Wheel Spacers vs Early Generation Wheels

[jrsbike]

Greetings! I am new and this is my first post. I just bought a 2002 Sport with the stock 16 " wheels. Its great fun but I have lingering fears about rollovers, especially since this vehicle will stay on the street and my daughter will be taking it to hockey practice. Therefore I have been thinking about increasing the track in order to improve the odds. I've gone through the threads about spacers and the strong opinions held by different contributors and have concluded that if I don't go past 1.25 -1.5 inches and install a high quality hub centric bolt-on the bearing stresses will be minimal. I am aware of the maintenance issues related to checking the torque settings. The other option would be to put on wheels from an earlier generation since they appear to have greater offset due to the narrower axels they used. Unfortunately, I could not find information about the offset of a 2002 Sport so I don't know what I could gain. I would appreciate any opinions as to which approach is preferable. Thanks

 

[manaen]

In stock form the explorer is a very capable driver. However it is not a car and should not be driven like one. I would really stay clear of the spacers, they will cause you more trouble in the long haul than the OEM setup. If you really cant sleep at night and feel the need to widen the stance go with aftermarket wheels with a larger backspacing.

Just my personal opinion YMMV...