Are Wheel Spacers bad?

[Okie]

I was told that they were not very safe and may be hard on the suspension since you would be varying from factory specs.
But, if I use plenty of lock tite, I figured they would stay on forever. As far as the suspenson, what difference does it really make just moving the wheels only 1" outward.

 

[CJ3Flyr]

It's hard to know. Many times they aren't good for a variety of reasons. In the case of the T4R with stock offset rims and Spidertrax it seems to work well. The Spidertrax are more like wheel adapters than spacers. Some say never use them but many have great success and no problens on 4th gen T4R's.

:cheers:

 

[4runnerfourplay]

I agree that the spidertrax are more-so a wheel adapter. They are hub-centric and they bolt on. When you hear that wheel spacers are dangerous they are talking more about the type that slide onto the studs and the wheels go on after the spacers. Those suck because you are lessening the amount of threads that you have to tighten the lug nuts onto making it more dangerous. If the spidertrax are properly installed I dont see any problems with them.

 

[Will816]

When it comes down to it, your wheels were designed to have a certain offset to correspond to the suspension. Anytime that is changed, you bring unknown factors into play. It changes the leverage on the suspension components, it changes the scrub radius (the distance between the center of the tires contact patch the point at which the steering geometry intersects the ground), and possibly other things that could have a detrimental effect on the vehicle. Keep these things in mind. As an engineer, I am always weary about changing this stuff, at my job we design our parts to fall within certain specs, if the specs are changed, we need to redesign. Consequently, if Toyota had wanted the track on the 4Runner to be wider, they would have redesigned the suspension, not added wheel spacers.

 

[J.A.]

When it comes down to it, your wheels were designed to have a certain offset to correspond to the suspension. Anytime that is changed, you bring unknown factors into play. It changes the leverage on the suspension components, it changes the scrub radius (the distance between the center of the tires contact patch the point at which the steering geometry intersects the ground), and possibly other things that could have a detrimental effect on the vehicle. Keep these things in mind. As an engineer, I am always weary about changing this stuff, at my job we design our parts to fall within certain specs, if the specs are changed, we need to redesign. Consequently, if Toyota had wanted the track on the 4Runner to be wider, they would have redesigned the suspension, not added wheel spacers.

Toyota changed the track on the 2009 Trail Edition 30MM with no other changes. Spidertrax spacers are 32MM each for a track change of 64MM. Sure unknown factors may come into play, but so far I havent seen anyone report any issues.

 

[Will816]

Toyota changed the track on the 2009 Trail Edition 30MM with no other changes. Spidertrax spacers are 32MM each for a track change of 64MM. Sure unknown factors may come into play, but so far I havent seen anyone report any issues.

I ran out of time in my post and should have finished, but didn't. I didn't mean to imply not to get them, I just meant to emphasize that no one can really say whether or not they are bad because we really just don't know, but they are technically out of tolerance for the given architecture.

I didn't know Toyota widened the Trail Edition. Was it simply the FJ wheels that gave it the whole 30mm? I know for the 1986 model year they widened the track by 50mm, but this was with entirely new suspension on the existing chassis.

 

[EH007]

I ran out of time in my post and should have finished, but didn't. I didn't mean to imply not to get them, I just meant to emphasize that no one can really say whether or not they are bad because we really just don't know, but they are technically out of tolerance for the given architecture.

I didn't know Toyota widened the Trail Edition. Was it simply the FJ wheels that gave it the whole 30mm? I know for the 1986 model year they widened the track by 50mm, but this was with entirely new suspension on the existing chassis.

I have FJ wheels (the 17" six spoke) on my 4Runner, and because of the different offset, my 4Runner's track is 30mm wider than with the stock wheels. I'm fairly certain that the 16" wheels on the Trail Edition 4Runner are the same wheels that were originally used on the FJ. So I'd have to say that's where the extra 30mm track width comes from.

As far as spacers are concerned, I agree that the suspension geometry was designed with stock specs in mind. However, there are tolerances for everything, and maybe something as mild as 15mm per wheel is within tolerance. And we all know that the popular 1.25" spidertrax spacers are much more than 15mm per wheel, so who knows whether or not this is within tolerance of the suspension geometry design? It may not be....and maybe guys running the spacers will eventually experience premature failure of suspension components. Or perhaps nothing negative will happen at all... only time will tell as guys running spacers start to rack up a lot of miles on their 4Runners.

Personally, for the '06 and newer 4Runners, I think the visual benefit of spacers is probably worth taking a chance because they look much better with a wider track due to the more pronounced fender flares. Without spacers, the tires/wheels look much too "tucked in" on the '06+ 4Runners. When I added FJ wheels to my 4Runner, just the little bit extra offset filled out the fender flares perfectly. No regrets at all.

 

[J.A.]

I didn't know Toyota widened the Trail Edition. Was it simply the FJ wheels that gave it the whole 30mm?

Yes. 15mm offset on each (FJ) wheel rather than 30mm (4R).