Wheel Spacers

[Nick V]

I know that many on here have fitted wheel spacers, but I wondered if anyone has had any problems with them or caused by them.

i) Do they put any extra strain/wear on the the bearings, ii) has anyone had them break/ how reliable are they considering they are on a heavy truck they may be taking serious abuse off road, and iii) can they be fitted if you have free wheel hubs fitted (I assume that's not a problem).

Cheers, Nick

P.S. I am still using 31" tyres.

[yoshie]

I have 32mm spacers fitted to help the offset.
I abuse my surf off road a fair bit. No problems so far.

Spacers, large tyres, wide wheels will all increase stress on bearings

[Nick V]

Cheers mate Any recommendations of which spacers to buy, cos I have heard there are some cheap and cheerful ones out there that aren't recommended?

Cheers, Nick

[TonyN]

I've fitted/supplied lots, no more strain on the wheel bearings that than bigger offset wheels, no difference in the forces on the bearings.

They can exaggerate wear in the steering components that you didn't notice before, but thats about it.

No problem with freewheel hubs, most problems are overtightening of the studs, 90ish ft/lb max you want. Leaning heavily on as breaker bar will break them, (and the stock toy studs as well even without spacers.)

Make sure you get the spacers that bolt to your hubs, then the wheel bolts to the spacers on different studs. Cheaper spacers that use stud extensions are VERY iffy.

[Nick V]

Cheers Tony. That's the type of spacer I was gonna use. Do you have a name/manufacturer of that type?

Cheers, Nick

[TonyN]

Normally me!! But havn't anyhere and havn't got the £'s to keep expensive stock while not doing any work TBH.

LA Supertrux, Roughtrax, etc...

Dunno if Stein' stocks them if you want to keep it in the 'family', I was getting them for him as he needed them.

[nero279]

If you're going to use spacers, make sure you use the proper billet type, with their own studs built in a la TonyN / LASupertrux (http://www.supertrux.com/acatalog/co...l_Spacers.html) not halfords / some of the ebay ones.

Yes they do put extra strain on the bearings (as do deeper offset wheels btw), and yes the should still fit with freewheeling hubs.

[nero279]

... bit slow today me, i did click reply when there was only 1 post in this thread, just took a while to actually reply.

[Nick V]

Tony & Nero, thanks again for the prompt replies. Will probably use the Roughtrax ones as they are £30+ cheaper than the LAS ones!

Cheers, Nick