Are hub centric wheel spacers safe

Tiny
ROBERTDUCKETT1111
  • MEMBER
  • 2006 JEEP WRANGLER
  • 30,000 MILES
Hi, everyone I am new here. A little confused.
Is it safe to run hub centric spacers on my vehicle listed above permanently?
My brother's truck has had them in the rear with zero issues. But my friends hate on them. There are a lot of differing opinions about whether wheel spacers are safe for cars or not out there. Some people will say it is, some will say it is not.
What do you think and what is the best place to order hub centric wheel spacers? Anyone ordered from hexautoparts. Com? The hex wheel spacers look nice and the price is not expensive.
Any reviews?
Thanks in advance.
Robert
Thursday, December 28th, 2017 AT 5:11 PM

4 Replies

Tiny
HARRY P
  • MECHANIC
  • 2,292 POSTS
Well, wheel spacers like that put some extra strain on your hubs, and possibly on other suspension parts. Correctly installed and maintained, they are not terribly unsafe. I would just monitor the wheels and occasionally check the tightness of the lugs. I would not go cheap on this though. The last thing you need is cheaply made wheel studs that will stretch and strip at the first sign of stress. I cannot really suggest a brand, as I do not run them myself, but I would look around a bit and probably avoid the cheapest option.

Just my $.02
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Thursday, December 28th, 2017 AT 6:33 PM
Tiny
STEVE W.
  • MECHANIC
  • 13,413 POSTS
It depends a lot on the spacer and how thick they are. Why do you want to run them and how do you drive the Jeep?

Personally I am in the camp of, buy new rims with the offset you want and run those. Or if you are building a true off road rig upgrade the axles and go wider that way.
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Thursday, December 28th, 2017 AT 6:43 PM
Tiny
HARRY P
  • MECHANIC
  • 2,292 POSTS
Yeah, I forgot to mention about the thickness. A half inch spacer puts less extra stress on the hubs and such than a two inch spacer does.
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+1
Thursday, December 28th, 2017 AT 6:49 PM
Tiny
CJ MEDEVAC
  • MECHANIC
  • 11,004 POSTS
Wheels rubbing?

Afraid you are going to roll over?

I am not a hater, I am just one of those why-er's?

The only "possible" unsafe things I have read are:

Do they center properly as that the weight should be carried by the hub and not the lug studs?

Are all of the lugs properly torqued?

Google search "hub centric wheel spacers" click on "images", seems everybody has them from Summit Racing to Amazon to eBay. Sorry, I cannot make any recommendations due to my lack of experience. But If I had to, I believe I would stay with a well known brand regardless of the price, but that is just me!

Back to my opinions, I run aluminum wheels on my CJ5, I check my lug nut torques about every three to four months. For some reason they sometimes will get a little loose. I cannot see compounding that possibility with even more mechanical's to be involved.

I also cannot "see" going wider, I can squeeze my Willy's into/through some tight spots, even a bit wider my CJ5 can do some squeezing too. During mid CJ production they widened the axles even more, and ever since it looks like everybody wants to widen more and be a Hummer. It is easier to squeeze through the woods than to run over them!

Hang around, the next generation may be as wide as you want without modifications.

I am not even going to go into parking spot squeezing.

Let us know how it works out, pictures are welcome!

The Medic
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Thursday, December 28th, 2017 AT 7:20 PM

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