Wheels spacers

Hey guys I have heard/read tons of controversial opinions on wheel spacers. I was looking to buy some but now I’m unsure if it’s the move. Do you guys run them? And have you had any problems?

 

Personally I don’t like them, the look of them or the fact that you’re sacrificing functionality as well as stability. To each their own though, I know others will disagree. That being said if you like the look, go for it, life’s too short to not get what you want (within reason).
And welcome to TW!

 

I ran 1.25 spidertrax for over 2 years with regular wheeling with absolutely zero issues. I recently got some beadlocks and I run 6mm spacers now just to clear my calipers. If you decide to get some just get a quality, hub centric set and you will be fine, I promise.

 

Spidertrax. No problems.

 

I'm just curious, but what is the reasoning for the loss of functionality and/or stability due to wheel spacers?

 

Be sure they're hub centric and properly installed. It sounds funny, but I bought a used 2nd gen with 1.25" G2 spacers installed, and I had some steering wheel shaking at 50+. Had the wheels/tires road force balanced and an alignment, no change. Removed the spacers and re-installed them properly using a torque wrench, and my wheel shake is gone.

I think some of these tire shop wheel jockeys just hammer everything down with their impacts cranked all the way up, and it causes even more problems.

Good luck. I wanted to run without spacers to see if they were in fact the cause for my shake, but my wheels interfere with my calipers without them.

 

Isaac Newton’s Third Law: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Space your wheels outward to gain tire clearance and a wider stance, and you increase stress on your wheel bearings among other things. If done in moderation and with quality components you’ve probably nothing to worry about.

 

Everyone has their own experience and I’m not trying to start an argument. Just telling my experience.

I had 1.25” spacer on my 4Runner and I installed 1.5” spacer on my Tacoma. Both cars got noticeable stiffer. Like bad stiff. I had to take my dad somewhere and I was embarrassed. New truck and it’s this stiff?

took them off and it got rid of the stiffness.
Also I had no rubbing with stock rims and tires. Put the 1.5” spacer on and the tires would rub on the fender well when turning.

I would suggest getting rims with proper offset and calling it a day.

I like the trd pro sema rims cause they are light, and +4 offset.

 

Having this exact setup installed next week, super stoked!

 

this

 

I would remove my spacers in a heartbeat, but the current wheels interfere. I need to find some different 16" wheels.

Nice truck!

 

A wider track, like adding wheel spacers, increases stability. It's very basic physics.

 

I don't think the action-reaction law is best to answer the question I'm asking.

It makes sense that by extending the wheels you effectively increase the moment arm of the suspension (particularly the front) which could therefore create additional stress on components that have to bear that stress--but that doesn't explain how wheel spacers lead to less stability and functionality.

Can you elaborate on your reasoning that wheel spacers cause reduced functionality and stability? What is less stable? What functions are impaired?

 

from a pure engineering standpoint they function and do the job and there is no sacrifice in joint stiffness or clamping force.

With that said people always say "but ive seen tons of spacer failures", but the truth is there is so much misinformation that people make bad decisions because of fear. Below are the reason wheel spacers fail...in my opinion

1. There are 12 nuts to tighten instead of 6. So...more places for people to mess up.
2. Under torqued/loose bolts.
3 (in my opinion the most likely): Over torqued and bolts stretched into yield.

For cause #3 i feel like people overthink and do bad with good intentions. They torque juuust a little bit more too many times. They add loctite or anti-sieze which lubes threads making it easier to tighten...thus...over-torqing

 

also with spacers you want to get some new nuts that go deep into your wheel. this youtube video will explain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38E96jIbuzw

 

Anything hub centric like Bora or Spidertrax is fine. I ran 3/4 Boras for 100k miles and literally forgot they were on there. Now I'm at 130k and my wheel bearings are still fine.

If you can bolt a wheel on you can bolt a spacer on. The lugs aren't going to magically loosen up just because there's a spacer installed. I took them off occasionally to work on the rear brakes and I stopped using the loctite after a while. It just gumms up the threads and you have to chip it off to get a good torque going back on

 

As someone who is just learning about and living with a truck with spacers, this post helps diminish some of the fears I was having.

My truck came with G2's, which seem well built, but I plan to get some spidertrax ones soon. I think I'm gonna go from 1.25" down to maybe .75" or 1".

 

Spider Trax 1-1/4” hubcentric spacers on all four corners of my 2008 Tacoma right after I bought the truck brand new in 2008. 91,000 miles with zero issues. Love the look and truck handles better.