Quality Wheel Spacers?

[Weston4Runner]

Did some searching but ended up with more questions than answers.

I have a 2019 ORP with stock wheels and suspension. Been thinking about pushing the tires out just a bit to make the stance more aggressive. Is there a good quality solution to do this? Price not an issue, quality and safety is number one. I have 2 kids under 2. Ease of install is number two, I have the basic tools.

 

[the_fornicator]

Everybody is going to tell you SpiderTrax spacers. Same tools required to change your tires -only diff is the socket to installs the provided lugs is diff than the one for the OEM wheel lugs.

 

[ryguytheman]

I just put some Spidertrax spacers on my rig. I was at the Toytec shop in Denver and asked the same question as you, and I was told that they typically won't even install spacers on a customer's truck unless they are Spidertrax (even though they apparently do sell one other brand).

I have a 1.5 year old to haul around as well, so safety is the priority. I used a healthy amount of thread locker and torqued them down with an impact gun. Feels perfectly stable, and I'm not losing any sleep over my decision.

 

[LandCruiser]

Spidertrax aren't spacers, they are hub adapters. They install on your own studs then have their own OEM length studs so you aren't under-threading the nuts.

With that said, many shops still won't touch your wheels because you have spacers and if any window licker uses an impact wrench on them, they can stretch the shit out of them--and it costs about the same to buy new spidertrax as it does new studs.

 

[jdm-v35]

Not sure if I trust spacers myself - at least on the 4runner. I have them on another car, but I see a lot of failed lugs with spacers on 4runners. I am not sure if its because the lugs are weak, or the wheels/tires are much heavier and take a harder beating offroad than a car.

I have considered wheel spacers as well to get the necessary clearance for JBA UCA's, but the risk is not worth it.

On a side note, [MENTION=233036]ryguytheman[/MENTION] I noticed you are in Castle rock as well. not sure if that is your 4runner I have seen once in a while driving down meadows around 430am?

 

[llDemonll]

3 options:

1. Buy wheels with the offset you want

2. buy extended studs, hubcentric spacers, and new lug nuts

3. buy spacers

option 1 is best, 2 is second, 3 is third...

bolt-on spacers I'm not a fan of. Too much reliance on a tiny piece of metal.


Also, don't use an impact to install anything and just "torque it down". Something meant for 80-100 lb/ft and gets installed at 150 lb/ft is going to fail sooner than something properly torqued, and it's not going to be any safer.

 

[Dillusion]

I just put some Spidertrax spacers on my rig. I was at the Toytec shop in Denver and asked the same question as you, and I was told that they typically won't even install spacers on a customer's truck unless they are Spidertrax (even though they apparently do sell one other brand).

I have a 1.5 year old to haul around as well, so safety is the priority. I used a healthy amount of thread locker and torqued them down with an impact gun. Feels perfectly stable, and I'm not losing any sleep over my decision.

Man 1.5 year old and safety is a priority yet you impact it on?

I'd be worried about stretching um.

 

[El Dusty]

Spidertrax aren't spacers, they are hub adapters. They install on your own studs then have their own OEM length studs so you aren't under-threading the nuts.

Not sure why I care but spidertrax doesn't produce wheel adapters so we would all be correct in calling them spacers.

A wheel adapter is similar part that converts your wheel lugs from 5 to 6 studs or some other qty or dimensional change between hub and wheel. This is by definition what an adapter does...

What's the difference between a wheel spacer and a wheel adapter?

 

[ryguytheman]

Not sure if I trust spacers myself - at least on the 4runner. I have them on another car, but I see a lot of failed lugs with spacers on 4runners. I am not sure if its because the lugs are weak, or the wheels/tires are much heavier and take a harder beating offroad than a car.

I have considered wheel spacers as well to get the necessary clearance for JBA UCA's, but the risk is not worth it.

On a side note, [MENTION=233036]ryguytheman[/MENTION] I noticed you are in Castle rock as well. not sure if that is your 4runner I have seen once in a while driving down meadows around 430am?

Probably not, I live on the East side of I25 in the Terrain. I can be found driving around early occasionally, but not over in the Meadows.

 

[Bumbo]

If price is not an issue just get new rims in the offset you want.

Hub adapters are also a valid solution but they come with their own ownership concerns, especially if you have other shops working on the truck as well. I have really warmed up to the idea myself, but I have yet to actually buy them.

 

[velogeek]

Not sure if I trust spacers myself - at least on the 4runner. I have them on another car, but I see a lot of failed lugs with spacers on 4runners. I am not sure if its because the lugs are weak, or the wheels/tires are much heavier and take a harder beating offroad than a car.

I have considered wheel spacers as well to get the necessary clearance for JBA UCA's, but the risk is not worth it.

Proper spacers/adapters like Spidertrax are no different than a wheel with a negative offset - both are going to cause premature wear on the hub bearings in the same way because they both move the load center of the wheel outward, increasing leverage on the bearing. Otherwise there is little risk unlike true spacers that go between wheel and hub on the factory studs.

Install them properly and it will be fine: clean the studs and nuts with brake cleaner and clean rags or paper towels, and use a fairly liberal application of ultra high-temp blue loctite on the factory studs before properly torquing the inner nuts down. You can use red but I do not recommend it unless you carry a 24" breaker or impact around with you should the need arise to pull them off. Not so much an issue with disc brakes as much as drums but still, red takes some gusto to break loose.

 

[jdm-v35]

Proper spacers/adapters like Spidertrax are no different than a wheel with a negative offset - both are going to cause premature wear on the hub bearings in the same way because they both move the load center of the wheel outward, increasing leverage on the bearing. Otherwise there is little risk unlike true spacers that go between wheel and hub on the factory studs.

Install them properly and it will be fine: clean the studs and nuts with brake cleaner and clean rags or paper towels, and use a fairly liberal application of ultra high-temp blue loctite on the factory studs before properly torquing the inner nuts down. You can use red but I do not recommend it unless you carry a 24" breaker or impact around with you should the need arise to pull them off. Not so much an issue with disc brakes as much as drums but still, red takes some gusto to break loose.

I have to disagree with the first part. Yes, it puts the same stress on the wheel bearings, but it also adds a second weak point(extra studs) and applies more leverage/force on the studs. The wheel bearings are not of as much concern IMO as much as the studs breaking.

I run much more aggressive wheels on my other car, but the wheel and tire are significantly lighter, and they also dont see any off road forces. It also seems like the 4runner and tacoma studs are shorter than other cars and seem to be weaker. I would say there are many more cases of 4runner and tacoma studs breaking with spacers that I see than on the car forums.

 

[jdm-v35]

Probably not, I live on the East side of I25 in the Terrain. I can be found driving around early occasionally, but not over in the Meadows.

Cool. I also live on the east side near Franktown. I didn't mean The Meadows, but near I25 where Founders turns into Meadows Pkwy. I do occasionally see a red 4runner with a rack and sometimes a RTT early in the morning. I also see a nice 4th gen and a couple other 5th gens going up founders in the afternoon sometimes on the way home.

 

[LandCruiser]

Not sure why I care but spidertrax doesn't produce wheel adapters so we would all be correct in calling them spacers.

A wheel adapter is similar part that converts your wheel lugs from 5 to 6 studs or some other qty or dimensional change between hub and wheel. This is by definition what an adapter does...

What's the difference between a wheel spacer and a wheel adapter?

I call them adapters because your wheels aren't bolted to the hub bolts, but the spacer bolts.

 

[velogeek]

I have to disagree with the first part. Yes, it puts the same stress on the wheel bearings, but it also adds a second weak point(extra studs) and applies more leverage/force on the studs. The wheel bearings are not of as much concern IMO as much as the studs breaking.

I run much more aggressive wheels on my other car, but the wheel and tire are significantly lighter, and they also dont see any off road forces. It also seems like the 4runner and tacoma studs are shorter than other cars and seem to be weaker. I would say there are many more cases of 4runner and tacoma studs breaking with spacers that I see than on the car forums.

Thing is that physics doesn't work that way. There is a certain amount of leverage created by a wheel moved out from stock and it doesn't matter if it's through a 1.5" adapter or 1.5" of backspacing. The hub isn't going to know the difference and it does have greater leverage than an OEM setup. It will cause premature bearing failure but the degree to which it fails will be determined by how the vehicle is driven. A street driven vehicle may very likely get into the typical failure range but something that sees heavy off-road use will wear much sooner.

Additionally, both designs place the same stress on the studs because aftermarket wheels rarely use the OEM shank-style lugnuts, and instead use a tapered seat exactly like the adapters. Instead of simply holding the wheel flat to the hub and using the shank to control the rotational force, the lugnuts are now trying to control the rotational force of the wheel which pushes outward against the lugnuts and away from the hub - something a stock Toyota setup doesn't do.

This is why Toyota studs are weaker but again this is the case with both spacers and aftermarket wheels. The Toyota design is that the studs don't bear as much of a load as other companies because there is no tapered seat and they only have to control stresses on a single axis. Therefore, they don't need to be as beefy a stud and can run an M12 vs the 1/2" or M14 typically found on other trucks.

Where Spidertrax inner nuts sit along the OEM studs is the same as most aftermarket wheels I've seen which means similar stress on the OEM studs. It does offer an additional point of failure but given that the Spidertrax studs are much tougher than OEM, aside from the Spidertrax unit itself failing, it's not going to make any difference to a similarly backspaced wheel.

The lightness of the wheel also has nothing to do with this because it's the weight of the vehicle coming down that causes the force on the hubs and studs.

 

[jdm-v35]

Thing is that physics doesn't work that way. There is a certain amount of leverage created by a wheel moved out from stock and it doesn't matter if it's through a 1.5" adapter or 1.5" of backspacing. The hub isn't going to know the difference and it does have greater leverage than an OEM setup. It will cause premature bearing failure but the degree to which it fails will be determined by how the vehicle is driven. A street driven vehicle may very likely get into the typical failure range but something that sees heavy off-road use will wear much sooner.

Additionally, both designs place the same stress on the studs because aftermarket wheels rarely use the OEM shank-style lugnuts, and instead use a tapered seat exactly like the adapters. Instead of simply holding the wheel flat to the hub and using the shank to control the rotational force, the lugnuts are now trying to control the rotational force of the wheel which pushes outward against the lugnuts and away from the hub - something a stock Toyota setup doesn't do.

This is why Toyota studs are weaker but again this is the case with both spacers and aftermarket wheels. The Toyota design is that the studs don't bear as much of a load as other companies because there is no tapered seat and they only have to control stresses on a single axis. Therefore, they don't need to be as beefy a stud and can run an M12 vs the 1/2" or M14 typically found on other trucks.

Where Spidertrax inner nuts sit along the OEM studs is the same as most aftermarket wheels I've seen which means similar stress on the OEM studs. It does offer an additional point of failure but given that the Spidertrax studs are much tougher than OEM, aside from the Spidertrax unit itself failing, it's not going to make any difference to a similarly backspaced wheel.

The lightness of the wheel also has nothing to do with this because it's the weight of the vehicle coming down that causes the force on the hubs and studs.

No doubt about the wheel bearing failing earlier. You are right about that part. I personally don’t care about wheel bearing failure. All im concerned about myself when using spacers is the studs breaking honestly. I see a More than a few posts here and on tacomaworld about people losing wheels which worries me. And yes you are right maybe it is more so the vehicle weight. My other car is a g35 and on the 350z/g35 forums no one has issues with spacers but the cars are a lot lighter.

It also seems that a lot of them have the studs on the spidertrax spacers themselves failing.

 

[velogeek]

No doubt about the wheel bearing failing earlier. You are right about that part. I personally don’t care about wheel bearing failure. All im concerned about myself when using spacers is the studs breaking honestly. I see a More than a few posts here and on tacomaworld about people losing wheels which worries me. And yes you are right maybe it is more so the vehicle weight. My other car is a g35 and on the 350z/g35 forums no one has issues with spacers but the cars are a lot lighter.

It also seems that a lot of them have the studs on the spidertrax spacers themselves failing.

Honestly, there is no doubt that adding a second interface increases the potential for failure but with how low the failure rate is on Spidertrax, I'd be willing to bet most of them are rare defects or people who don't install them correctly. Since the adapters are billet aluminum, torque is significantly more critical than with the steel hub so powering them down with an impact is going to stress the aluminum at its weakest point - namely where the studs mount. In all the years I wrenched, I fully admit I only used a torque wrench for wheels at the shops that specifically required it but aluminum adapters like Spidertrax were always an exception.

If you're using just spacers that only use the factory studs then you're entirely correct. Spacers move the lugnut seat further out which stresses the stud and makes it much more prone to break - especially on those relying on a tapered seat. Spidertrax are a superior design because they keep a similar spacing for that mounting surface and they don't cause the added stress.

All that said, even if the odds are slim they break, I'm still not trusting them in the dirt but I wouldn't be running any more negative offset than necessary either. Skinny 33's are solid on the factory wheels and frankly IDGAF about the stance of my truck as long as it performs.

 

[joshoowa]

I have allpro 1.25" spacer/hub centric that i took off my rig, they are in great shape if anyone wants them PM i'll let them go for a reasonable price.

 

[pDubs]

[No message]

 

[pDubs]

I am not sure what happened with my first post, so trying again.

I installed a set of no name brand spacers from ebay after doing some research, and reading a thread about them on this forum.

They are made from 6061 t6 aluminum, and use 10.9 grade hardware, exact same specs as the Spidertrax. All 4 were less than 2 Spidertrax.

I have run them now for 4+ years, first on my 4th gen, then swapped them over to my 5th gen. Installed with blue loctite on the OEM studs, torqued the spacers down to ~85 ft lbs, then installed wheels onto the spacers also doing ~85 ft lbs (both obviously in proper torque pattern). They look great, and as long as I am not over torquing them, I have no issue running.