mickfluff

I am hoping my rims run roughly fluch with the flares. Would people recomend going with the 1.25 or the 1.5 spidertrax spacers for this. I think the 1.5 may push the tires past the flares where the 1.25 maybe just right.... not sure they have been released yet but believe shortly! Thanks

Milkman

Both Northridge 4X4 (who is a forum sponser which gives us 5% off and they have free shipping) and Quadratec have them in stock. I have never been too keen on wheel spacers being an Engineer. If I had to do it I would probably stick with the 1.25 spacers.

Go pull out your ruler and see how much 1/4" really is. Why do that little spacing for the extra moment on the axles?

Just my .02. Feel free to take with a grain a salt as my wife usually does 3

wayoflife

Actually, the only wheel spacers that Spidertrax makes for the Jeep JK Wrangler is 1.5". The extra .25" is needed to clear the factory wheel studs and with out it, you would need to cut down your wheels studs respectively.

As far as wheel spacers themselves go, so long as you get high quality ones that bolt onto your axle and then your wheels to them (like Spidertrax makes), they should behave no differently or cause any more problems than would a wheel with less backspacing.

JKwannabe

how well do the spacers hold up to hard wheeling with bigger tires? like say if they were to be used with the new Jeep/hutchinson beadlocks with 35-37 inch tires?

fiyerbirdie

I'm not trying to stir this pot but be careful if you use spacers. Wheel-off is a much bigger risk with them. Avoid letting anyone of questionable mechanic skills take off your wheel for any reason.... Ask service techs to re-torque the spacer whenever a wheel is removed. You should never use the thin slip on spacers, and the bolt on spacers should be of high quality..... and please don't visit your tire shop and bitch to the tire techs about out of balance/out of round tires that shake at XXmph. Spacers are not hub-centric, they are lug-centric and therefore almost never center exactly, when he spin balances your tires for the 3rd time in a week it won't fix anything. because he'll bolt them back on to the hub and they may center up or they may not.... nothing to do with the tire or him or the balance.

signed, a disgruntled former tire tech.

wayoflife

Well said, but I should point out that the Spidertrax spacers are hub-centric. Or, at least that's what they have told me.

wayoflife

If installed properly, they should behave no differently than would a wheel with less backspacing. But then, for the kind of money it would take to get the Hutchinson beadlocks, why not just get a different wheel that has the backspacing you need?

fiyerbirdie

As I remove the odorous, corned, ingrown nailed foot from my mouth I see that spydertrax spacers ARE hub-centric. However everything else stands.... make sure whoever puts them on has skills..... make plans to do a re-torque on the spacers and the wheels within a few days of install. (they say 50-100 miles) and even if you keep em clean many years from now when that pretty aluminum starts building up corrosion more care must be taken to get the wheel to seat soundly. It's very doable... but just be careful...
... other than that if I MUST run a spacer I'd use that paticular brand... looks like a good quality product.

thanks for the correction Way

Ge99ne

I don't want to beat a dead horse, BUT....
Lugcentric? I understand what you mean by this, but he implication is that the lug pattern is not hub centric. If that is the case wouldn't the tires be off center even without spacers installed? Also if there are two different centerlines how can a spacer claim to be hub centric when it has to bolt to lug's center? I suppose the spacer's tolerancees added to the lugs's tolerances could add up to a perceivable off center condition, but machine tolerances are usally so small it's hard to imagine.:confused:

fiyerbirdie

Yes, in fact the lug pattern is CONcentric with the the hub...... however the hole in the wheel (or spacer) is not fit to the lug stud it is much bigger hole... and in reality the cone seat lug nuts do not do enough to center the assembly on the hub. That is why the mfr uses hubcentric wheels. the lugs do nothing to center the assembly only serve as a way of keeping it on.

This is really a moot point with mud terrain tires anyway, and any man here should grab a straw and suck it up if he feels a lil vibration from his all terrains... and if you're the "glass ass" that complains of his jeep shaking at 80mph and you know your tire shop workers by name cause your always there for "free rebalancing" then you're already on the dark side, and I hope all your tires fall off. j/k