Okay, so let's have the cold, hard, ugly truth.

I have read the FAQ on wheel spacers which states that they are less harmful than a wheel with inadequate backspacing. But does this mean that this is a viable long term solution?

 

I personally would not want to run the full time forever.

I would suggest you save the money that you would spend on spacers and buy some new wheels.

 

I have heard of many people running wheel spacers. I probably have many of the same concerns as you.

Personally, I think wheel spacers can be run for a while without any issue. The thing is, though, you really need to maintain them it seems.

I'm not sure how often you need to re-torque them, or if there's any additional maintenance at all, but it seems like additional work I'd rather not deal with. without a nice floor jack, it'll be a PIA to take all of the wheels off.... re torque the spacers... put them all back on.... and re-torque the wheels. If you don't think that is a big deal, then you should be fine.


I'm probably going to do the aftermarket wheel route, though. I toyed with the idea of using my stock steelies, but i think the width of tire i want to run is a little too much for it. I then thought of buying rubicon wheels and tires, and adding larger tires to the rubi's with spacers. But then I realized: For that cost, i can get a real nice set of aftermarket wheels.


Also, you can get some steel wheels for about $40 more than 2 sets of spacers. (It'd be about $100 more if you add a spare steel wheel too)

 

As Wayland said, you can pick up steel wheels with adequate backspacing for only a little bit more than the spacers cost. I see the spacers as a great thing for those that have wheels that they want to keep, but want their wheels to be out farther (less backspacing.)
For what it's worth, I've never heard of a wheel spacer failing, and I've talked to and read about quite a few people who have run them for years with no issues. Just MAKE SURE to check the torque on them. The main reason for that is because you crush the aluminum a bit when you initially put them on, so they need to be re-torqued. I've heard that after the initial check, you are good to go for a while.

 

To add... I bought my first Jeep back in 2000 and right away started reading a Jeep newsgroup that I won't mention here (not sure how the moderators would feel). In my years on that group I heard nothing but negative thoughts about spacers from the Guru's. Spacers were something for the import car tuners and not for a trail rig. I was honestly surprised when I came to this forum to find so many people were in favor of running spacers. I won't be running spacers, but that's just because of what I've always read.

 

I have spacers, and since I will be doing my own tire rotation, my plan is to check/retorque while I have the wheel off anyway....
Works for me, just another reason to spend time wrenching of my Jeep....

 

X2. Since your gonna have the wheels off, perfect time to retorque. Mine haven't budged at all after 7,000 miles.

 

x3 on this. I rotate the stock MT's at every oil change, so I check the spacers and I also nut and bolt the suspension. I will eventually replace the stock wheels, but until then the spacers work great for me.

 

thanks for all of the replies. This gives me an idea of what direction to head in. My lift will be here in a few days, so my next thing is tires.

 

According to Discount Tire, most issues with spacers are the slip on washer type. The bolt on with its own lugs, they say, have never been a problem, except getting them off. They said that over time, the aluminium, almost bonds to the other surface due to brake heat and makes it very difficult to get off.