Do I need spacers?
 

Hey everyone, just looking for a bit of advise. I am building up my wife’s Willy’s JKU. Planning on putting on 315/70/17 BFG KO2 in C Load, and a 2.5 Teraflex lift already on order. We love the look of the hard rock black wheels but don’t like the idea of running spacers. Heard I might be able to get away with not running. What you all think?

It sounds like you already know the answer and you're looking for someone to validate what you're thinking. You've got the lift on order, did you read the installation instructions? Usually your lift manufacturer will make recommendations. Also look at the 35's on stock wheels thread and see what folks are doing.

You won't need to turn or anything like that, right? So it'll be fine, just ignore the notes listed below those 2.5" lifts on TF's website... :wink:


• Requires aftermarket wheels w/ 4.75” backspacing or less – or Offset Wheel Adapters for stock wheels – NOT INCLUDED.

Yes, you will need spacers.
Yes, you will need to trim the front plastic air dam if it still exists on your Jeep.



FWIW What you plan is pretty much what we did on my wife's old '16 Willys (since wrecked) 315, 2.5" TF lift and 1.75" wheel spacers.


https://cdn.nickpic.host/images/pUcwIN.jpg

My standard caution regarding spacers - bear in mind that many tire shops won't want to touch your vehicle if you have spacers installed. This complicates keeping your tires balanced. This policy seems to vary widely across the states, even within the same company (like Discount Tire). You might call your local tire shop and check their policy so you at least know up front.

Wheel "spacers" and wheel "adapters" are two different things and many people and companies use the term "spacers" which is wrong. A wheel adapter which is what you would be using is hub centric and bolts to the unit bearing making a permanent mounting surface. A spacer (you don't want these) is a simple shim that fits loosely around the factory stud and is sandwiched between the wheel and unit bearing.

If you don't want to use adapters than BUY THE PROPER WHEEL instead of "building" for looks. There are only like 10,000 different choices of wheels out there.

While we feel proper offset wheels are the ideal solution (one less link in the chain, so to speak, that could potentially fail) we will service vehicles that are running hub-centric wheel adapters.

My local store in Weatherford,TX won't. Neither will most of the tire stores around this area. Same response with beadlocks.

We do not service bead lock wheel assemblies as they do not fit in our service model, but as mentioned, we will work on vehicles equipped with bolt-on hub centric wheel adapters (assuming proper thread engagement) - we apologies if you were told otherwise.