Wheel Spacers?

I have a set of 17" Eagle rims off of a late model mustang and I was wondering if they would work on my maverick with some 2" spacers. I was also wondering if spacers are safe. My engine is not a 500 horse monster but the car will probably be an estimated 12 second car. It is either this cheaper option or coughing up 600 bucks for some weld pro-stars. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

I`ve got 17" Cobra rims and have been researching this very same thing. Summit sells wheel adapters. They bolt on using your cars wheel studs and have their own studs to mount the rims to. I`ve heard some bad things about those as well. Some say they come loose. A friend of mine has a fab shop and is making me some spacers. I`ll use longer ARP studs, the spacers will be countersunk so I can use a lugnut for the spacer and a lugnut for the rim on the same stud. Not sure how it will work.

 

OK, if you ever want to take it to a sanctioned recetrack they will not let you run with any type of spacer on the wheels. So that being said, you make the decision on if they are safe or not. I see them every day on Tahoes and such with 22 and 24 in wheels. I have also seen them on cars. My personal opinion is they are not safe. Now put the extra strain on the axel, berring and wheel studs due to the wheel being mounted 2" further out, and combine that with the power of a 12 second car and I think you are asking for trouble. My deal is just spend the money and get the correct offset for the car and be done with it.

My

 

I hate to point this out but, if you have a negative offset wheel and add a spacer you are not putting any more stress than a positive offset wheel. As for racing rules, most rules where made years ago and they don't change with technology. Case in point batteries mounted in trunks have to have a emergency cut off switch. Tell me what the difference is between a new car with a locking hood and a trunk. We have had 1.375" spacers on the front of Tammy's car since 2002 with no problems. Her car makes 340 Hp and weighs 3081 Lbs the wheels are 17x9 cobra R's.

 

OK, lets look at basic mechanics. If you have a bar on a fulcrum and it is exactly centered and you push on it with 50 lbs the other end will also exert 50 lbs of pressure. If you move the bar to have 10% more on the force side it will exert 55 lbs on the other side. The same goes for the axel design, berring design and the lug stud design. They are designed to have X amount of force on them due to wheel offset etc.... If you move the mount point out you exert more pressure on all of the parts mentioned before. So you are going to tell me next that when you put larger wheels with more run out on a car the brakes will work the same and have the same stopping power as stock sized tires.

The rules are there for a reason. Normaly because someone lost thier life due to the fact that they were not followed.

It is our responsability to insure that all the things that we do to our cars is safe. Hey if you want to do whatever you want to do to your car then go for it. I just dont want you driving on the same streets as my wife and kids. If you want to take a chance with the ones around you that is your deal. You may never have a problem with the way the spacers work. But I have seen them fail and it is not pretty. Do what you want to do but dont try to convence someone else that it is the right thing to do.

If they were so safe then I guess the factory would have put them on cars from the factory.

 

My dad knew a guy that had them on an old Mopar. The rear passenger side broke and did a ton of damage to the car. He was running the kind that you bolt on and then bolt the wheel to them. They are not safe, period, and I would never run them.

The biggest spacer I would feel comfortable running is maybe 1/2 inch with high quality studs. I considered running spacers for a while so I could put '05 Mustang GT wheels on my Mav. I run 75 mph through downtown Atlanta twice a day. The interstate through ATL is practically like a roller coaster... I started thinking one day what it would be like if I had a wheel spacer decide to let loose around the Grady Curve at over 70 mph, and well, I doubt I would live to tell about it.

Just get properly fitting wheels. Not worth the risk.

 

Apperently Fordmaster169 you are an engineer so let me see if you can understand what I am saying.

If you have a wheel lets say 17x9 cobra R with a back spacing of 5.95" that means you have 3.05" in front this is call a negative offset wheel. Now lets add the very dangerous wheel spacer, it will be 1.375". Now we have a back spacing of 4.575" that leaves 4.425" in front. If you have noticed we still have a negative offset. That means there is no extra pressure on the bearings other than the larger wheel tire combo.

Now lets look at a normal wheel that some poeple have 15x8.5 torque thrust with a back spacing of 3.75" that leaves 4.75" in front and this is called a positive offset. This wheel combo would create more pressure on the bearings than the 17x9 cobra R which is what I said in my original statment.

Yes rules are made to keep things safe but, I would venture to say that when the wheel spacer rule was created it was for longer studs and spacers and not the type we are talking about.

If you don't feel safe using them then by all means don't use them, I do feel safe using them and have done so for 4 years and 35000 miles. We do not drag race and I have had no problems with them coming loose, breaking off, or wearing the bearing out.

 

Hack your too funny! I see you edited that last part out but lucky me I got to read it before you did

I get what your saying and I have a PHR tech artical about scrubbing that has some diagrams that show what your talking about about. Basically, in layman terms, the center line of your wheel (not the mounting surface) would stay in the same place, like a stock style wheel if you used a spacer with the Cobra R's, so the pressure exerted on the bearings would be at the same center.

 

I reread it and thought I went a little far.

 

Come on Jamie only 75 through ATL! J/K. Man I love driving through ATL on the interstate when Im going to FL. It is like a rollercoast and I often make my wife car sick. I can always tell when Im getting close to ATL people start going 90 and driving like maniacs...its kinda fun .

I think the one problem people have with spacers is they never take the time to properly retorque them after the intial 15 or so miles. Just like wheels, I see people all the time whose stock wheels just flew off the car, they just dont take the time to check lug nuts. I had a friend who had a set of Cobra R's on his 00' F-150 with spacers. He never had a problem and he was a crazy driver.

 

I see what you're saying. But it still seems to me, that the spacer is being put in a situation where it could shear, weather it be from brute torque of the engine or hitting a pothole or something. All I know for sure, is I have heard the horror stories and seen the remains of a wheel spacer that sheared in half. I will never use one nor advise anyone else to.

As for ATL traffic, the only thing that irks me more then those few fools that run 90+, is those that get in the HOV lane when traffic is moving slower in all other lanes, and they are the only person in the car. My 250 will be happily humming along at 70-75 mph, then they come up and ride my a$$ like I should get out of THEIR way because they are in a hurry, when they don't even have the right to be in the High Occupancy Vehical lane in the first place! I usually just slow down to the speed of the rest of the traffic and ride right next to a car in the fast lane so they are trapped in and forced to slow down. :evilsmile Man, where are the cops when you need them?

 

I used to run wheel spacers on my first grabber and my Stallion. Had tons of people tell me they were unsafe. I guess if they were unsafe the lawyers woulda capitalized on that fact and found ways to sue the snot outta the manufacturers. I am by no means an engineer, but I did stay at a motel last nite. I learned some good stuff here.
Dan

 

No, I am not an engineer. But I do know how a fulcrum works. When you add length to any object it will exert more force. Just like when you have a bolt that you can not break loose, you put an extention on the breaker bar to get more turning force on the pivot point (bolt). The same applys to the wheel spacer. If you are bolting any wheel offset onto the axel itself it will not create any more force. If you put on a spacer and bolt the wheel on it it is just like extending the axel and it WILL exert more force on everything else.

 

You know what I find funny is the poeple that have never used spacers are the biggest advicates for not using them. My brothers uncles sister knew somebody that had a wheel spacer break off and go threw the kitchin window. The internet is great you can give advice and opinoins on things you have never tried or done. And then when someone has done it you can argue with them about it.

I have made no claims saying they are safer than stock wheels or that you could drag race with them. I have said they present no greater pressure on the bearing than a positive offset wheel. I have said that I have them on my wifes car they are on the front wheels. we have had them on for 4 years and 35000 miles. the car weighs 3081 lbs and makes 345 hp. And as my wife pointed out one T bone car crash that totalled the original car and nothing happen to the spacers. I made these spacers myself they have ARP studs and are made of 7075-T6 aluminum I seriously doubt you can shear them I would have to guess that the wheels would break first.

I have the type that bolts to the hub and has five other studs that the wheel bolts to similar to the ones in the picture. I do not have longer studs with a large spacer. The other picture is of the car they are on.

 

There is no 3rd person about it. My dad was there when the thing broke, and I have seen what was left of it. It was the exact type of spacer you have pictured. It broke doing a burnout in a parking lot. I have used spacers, on several cars. But never bigger then 1/2 inch.