Thread: Wheel Spacers, safe or not?

Tweet

I need a little extra Axel width on the rear of a '30 Model A and want to add some 1" wheel spacers. These spacers are aluminum and are attached to the Axel with the stock studs, the wheel is attached with the spacer studs. The car weighs about 2500 lbs and has about 220 HP.

Are these type spacers safe, some say spacers are not to be used.

My 2007 Chevy Colorado has similar spacers on the front end, they are factory parts, not sure why Chevy engineers designed the front hubs this way.

as long as the spacers use stock type lug studs (and lug nuts) and are relatively thin, they should be fine. Where people go wrong is when they try to use 4" thick spacers and use hardware store bolts.....widening the track is like putting the offset rims on a car, it changes the loading especially on the wheel bearings. You should be fine with a 1" max spacer. Check the inner lug nut torque after a bit of use to make sure the things are still tight...just like you would an aluminum wheel.

Mike

Thos lug nut - make sure you have at least one or more FULL threads showing (hmmmm - I need about an inch less on my '31)

Jayd
The spacers you describe are OK for your application , if they are made from billet aluminum .
If they are cast aluminum don't use them for anything other than a paperweight .
The best way to go is to use longer studs , and a thru hole spacer .Then the spacers only function is to space
And no rotational force is applied to the spacer .
PS I manufacture wheel spacers and other race related parts
Dave

kinda scared me, and was only using 1/4'' and 3/4" knocked out the old studs and found longer ARP studs, now I fell better.

Crap, now I gotta throw away those cast spacers I have had on for 40,000 miles.

I believe they are ok for stock type hp set ups and using common sense. Using them and putting extreme pressure on your suspension is not a good idea, like drag racing, rock climbing, LEAD FOOT.

I had a set of spacers on a Mustang years ago and they kept coming loose, no matter what I did. But my Sons tell me wheel spacers are very common and stay on in the bagged S10 community. Maybe they have improved them from the cast ones I had 40 years ago.

There are also spacers where the original axle bolts pass through them and into the wheels, the spacer then acts as only a spacer, not an adapter. You have to install 3 inch long wheel studs, like the drag cars use, but those will not come loose. They are billet and have several bolt patterns drilled into them.

Don

Originally Posted by slowpoke

Crap, now I gotta throw away those cast spacers I have had on for 40,000 miles.

Heads or tails???.It's kind of like that.Now with all that nice paint/body work that costs sooooooooo much,well you get my point.

I had them on my car while in high school backin the low to mid 80's and never had a problem with them outside of getting them off. I used the stock lug nuts with lock tight so hold the spacers on my drums and never had a problem.

The spacers I seen (never used) that had the studs on them were used to change the bolt circle. to run a different type wheel not so much for spacing.