- Joined
- May 3, 2003
- Messages
- 9,361
- Reaction score
- 63
- City, State
- Smithville/Austin, Tx
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 08' Suzuki SX4
Well after countless phone calls and looking on the net and trying to figure out how I was going to widen my wheel base over stock and still keep with-in my tiny budget, I finally figured it out...........
Problems:
1) While flexing the rear axle, it would stuff the tire into the fenderwell and not allow it to travel and further.
2) With extended radius arms you loose quite a bit of your turning radius. ( tire rubbs radius arm)
3) Custom off-set wheels are very expensive.
I called everyone I could to try and find a set of wheels with the off-set I wanted and no one would even give me the time of day, funny enough American Racing even told me that 16" wheels would rub, BWHAHAHAHA! (what do you think is factory stock wheel I'm running?? DOH!)
Anyhoo so I bought a set of bolt-on 1" billet spacers, sorry didn't get any before pictures of the spacers, they just look like spacers 1" thick with thier own lug studs.
I couldn't use the lugnuts that came with them cause they were too long so I got regular 1/2 x 20 x 3/4" Dodge replacement lug nuts and used them to fasten the spacers to the truck them used my regular lug nuts to fasten the wheel to the spacer.
As you well know the Explorer looks funny when lifted with the stock wheel base width and is a lil unstable, so by widening the track not only does it look better but becomes more stable too.
NOW!! since this is my TOY, and not a daily driver, and if driven, it's usally a lil around town to car shows and to work every now and then, please do not reply back with a bunch of junk about premature wheel bearing wear, save that for the guys with Neons/Cavilers and the wheels that stick out past the fenders, I know what I was doing and are resonsible for any bearing issues, not only that, I'm the one whom has to fix it.
All in all it's really no different than putting wheels on that have a shallower back spacing
The first picture is without the spacers, a bit dated but you get the point, the rest are after pics:
Problems:
1) While flexing the rear axle, it would stuff the tire into the fenderwell and not allow it to travel and further.
2) With extended radius arms you loose quite a bit of your turning radius. ( tire rubbs radius arm)
3) Custom off-set wheels are very expensive.
I called everyone I could to try and find a set of wheels with the off-set I wanted and no one would even give me the time of day, funny enough American Racing even told me that 16" wheels would rub, BWHAHAHAHA! (what do you think is factory stock wheel I'm running?? DOH!)
Anyhoo so I bought a set of bolt-on 1" billet spacers, sorry didn't get any before pictures of the spacers, they just look like spacers 1" thick with thier own lug studs.
I couldn't use the lugnuts that came with them cause they were too long so I got regular 1/2 x 20 x 3/4" Dodge replacement lug nuts and used them to fasten the spacers to the truck them used my regular lug nuts to fasten the wheel to the spacer.
As you well know the Explorer looks funny when lifted with the stock wheel base width and is a lil unstable, so by widening the track not only does it look better but becomes more stable too.
NOW!! since this is my TOY, and not a daily driver, and if driven, it's usally a lil around town to car shows and to work every now and then, please do not reply back with a bunch of junk about premature wheel bearing wear, save that for the guys with Neons/Cavilers and the wheels that stick out past the fenders, I know what I was doing and are resonsible for any bearing issues, not only that, I'm the one whom has to fix it.
All in all it's really no different than putting wheels on that have a shallower back spacing
The first picture is without the spacers, a bit dated but you get the point, the rest are after pics:
Not Really, if you don't mind having steel wheels.
