Are Wheel Spacers Protected To Use? Here’s What You Need To Know

Wheel spacers generally is a highly contentious topic. Many say that they’re perfectly protected to make use of, while others insist that they are going to spoil your vehicle’s handling, making it unsafe to drive. Which is true? As usual, the reality lies somewhere in the center. Wheel spacers are generally protected to make use of, so long as they’re quality parts which are installed and used properly.

Those are some vital qualifiers. Low-cost cast-aluminum spacers from some no-name brand on eBay or Temu don’t count. In addition they need to suit your particular vehicle properly. A 2-inch spacer is slightly large. A 12-foot spacer is true out. The hub bore should match the dimensions of your hubs. The lug nuts or wheel bolts all should be torqued to spec. The wheel studs or bolts should be long enough to make sure enough thread engagement to carry the wheel on safely, but not so long that they push the spacer or wheel even farther out.

Justin Hughes

We use wheel spacers on my wife’s Toyota 4Runner. We’re still running the stock wheels, however the all-terrain tires are barely oversized. She doesn’t baby this automobile (that is why it is so dirty). She’s driven across the country a couple of times, and we have gone off-roading within the Arizona desert. Because she uses the appropriate wheel spacers, they’ve never given us any trouble.

Wheel spacers are exactly what they are saying on the package. They’re discs, typically product of strong billet aluminum, that sandwich between the wheels and the brake rotors or drums. This makes the wheels poke farther out than stock, widening the vehicle’s track width. One common reason to make use of wheel spacers is to stop wider wheels and tires from rubbing against steering and suspension components.

Spacers are available in various thicknesses, depending on how far out you would like your wheels to sit down. Thin spacers may be not more than a disc with holes drilled out for the wheel studs or bolts. Thicker spacers, just like the ones on our 4Runner, slide over the wheel studs after which bolt to them with their very own low-profile lug nuts. Then, on the surface, they’ve their very own set of studs that the wheel slides onto. The wheel bolts onto the spacer’s studs as a substitute of the unique ones on the automobile.

A convenient side effect of that is that spacers may let you utilize wheels which have a special bolt pattern than stock. Some call these wheel adapters slightly than spacers, but they still do the identical job as spacers in moving the wheels farther away from the hubs in the method. This may be especially handy in case your vehicle uses an unusual bolt pattern, opening access to a wider collection of wheels with standard patterns. In addition they allow you to run GM wheels on a Ford, if you must annoy the purists. The correct wheel spacers may even convert a automobile with inconvenient wheel bolts into studs as a substitute.

As with anything, there are trade-offs, and a few of the naysayers’ paranoia is rooted in actual fact. Using spacers which are too thick could cause the tires to rub against the fender lips as they protrude outside the wheel well. Moving the wheels farther out can increase the scrub radius, making turning harder at low speeds. That is less of an element for track cars, which spend most of their time going fast, and off-road vehicles, since loose surfaces provide less resistance to steering.

Moving the wheels farther out also increases leverage on the wheel bearings and suspension. This puts more strain on the wheel bearings and could cause them to wear down more quickly. The additional leverage also applies more force to the shocks and comes, essentially making the suspension behave as if it were somewhat bit softer than it actually is. Upgrading to a stiffer suspension can mitigate this effect. Using wheel spacers may reduce the vehicle’s towing and hauling capacities, something truck owners particularly should be mindful.

Wheel spacers could cause problems like these to occur, but with some planning and using the correct size, you may avoid these problems, as I even have. The secret is to make use of the smallest possible spacer that can accomplish your goals while also avoiding a lot of the downsides.