School me on hub centric and lug centric please!

Dianna

Dianna

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I have always driven Toyota Trucks and 4Runners and I usually end up putting different wheels on my trucks. My 4Runner Trail currently has TRD wheels and my Tacoma has 5th gen 4Runner wheels, before that I had FJ Cruiser wheels on the Taco. I always assumed all of these wheels were lug centric and I always got my wheels balanced at Toyota since finding a Haweka adapter is apparently a really odd request, lol. Anyway, I was just informed that 5th generation 4Runner wheels are hub centric, is this correct? I asked the person who claimed this, how to tell if a wheel was hub centric or lug centric and he said to check the lugs. Well I have no clue what lugs have ended up on what truck, lol. Now I'm wondering if I have the wrong lugs on my Tacoma, if the new wheels are hub and this originally came with lug centric. Ugh. There must be a wheel expert on here, or someone must know of a source to be able to look up OEM Toyota wheels, and under what category they fall.
 
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Almost all OEM wheels are hub centric, meaning their center bore matches the hub, which on 6 lug Toyotas is 106.1mm. They generally have lug nuts with a flat surface where it meets the wheel as it relies on the hub for centering. Most aftermarket wheels will use lug nuts with an acorn shape to help center the wheel on the studs, in case your wheel's center bore doesn't match your hub.

If at all possible, you should get wheels that match your center bore. Unless you are very careful on how the lugs are tightened (tire shops won't be), you'll fight random wheel vibration issues. You can get centering rings to adapt different wheels, but they come with their own problems, like sticking to the wheel and falling off during tire mounting/balancing, getting damaged, etc.
 
You can buy the adapter rings on Amazon for dirt cheap.
Measure both wheels and hubs with calipers.
I always get the aluminum ones as the plastic ones will fall apart after a while.
Clean the wheels and adapter with thinner and a bit of epoxy will keep them in place for ever.
 
Seatia, the Haweka adapter I was referring to is for the balancing machine.

Jeremy, I appreciate the response but I am asking about OEM wheels.

So... I'm still hoping for a wheel expert to chime in!
 
I've run FJ steelies on both a Tacoma and 5th Gen with no issues.

IMG-2511.jpg
 
Dianna said:
I have always driven Toyota Trucks and 4Runners and I usually end up putting different wheels on my trucks. My 4Runner Trail currently has TRD wheels and my Tacoma has 5th gen 4Runner wheels, before that I had FJ Cruiser wheels on the Taco. I always assumed all of these wheels were lug centric and I always got my wheels balanced at Toyota since finding a Haweka adapter is apparently a really odd request, lol. Anyway, I was just informed that 5th generation 4Runner wheels are hub centric, is this correct? I asked the person who claimed this, how to tell if a wheel was hub centric or lug centric and he said to check the lugs. Well I have no clue what lugs have ended up on what truck, lol. Now I'm wondering if I have the wrong lugs on my Tacoma, if the new wheels are hub and this originally came with lug centric. Ugh. There must be a wheel expert on here!
Click to expand...

Many manufacturers have been forced to go from lug centric wheels to hub centric wheels in the last 20 years or so. (Ford discovered this in a big way with the then new 1997 F-150.) The reason is that with the stiffer body and frame structures on modern vehicles, any minor imbalance / vibration gets transferred directly to the driver's butt - which is a customer dissatisfier.

One part of the solution was going to hub centric wheels since theoretically they are better centered on the hub and thus do not induce their own vibration(s). (This assumes the wheels and tires are almost perfectly balanced of course.)

How could you get vibrations from a wheel that is centered by the lug nuts? In the real world, everything we manufacture has variation and tolerances. If the centering of the holes on a wheel are not perfect, the wheel can get skewed ever so slightly off-center during tightening of the lug nuts. (And remember, there are 6 chances to get this wrong on a T4R wheel.) A hub centric wheel reduces the number of chances to 1 and is thus closer to perfect.

As has already been stated, you can tell if a particular wheel is hub centric since it will have flat seat lug nuts with captured washers on them. (The 5th gen T4R's have this.)

Many aftermarket wheels - even though they have the exact same bolt pattern - are lug centric as one can tell by the requirement to use tapered seat lug nuts. You can improve the fitment of this type of wheel by using commonly available centering rings which automatically center the wheel and prevent the tapered seat lug nuts from drawing it significantly off-center.

Hope that helps.
 
Thank you Too Stoked. I put 5th gen 4R wheels on my Tacoma, so I should have used a different lug then, on those wheels. I have TRD wheels on my 4R now, so I assume then, those are lug centric? I wish there was a thread with pics of Toyota wheels and a description of each... maybe when I get some free time I'll work on that with some help here and over and Tacoma World.
 
Dianna said:
Thank you Too Stoked. I put 5th gen 4R wheels on my Tacoma, so I should have used a different lug then, on those wheels. I have TRD wheels on my 4R now, so I assume then, those are lug centric? I wish there was a thread with pics of Toyota wheels and a description of each... maybe when I get some free time I'll work on that with some help here and over and Tacoma World.
Click to expand...

The type of lug nut you need to use is driven by the individual wheel. Tacomas come from the factory with hub centric wheels. (I had a 2014 Tacoma TRD Sport and I run 3rd gen Tacoma wheels on my T4R with my snow tires.) So, if you put 5th gen T4R wheels on your Tacoma, you should have used flat seat lug nuts - which should have been the original lug nuts.

As for the TRD wheels, just look at the seats for the lug nuts on the wheels. If they're flat, use flat seat lug nuts. I'm almost positive they use flat seats BTW.
 
Aren't all Toyota OEM wheels hub centric? So if you swap a 5th gen wheel to a 4th gen, TRD wheel to either, etc. they will all be the same hub centric and the original lug nuts will work with whatever Toyota OEM wheel you put on.
Right/wrong?
 
rdruss said:
Aren't all Toyota OEM wheels hub centric? So if you swap a 5th gen wheel to a 4th gen, TRD wheel to either, etc. they will all be the same hub centric and the original lug nuts will work with whatever Toyota OEM wheel you put on.
Right/wrong?
Click to expand...


I’m thinking sometimes buyers can get mixed up buying stuff with packages like XP / XSP and they come with aftermarket wheels.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Acorn lugs vs after market

There used to be a post with pics of the different lugs & I'm to lazy too ! That would probably help more betterer :peace:
 
I was told that the 5th gen 4Runner wheels are no longer hub centric. After posting this, I am not even more confused, lol.
 
Jeremy556 said:
Almost all OEM wheels are hub centric, meaning their center bore matches the hub, which on 6 lug Toyotas is 106.1mm. They generally have lug nuts with a flat surface where it meets the wheel as it relies on the hub for centering. Most aftermarket wheels will use lug nuts with an acorn shape to help center the wheel on the studs, in case your wheel's center bore doesn't match your hub.

If at all possible, you should get wheels that match your center bore. Unless you are very careful on how the lugs are tightened (tire shops won't be), you'll fight random wheel vibration issues. You can get centering rings to adapt different wheels, but they come with their own problems, like sticking to the wheel and falling off during tire mounting/balancing, getting damaged, etc.
Click to expand...

The difference is how/where torque is transferred to your wheels. You don't won't it on your lugs you want it evenly dispersed through the hub. 106.1 mm for 5th gen. If your other vehicle is different hub bore get hub centric adapters or spacers. They're cheap as f.
 
I'm just a Toyota geek who likes to know about my vehicles, that's why my post asked to "school me." I was surprised when I was told the 5th gen 4Runner wheels are now lug centric (that person could not verify that information), and that lead me to want to know more about lug centric and hub centric and which OEM wheels fit into which category. I thought someone here might know the answer to that or be able to direct me to a source that contained that information.
 
You may not be satisfied 100% until you take off a wheel and measure the hub and matching ID of the wheel with Vernier Calipers. Harbor frieigt has them on sale often for less than 10 bucks.
And make sure you use whatever lug nuts match the wheels.

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