BE CAREFUL if you install wheel spacers
- Thread starter typehxr1
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I only use wheel spacers made from the finest of tin foils, am I going to die?
Hitmanhink
New member
I just bought an 05’ 4Runner with a 2.5” lift and 285s it also has 2” wheel spacers. It looks great but this story scared me a bit… I also noticed when I went to take the spacers off, the spacer lug nuts only grab the bolts half way onto the lug nuts by the time their totally tight.. maybe just a little over half way… I’m wondering if others have run into this and what solutions would be reccomended by those with experience?
Hitmanhink
New member
Lol not if you make a tin foil hat of the same material and wear it whenever you drive.
y=mx+b
New member
You can buy longer studs for you hubs, which will allow those wheel spacer nuts to completely grab on. You'll have to disassemble everything down to the wheel bearing, press out the old studs, and press new ones in. There are lots of videos on YT for generic tutorials on how to swap studs.
Hitmanhink
New member
A couple options I’m curious of would be reducing the spacers down to 1.5” just in the front or maybe all the way around? Interestingly the rear spacers don’t have this problem, the lugs nuts secure all the way onto the studs. Would it be a viable option to run 1.5” spacers just in the front and then keep the 2” spacers in the rear?
Seems like it would be too much work to get longer wheel studs, but is that a viable option in anyone’s opinion?
Seems like it would be too much work to get longer wheel studs, but is that a viable option in anyone’s opinion?
Hitmanhink
New member
Oh cool thanks [MENTION=429038]y=mx+b[/MENTION] for the reply I must have been just asking this question when you replied. I’ll do a search to see what’s involved. A mechanic friend told me the same thing but mentioned how much work that was… curious how many feel that’s worth it for the work involved?
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y=mx+b
New member
I have not done it, but my buddy did it to his and said it wasn't too bad. I'm going to do it to mine soon so I can run some spacers to add clearance for my spindle gussets
Jakeepoo3
New member
That's correct. Installation error. Wire brush all surface rust, spray off with brake cleaner. Apply red thread locker. Tighten down the spacer evenly in a star pattern in small increments. My cheap Chinese spacers must have came with better instructions also.
You should grab at least eight threads if not you need longer lugs. Torque to the same spec for your wheel lugs I think it's 86 ft lbs. Recheck torque after about a hundred miles. Spidertrax prices are rediculous. I bought a Chinese set of 2" spacers for $100 on ebay. Of course I researched them first. Obviously hub centric and machined from one solid chunk of the exact same aluminum alloy spidertrax uses. Off roading them hard for two years. No problem. Sorry that happened to you ouch!
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Hitmanhink
New member
I did some homework and pulled front and rear wheel spacers off to do a comparison and better inspection. I confirmed the wheel studs in the back are longer than the front which is why the rears fit all the way onto the lug nut just fine. Also took pictures of how far the front lugs fit onto the studs and got some measurements… the lug nuts themselves have approx 27/32” or 21.43mm of threads all the way through end to end. They’re currently fitting onto the threads by 17/32” or 13.49mm. So that means 10/32” or 7.94mm of the threads are not grabbing. Here’s the photo:
Dropbox - D261B6A8-71B2-4209-B06B-25C2296CB631.jpeg - Simplify your life
After giving it some thought and knowing I need to do something to fix this… I decided to ditch the 2” wheel spacers and I just bought some 1.5” spacers by CkAuto on Amazon not sure if anyone has any experience with these? but they seem pretty legit. Comparing with Spidertrax (which seem to be the most reputable) CkAuto had the only other ones I could find with a “thicker center lip” design. That was the biggest major difference I could find between Spidertrax and others. Most others seems to have a very thin center lip.
Most all spacers are advertising to be made with the same 6061-T6 aviation grade forged aluminum alloy, but another thing to look for is what kind of studs are used. The studs on OEM and Spidertrax use 10.9 grade. CkAuto uses 12.9 grade studs and a “dacromet” coating which sounds like good corrosion resistance for us east coasters driving on salty roads… Or maybe I’m falling prey to their clever marketing tactics - someone can totally call me out on that if they know more? Spidertrax uses a coating called Geomet which sounds very similar. I read that dacromet was sort of the first gen version of geomet both advertise 10x corrosion resistance over zinc.
All this sounds great but a few other things to consider… one thing I was not able to figure out in comparing the specs on all the spacers is the thickness of the space the studs hold through the spacer - I’ve marked that question in red on the spidertrax diagram.
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I’ll measure it on my CkAuto spacers once I get them. Maybe someone can measure that on their spidertrax spacer? Otherwise I’ll call and ask Spidertrax if no one responds.
At the end of the day we all have to realize if you run spacers you are running a risk in that your relying on proper installation, proper use, and structural integrity of the materials and their construction. Some measurements can’t necessarily be taken or aren’t published. Any manufacturer can make a mistake hopefully not on the one that you purchase.. there are plenty of parts we rely with our lives everyday without knowing all the specs. Hopefully the manufacturers don’t cut too many corners to make an extra 2 cents. I felt there was enough info available to take the risk. But I will not rush the installation process double checking the torque on all the lugs and then rechecking after 80 miles or so… or anytime I pull the wheel off if I can remember.
Hope this helps anyone reading. And if anyone has more to contribute that I don’t know please chime in. This has been a super helpful thread for me already!
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Hitmanhink
New member
Update: So a rookie like me would think that going from 2” spacers to 1.5” spacers would give you 0.5” more bite on the studs than the 2” spacers… I mean it makes mathematical sense right? Well.. lol let’s see if I can explain this properly… the wall on the spacer between the cone side of the lug nut and the back side of the spacer is actually the same on 1.5” spacer as it is on the 2” spacer! So at the end of the day the new 1.5” spacers don’t accomplish anything for me… I’ll need new longer studs either way if I want to fix this problem... it will be a bigger job, but it will be cheaper cuz thankfully, I can return the spacers
Hitmanhink
New member
Ok I finally got around to it. Replaced all the front wheel studs and now my spacers fit on properly. I also put blue thread lock on the studs just for some extra insurance to help prevent the lug nuts from getting loose. The Lexus ls300 wheel studs from ARP were a great fit. Part # 100-7715
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Dropbox - Photo Apr 08, 6 27 48 PM.jpg - Simplify your life
Dropbox - Photo Mar 29, 4 35 00 PM.jpg - Simplify your life
Dropbox - Photo Apr 08, 6 27 48 PM.jpg - Simplify your life
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I realize this is a fairly old thread, but with some recent discussion still happening I wanted to chime in just a bit..
If done properly, wheel spacers are an absolutely safe option, both on and off road. I won't claim that ALL the failures happen due to install error, but it certainly seems that a large number of threads I have seen come up across various boards certainly point that way. Between torqueing the nuts way over spec and stretching the factory studs, to installing the conical nuts backwards, to not cleaning the mating surfaces properly and lastly, not removing the existing loctite when removing and reinstalling the spacers.
The first batch is pretty common sense, however, I recently ran across a discussion of a possible failure point being existing thread locker that was not sufficiently removed in between taking off the spacers and re-installing them.
There was a guy that lost a wheel at highway speeds after running spacers with no issues for a long long time, and when his studs sheared off on him at 70+ mph he was able to determine that there was still some old thread locker residue that could be seen on the failed studs. Now this isn't 100% confirmed, but the only conclusion that sounded reasonable is that if you remove existing spacers that were thread locked and do not chase the threads to fully remove the residue, there is a chance that you are either over or under torqueing the nuts going back on, while also possibly leaving just a tiny amount of space between the threads allowing vibration to eventually cause the studs to fail.
Long story short.. I just did the same thing and failed to clean my threads. I will be in the process of removing the spacers again and literally chasing the threads with a die just to be on the safe side. I am 100% pro-spacers, but am petrified of the idea of losing a wheel at highway speeds.. especially having a RTT permanently on, running a high lift with 35's and no front sway bars. That certainly would be a recipe for a rollover.
If done properly, wheel spacers are an absolutely safe option, both on and off road. I won't claim that ALL the failures happen due to install error, but it certainly seems that a large number of threads I have seen come up across various boards certainly point that way. Between torqueing the nuts way over spec and stretching the factory studs, to installing the conical nuts backwards, to not cleaning the mating surfaces properly and lastly, not removing the existing loctite when removing and reinstalling the spacers.
The first batch is pretty common sense, however, I recently ran across a discussion of a possible failure point being existing thread locker that was not sufficiently removed in between taking off the spacers and re-installing them.
There was a guy that lost a wheel at highway speeds after running spacers with no issues for a long long time, and when his studs sheared off on him at 70+ mph he was able to determine that there was still some old thread locker residue that could be seen on the failed studs. Now this isn't 100% confirmed, but the only conclusion that sounded reasonable is that if you remove existing spacers that were thread locked and do not chase the threads to fully remove the residue, there is a chance that you are either over or under torqueing the nuts going back on, while also possibly leaving just a tiny amount of space between the threads allowing vibration to eventually cause the studs to fail.
Long story short.. I just did the same thing and failed to clean my threads. I will be in the process of removing the spacers again and literally chasing the threads with a die just to be on the safe side. I am 100% pro-spacers, but am petrified of the idea of losing a wheel at highway speeds.. especially having a RTT permanently on, running a high lift with 35's and no front sway bars. That certainly would be a recipe for a rollover.
Bluesky 07
Senior Member
Chiming in on a couple of points seen in various posts...one advising blue thread locker and the other to torque the spacers to the same spec as the lug nuts. I can only speak to Spidertrax since that's what I have but both of those would be inaccurate. Best advice is to read the manufacturer's instructions for the spacers you're running and follow them to the letter.
I saw that as well.. and I agree 100%. I can speak to Spidertrax as well as one other Amazon brand that I have used, but both definitely specified red Loctite, not blue, and have provided the necessary torque spec/sequence.
