Down side to wheel spacers???

[PitbullRescuer]

Okay, so I'm stock piling parts for my new one. I have just about everything I need. But while it's all apart, I'm going to do the Tundra Brake Upgrade. I had 199's on my old one, I'm going to go up to 231's for this one.

But I'll be running LC wheels. I understand from reading on here that I'll need at least 1/4" spacers. I like the idea of widening the stance a little bit so I was thinking maybe going with 1" or maybe even as far as 1.5" spacers. I'll be running 285/75/16's on this one.

My question is, what's the down side of running spacers? Seems like a no brainer to me to run them but is there anything I'm missing?

 

[Brutus]

I've had mine on for a couple years now and have seen nothing bad other than an occasional rock that misses the mudflap. I ordered 1-1/4" but was sent 1-1/2" and am ok with what I have.

 

[PitbullRescuer]

And while we're at it, what spacers (brand & size) are you guys running? I found a set of billet spacers on eBay, 1.5" set of four for $119. Not sure if they're hub centric or not though.

 

[ndcent]

Generally wheel spacers are known to cause your vehicle to explode, that said I'd still run them no worries.

 

[quicksilvr]

^haha.

The eBay 1.5" billet spacers are on my old '96 that my brother drives now, and also on my sisters '97. I felt like the Limited flares basically required the 1.5" with the stock wheel to look nice.


No issues with either set of spacers, other than you have to shorten the factory studs on the front wheels a tiny bit to make them sit flush and not stick out past the spacer.

 

[KidVermicious]

There's a difference between spacers and hub adapters. Spacers are simple rings that slip between the wheel and the wheel mating surface on the hub. They push your wheel farther out the studs, increasing leverage forces and making it more likely you'll sheer studs off. Adapters are the billet rings that bolt to your existing studs and provide a new set of studs to bolt the wheel too. Much safer, IMO, but folks run both.

Either will increase your scrub radius, making it more difficult to turn the wheel and increasing tire wear. They'll also put more strain on your ball joints and tie rod ends, leading to more frequent replacement of those parts, and magnifying any balance or alignment issues you might have.

Your best option is rims that fit correctly, your next best option is the adapters, then the spacers.

 

[BlackCat914]

I've seen performance cars with wheel spacers shear studs right off, since you're severely limiting the amount of threads the lug nut can attach to. If I absolutely needed big spacers, I'd really consider installing longer wheel studs.

 

[nevada]

There's a difference between spacers and hub adapters. Spacers are simple rings that slip between the wheel and the wheel mating surface on the hub. They push your wheel farther out the studs, increasing leverage forces and making it more likely you'll sheer studs off. Adapters are the billet rings that bolt to your existing studs and provide a new set of studs to bolt the wheel too. Much safer, IMO, but folks run both.

Either will increase your scrub radius, making it more difficult to turn the wheel and increasing tire wear. They'll also put more strain on your ball joints and tie rod ends, leading to more frequent replacement of those parts, and magnifying any balance or alignment issues you might have.

Your best option is rims that fit correctly, your next best option is the adapters, then the spacers.

agreed,

and, ive seen a LOT of them work loose. if you decide to use them, make sure to put loctite on the inner lugnuts, and torque them correctly.

 

[PitbullRescuer]

To be clear, I'm looking at spacer (or adapters if you will) that bolt onto the existing studs and then have new studs for the wheels to bolt to. Such as these:

4 Wheel Spacers Adapters 6x5.5 Toyota Tacoma 4Runner FJ on eBay!

 

[cj80cruiser]

^haha.

The eBay 1.5" billet spacers are on my old '96 that my brother drives now, and also on my sisters '97. I felt like the Limited flares basically required the 1.5" with the stock wheel to look nice.


No issues with either set of spacers, other than you have to shorten the factory studs on the front wheels a tiny bit to make them sit flush and not stick out past the spacer.

You had to shave a little off your front studs to get the 1.5" spacers to fit? I read 1" spacers would fit on stock studs without issue. I'm not interested in running spacers myself, however, I'm still curious.

 

[rm2fast]

There's a difference between spacers and hub adapters. Spacers are simple rings that slip between the wheel and the wheel mating surface on the hub. They push your wheel farther out the studs, increasing leverage forces and making it more likely you'll sheer studs off. Adapters are the billet rings that bolt to your existing studs and provide a new set of studs to bolt the wheel too. Much safer, IMO, but folks run both.

Either will increase your scrub radius, making it more difficult to turn the wheel and increasing tire wear. They'll also put more strain on your ball joints and tie rod ends, leading to more frequent replacement of those parts, and magnifying any balance or alignment issues you might have.

Your best option is rims that fit correctly, your next best option is the adapters, then the spacers.

Nicely put!

 

[cj80cruiser]

To be clear, I'm looking at spacer (or adapters if you will) that bolt onto the existing studs and then have new studs for the wheels to bolt to. Such as these:

4 Wheel Spacers Adapters 6x5.5 Toyota Tacoma 4Runner FJ on eBay!

I know a lot of people run them but I decided against spacers/adaptors with my LC wheels. My limited is flareless now anyway so it'll keep my tires from sticking out too far for my taste. I decided to replace my stock pads and rotors instead with brembo rotors off ebay and pads from Oreilly that were recommended on a thread I started. If they don't hold up then I'll do something later on.

 

[theizzardking]

There's a difference between spacers and hub adapters. Spacers are simple rings that slip between the wheel and the wheel mating surface on the hub. They push your wheel farther out the studs, increasing leverage forces and making it more likely you'll sheer studs off. Adapters are the billet rings that bolt to your existing studs and provide a new set of studs to bolt the wheel too. Much safer, IMO, but folks run both.

Either will increase your scrub radius, making it more difficult to turn the wheel and increasing tire wear. They'll also put more strain on your ball joints and tie rod ends, leading to more frequent replacement of those parts, and magnifying any balance or alignment issues you might have.

Your best option is rims that fit correctly, your next best option is the adapters, then the spacers.

^bingo

I've seen performance cars with wheel spacers shear studs right off, since you're severely limiting the amount of threads the lug nut can attach to. If I absolutely needed big spacers, I'd really consider installing longer wheel studs.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/64410-spidertrax-install-makes-me-nervous.html

my explanation of the 6-7 threads rule was crap a few pages back, better page here

Notes on Nuts and Bolts

taken from page one.
________________________________________________________________
As nuts and bolts are not perfectly rigid, but stretch slightly under load, the distribution of stress on the threads is not uniform. In fact, on a theoretically infinitely long bolt, the first thread takes a third of the load, the first three threads take three-quarters of the load, and the first six threads take essentially the whole load. Beyond the first six threads, the remaining threads are under essentially no load at all. Therefore, a nut or bolt with six threads acts very much like an infinitely long nut or bolt (and it's a lot cheaper).

Stress on threads

Note how the majority of
the stress is on the first thread to the left.
Image from Spiralock.



Thread % %Sum
1 34% 34%
2 23% 55%
3 16% 71%
4 11% 82%
5 9% 91%
6 7% 98%

There is little point in having more than six threads in anything. Nuts with National Coarse threads typically have 5 threads in them, whereas nuts with National Fine threads have about 8 threads. Nuts are usually stronger than the bolts they are on, which is to say that the bolt will usually break before the nut strips.

It is often said that two threads must be exposed above a nut. The reason for this is that the first two threads of a bolt are often poorly formed, and may not engage the nut properly. If they're not doing their share, the other threads in the nut will be overloaded, and the nut may strip.
_________________________________________________________________
end
_________________


a good rule of thumb there, that said dissimilar metals though can cause a problem though, so only use this rule when working with 2 items the same, the math to recalculate this with different metal types is in my earlier post on this thread, i know not, exactly on topic but i think this is one of those simple rules that's good to know when your wondering about things like this and when doing some work at home and you have to drill and tap something.

 

[BrianSD_42]

For what it is worth, I have never seen a thread where someone directly blamed spacers for a problem.

I ran aftermarket wheels which have a modified backspacing for years and only added spacers when I put the factory 5-stars on. With the spacers, my stance now matches what it was with the aftermarket wheels.

 

[SCRunner12]

You will need more than 1/4" for the 231's and LC wheels. I would say a .75"-1.25" should be more than enough. Don't go 1.5 as it would be equal to 3" backspacing and that is a lot. I plan on either getting new wheels or running .75" spacers. Also please go with Spidertrax (only 1.25"), All-Pro (1", 1.25" and 1.5") or Bora Wheel spacers (.75"-1.5") Wheel Adapters, Wheel Spacers, Hub Centric Rings | Motorsport Tech. People have run into too many issues with the ebay wheel adapters.

 

[quicksilvr]

You had to shave a little off your front studs to get the 1.5" spacers to fit? I read 1" spacers would fit on stock studs without issue. I'm not interested in running spacers myself, however, I'm still curious.

Now that I think about it, they might have been just 1". I honestly can't remember. And they are technically hub adapters, like everyone has already pointed out. I stay away from "spacers" like the plague. You HAVE to run longer studs with a regular spacer, and that is a headache and a half to find the right ones and then install them all.

 

[KidVermicious]

Insanely good info here, izzard, thanks!

my explanation of the 6-7 threads rule was crap a few pages back, better page here

Notes on Nuts and Bolts

taken from page one.
________________________________________________________________
As nuts and bolts are not perfectly rigid, but stretch slightly under load, the distribution of stress on the threads is not uniform. In fact, on a theoretically infinitely long bolt, the first thread takes a third of the load, the first three threads take three-quarters of the load, and the first six threads take essentially the whole load. Beyond the first six threads, the remaining threads are under essentially no load at all. Therefore, a nut or bolt with six threads acts very much like an infinitely long nut or bolt (and it's a lot cheaper).

Stress on threads

Note how the majority of
the stress is on the first thread to the left.
Image from Spiralock.



Thread % %Sum
1 34% 34%
2 23% 55%
3 16% 71%
4 11% 82%
5 9% 91%
6 7% 98%

There is little point in having more than six threads in anything. Nuts with National Coarse threads typically have 5 threads in them, whereas nuts with National Fine threads have about 8 threads. Nuts are usually stronger than the bolts they are on, which is to say that the bolt will usually break before the nut strips.

It is often said that two threads must be exposed above a nut. The reason for this is that the first two threads of a bolt are often poorly formed, and may not engage the nut properly. If they're not doing their share, the other threads in the nut will be overloaded, and the nut may strip.
_________________________________________________________________
end
_________________


a good rule of thumb there, that said dissimilar metals though can cause a problem though, so only use this rule when working with 2 items the same, the math to recalculate this with different metal types is in my earlier post on this thread, i know not, exactly on topic but i think this is one of those simple rules that's good to know when your wondering about things like this and when doing some work at home and you have to drill and tap something.

 

[waketek516]

I run 1.5" Hub adapters.... No issues - fit perfectly, and got them on eBay.

 

[absalom]

Love my 1.5" eBay spacers. No vibrations, or any other issues. The subtle change to stance they give my truck is amazing. And after I lifted my truck, they greatly increased my stability in corners (or at least it feels like they did.) Also at $110, they were nearly $100 cheaper then the Spidertrax.

 

[Bijan]

Either will increase your scrub radius, making it more difficult to turn the wheel and increasing tire wear. They'll also put more strain on your ball joints and tie rod ends, leading to more frequent replacement of those parts, and magnifying any balance or alignment issues you might have.

Your best option is rims that fit correctly, your next best option is the adapters, then the spacers.

Thank you for that input.

If I have the 16x7 5 star wheels...what disadvantages am I going to have versus buying new rims?

For a 285/70 size tire.... planning on 3" lift + 1" body lift. I don't want to have any rubbing issues whatsoever. Is that even possible?