Correction made: 235/80/17

An FYI PM sent on the tires... so I don’t derail my own thread.

235s ? really what

Since opinions have been requested, mine is desired outcome provided by spacers is best accomplished via wheel selection and the effects of their width, offset and backspacing.

Anyone have pics of Spidertrax spacers on an otherwise stock 5th gen? I have just a 1" level and stock sized KO2s and would love some extra width (giggity), but I don't want it to look like a toad.

I’m curious as to why you are running such skinny tires?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've had Spidertrax 1.25" spacers on my truck for almost 3 years now. They are on there purely for aesthetics. I don't have any issues in the front of the fender due to the high-clearance cut, but I did need to do a BMC and occasionally the tire will get up into the area of the pinch weld at the rear of the fender. I have lost the plastic trim piece that covers the pinch weld several times and ended up notching it so the tire clears. My tires are about 2" wider than yours tho.

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.

I've been running spacers for about 4 years. I have yet to encounter a tire shop or the dealer say anything about them nor refuse to work on it.

I do check them at every rotation (I rotate myself). The only time I found them to be an inconvenience was when I was replacing the rotors.

One of the best looking 4Runners I've ever seen.

dude!!! you have one of the nicest looking 4runners here!! beautiful.

Thanks guys! She's my pride and joy =)

Been running spacers for over a year. Originally had 275/70/17 tires when I put them on, and I was very happy to get them untucked from under the vehicle. It's for looks, but I like the effect.

Before spacers (275/70/17)





After Spacers





Spacers with 285s

Does anyone know the width (outside of tread to outside of tread) on a stock 5th gen?

Just thought to measure and I’m at 69.5 in the front and 70” in the rear. Also put a tape on a stock Bridgestone and there is about 1.25 more tread width to them than I’m running.

Thinking out loud, between the narrower tires and 3” of lift, spacers might go a long way to bringing the COG back closer to stock. And yes, rims with more offset would do the same thing, but 7-hole Trail Edt wheels are best looking wheels, sooo...

I'll try to measure mine when I get home (as I mentioned earlier in this thread, similar setup to yours). I have the 1.25 inch spidertrax and I have JBA UCAs. I don't recall the measurement right after installing lift, UCAs, and alignment, but I think mine was slightly wider in the front (not noticeable, but measurable).

My experience with the spacers has been similar to others: no issues and I've never had a shop raise any question. I had them on two jeeps prior to this 4Runner, so I've probably got about 400K miles on spidertrax spacers with at least 10 tire changes in there. I suspect if you tried to rip a front wheel off somehow, other things would break before the wheel/spacer/hub connection does. Also as others have mentioned, it's important (and very straight-forward) to install these correctly.

What caster do you have on front?