Wheel Spacer Questions....

[fedyfedz]

Once it gets warm I will be doing full tune up and switch everything to synthetic fluids and to do some pm. A lift will probably come next year but I want a slightly more aggressive look than I have now.I currently have 255/70/16 general grabber at/2s and it made it look aggressive but i want more before a lift lol. I have a few questions.

1. Is it plug-n-play, so i can take my wheel off add spacer then put wheel back on and bolt up?

2. Does wheel spacers do damage or put more stress on things? I read a post that wheel spacers messed someones truck up putting more stress on a part making it unsafe?

3. Does this improve or make driving worse?

4. I dont want a huge spacer as to ive seen trucks with too much of a spacer and it really looks stupid. Is there a small spacer that wont negatively affect my truck but give it a better stance having the tires stick out more?

Other info:
2002 explorer limited 4x4

 

[fedyfedz]

anyone?

 

[fatness]

Once it gets warm I will be doing full tune up and switch everything to synthetic fluids and to do some pm. A lift will probably come next year but I want a slightly more aggressive look than I have now.I currently have 255/70/16 general grabber at/2s and it made it look aggressive but i want more before a lift lol. I have a few questions.

1. Is it plug-n-play, so i can take my wheel off add spacer then put wheel back on and bolt up?

2. Does wheel spacers do damage or put more stress on things? I read a post that wheel spacers messed someones truck up putting more stress on a part making it unsafe?

3. Does this improve or make driving worse?

4. I dont want a huge spacer as to ive seen trucks with too much of a spacer and it really looks stupid. Is there a small spacer that wont negatively affect my truck but give it a better stance having the tires stick out more?

Other info:
2002 explorer limited 4x4

There are spacers that slide on between the rotor and the wheel. These occupy a certain length (however wide the spacers are) of the lug studs, which puts more pressure on them.

There are also hub-centric spacers. These bolt onto the existing lugs, and then have lugs themselves. These are usually the preferred style.

As far as the spacer size goes; you can get different widths to suite what you want/need.

 

[fedyfedz]

ok thanks do you know a site i can order them. Im not sure how the measurements go but I would not like to have to order multiple sets to get the amount I want. If I wanted them to stick out an inch would i just order one inch spacers?

Im assuming the hubcentric ones are more expensive with those would any thing else be stressed or damaged if I only wanted about an one inch?

 

[IZwack]

2. Does wheel spacers do damage or put more stress on things?

Yes of course - it increases the scrub radius which increases the stress on ball joints. This also means that the steering boost system (rack, pump, tie rods, etc..) will work harder to turn the wheel at standstill or very low speeds.

 

[fedyfedz]

I just looked around and it looks like it goes by mm. So I would want hub-centric ones by questions is what size should the spacer disc be. Here is a site i would order them off of, can any one recommend which size i should go with if I want to make an more aggressive look without making it look stupid?

http://www.drivewire.com/search/?N=...4966883&Ntt=wheel+spacers&Nr=AND(universal:0)

 

[fedyfedz]

Yes of course - it increases the scrub radius which increases the stress on ball joints. This also means that the steering boost system (rack, pump, tie rods, etc..) will work harder to turn the wheel at standstill or very low speeds.

ouch thats not the answer i was looking for id rather not put extra stress on those part for no reason. I think i need new ball joints any way...oy

 

[lynchy wa]

Personally, my X handles three times better with the wheel spacer's on. It's a compromise between added stress and added performance like so many other mods out there. Some of the pro's for me were reduced body roll, increased stability at high speed's (important to me on the roads I travel) front track and rear track even for when I'm off road. I'm happy with my spacer's but in the end it's a personal choice.

This is the mob I went through http://stores.ebay.com/EZ-Accessory but they havent got much at the moment.

 

[fedyfedz]

Personally, my X handles three times better with the wheel spacer's on. It's a compromise between added stress and added performance like so many other mods out there. Some of the pro's for me were reduced body roll, increased stability at high speed's (important to me on the roads I travel) front track and rear track even for when I'm off road. I'm happy with my spacer's but in the end it's a personal choice.

well that just assured me and makes me interested again, what size spacers/ tires do you have ? and you have any before/after pics that will help alot. any cons?

 

[lynchy wa]

Check my sig for sizes, give me a sec to throw up before and afters and con's were paranoia about the wheel comming loose, extra stress on wheel bearing's and what IZ said about scrub radius and steering stress (which I didn't think/know about)

So far I've done 1800 miles and no drama's. I got the spacer lugs checked at 100 mile and 500 mile (just to make sure!) and not really enough time on the truck to talk about how much I've lessened the life of the steering components or the wheel bearings.

 

[fedyfedz]

thanks for the pics and input, im not trying to knock ur setup but I dont see any noticable difference with the spacers looks stock to me

 

[lynchy wa]

Nah that's cool. I only went small and it just brings it right to the edge of the fairing using stock rims. I'll see if I can find some different pic's.
I edited the pic's, I'm only running 265's at the moment and am looking to upgrade to 295's next time I get new tyres. Law requires tyre edge to be within the boywork down here so I'll have to sort some more flairing then. Sorry my photo's are up to s***. Bottom line is I'm happy with the handling now, no more wallow.

 

[fedyfedz]

Ok so i researched alot and found out the good and bad. I originally had 245's and went with 255's and gained close to an inch so I think with like a 1 inch wheel spacer i will be putting very little added pressure as stated above. My question is when people normally do wheel spacers to they go slightly larger in the front? was thinking obviosuly the smaller the spacer the less stress.

On the website im ordering it from it goes by mm. So the ony is 25mm which is .98 inches and the 30mm is 1.18 inches. Can someone recomend what type of setup would be the best for my situation. Everyone i seen on the forum has slighlty smaller spacers in the front except lynchy

 

[fedyfedz]

anyone?

 

[lynchy wa]

I went wider to even out the front and rear track (I think it's 8mm difference) Only going from my experience but I'd go 25mm rear and 30mm front and I think you would spin out on how it brings everything together handling wise. That's just my opinion. Added bonus for offroad in sand is that the rear tyres follow the same rut my front tyres make, no extra friction caused by pushing an extra 1/2" of sand out of the way.

In your research did you see the track cars running spacer's on the front only? I can't say how much extra wear is happening to my bearing's but I feel safer driving her.