vroomtshh

Ok, I've been offered a lightweight set of wheels for my track car, and they fit fine but the offset is wrong.

I wasnt gonna take them, as I've always been told that spacing wheels is bad, BUT if the wheel has 5mm greater offset (24 against 19) and I fitted a 5mm spacer, why would it actually not be as good as the original wheel.

I'm not really looking for speculation, as I have plenty of that myself.

I'm looking for info from people that actually know the answer.

Twellsie

iTrader: (1)

spacers are genrally considered bad as the wheel does not actually pic up on the the spiggot, this can be be over come by using hubcentric spacers, which replicates the spiggot so that the wheel still locates, BUT these are not usually available in anything much less than 10 mm

SteveH

Ive seen these (hubcentric, as Twellsie mantioned) on loads of cars, from track cars to skylines and so far never heard of one breaking (which would be my main concern with them)

vroomtshh

I dont think I would be concerned about them breaking. My concerns were more like the above, that there would be some allowance for movement.
I dont mind going for 10mm spacers, as I should have plenty of room to do that and widening the track shouldnt be a problem IMO.

The fact that its a peugeot, and I would like to do a stud conversion at the same time is why I'm thinking. I cld fabricate a spacer/stud conversion which would kill two birds with one lump of alloy.

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Shouldnt be a problem if its done properly.

vroomtshh

Thats what I want to hear

I know myself, that it shouldn't be a problem. I just wanted a few other people to say the same

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Think about all the bolt on conversion for things like centre nut location, they are essentially the same thing.

DanW@FastFord

iTrader: (1)

I had some 10mm H&R spacers machinned down to 7mm and they were fine. I had issues with the studs working loose but that was because the 'temporary' spacers I fitted weren't hubcentric and they 'ovalled' the holes in the hubs! I ended up replacing the hubs and fitted bolts (rather than nuts and studs) and then did over 10K miles without issue.

Char1ie

iTrader: (6)

With a 5mm spacer your wheels will be fine. As long as the centre bore still locates your wheel and the studs are long enough to provide enough force to hold the wheels on. I would feel OK racing on 5mm spacers. Try to make sure that the spacer is flat and big enough to provide a good mating surface between the brake disc and wheel (obviously!).

Charlie

DanW@FastFord

iTrader: (1)

Not many hubs have a centre bore/locating ring than protrudes more than 5mm though. My issues were caused by non-hubcentric spacers so I'd be inclined to err on the side of caution. I'd probably fit them to the rear, but my preference would be to avoid non-hubcentrics on the front.

SteveH

The entire idea behind the centre bore (Spigot) is to bear the majority load/weight of the corner, if you space out past it (with roy bacer gash flat spacers) you place the entire load on the wheel bolts, which arent as close tolerance as the Spigot, allowing the wheel to move. It can feel out of balance as it will move around, and could eventually snap off.

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Nonsense IMHO about load bearing, the spigot is purely for location when you fit the wheels, the load is born by friction between the wheel and the drive flange, created by the bolts being done up of course.

DanW@FastFord

iTrader: (1)

Isn't the point of the spigot to make sure that the centre bore of the wheel mates with the drive flange, thus reducing the likelihood of the wheel working loose because the bolts alone cannot bear the load?

lead_foot

iTrader: (1)

My friends uses these:



2 inch non-hubcentric spacers on his 450bhp+ drift car. No problems. He's done a whole season of BDC and countless drift days.

To get them in the center you just need to do the nuts up finger tight so they seat properly all the way round before you do them up properly.

Ridgey

iTrader: (5)

All the spigot does is centre the wheel, so it spins true.

SteveH

I am probably misinformed, or I understand it wrong then

So overall, the spigot centres the wheel, the bolts hold it on, and the friction they create between the mating faces bares the weight of the vehicle?

Ridgey

iTrader: (5)

Sounds about right.

But as said above if you have no spigot, carefully doing the nuts up evenly should centre the wheel well and give you no problems.

SteveH

Though the evidence for that being a completely acceptable way of doing things is (literally) in front of my face, I'd always be nervous about non hubcentric spacers tbh, if the wheel took a shock surely it could move slightly? That may not be true, though if there was a spigot surely it simply cant move? Belt and braces for me

DanW@FastFord

iTrader: (1)

That's kinda what I was trying to say but didn't!

I also tried the finger tight method, but that didn't work - but maybe I'd already ovaled the holes so it was never going to work?

Chip

iTrader: (3)

No.

The bolts are perfectly capable of bearing the load, but like I said they dont do it by a shearing force on the bolts as such, they do it because of the clamping force they apply.

Think about it for a second, and consider the brake disks and what holds them in place to stop them rotating on the hub when you apply the brakes hard, it shouldnt be the shear strength of the bolts it should be the friction between disk and wheel/flange

DanW@FastFord

iTrader: (1)

That what I assumed, but thinking about it it's only plastic, so would 'deform' to a certain extent.

DanW@FastFord

iTrader: (1)

I sit corrected

NUTS RuS

iTrader: (35)

Generally

Non hubcentric spacers + problems = urban myth

foreigneRS

chip is dead right on this one

of course there can be other issues with wheel spacers like extra load on the wheel bearing, depending on offset of the wheel etc