanking noise on bumps and while turning. I was heading to the alignment shop after my lift was installed, so I thought it was something to do with that. I did not stop to check. Turns out the grinding was the lug nuts spinning off and the wheel moving off the lugs. Once pulled over, I immediately knew what had happened and the mistake I made. I did not check to make sure all the lug nuts were torqued down. I had skipped over that wheel completely, possibly thinking that my helper had done it.


That said, I have also run 2" spacers on an xterra and never had an issue. Is it possible for new spacers to have defects? No, not unless clearly visible (I received one that had been dropped in shipment and had a flattened edge). Is it possible for the lugs/studs to have defects? Yes, but extremely rare considering how many lugs are manufactured. Is it possible that there was a man-made error during install? Absolutely. Even that 30-60 mile retorque is part of the install. Failure to do that means that the spacers were not installed correctly.

I see what you did there.