Hey, looking at getting my wheels widened and i will need to run a spacer if i want to go decently wide. Few questions...

-How big of a spacer can you go with to be safe rpetty much without any worries at all as if it were stock? Or do you have to worry with any spacer?

-What do spacers do that you have to worry about when running them?

-Who sells the best spacers and where do i get them?

Thanks!

 

i am in the same boat and would also like to know that, i wanted to stick with the 9.5 , but a little wider in the back.

 

im runing a 1 inch adapter right out back for a couple of yrs now. its been fine but i hear lots of horror stories with studs braking etc.

 

Adapter spacers are safest because they put little or no more stress on the studs than a normal wheel would. I've only seen adapter spacers in 1" and wider sizes. Any common sandwich style spacer puts stress further toward the end of your studs, making it easier for them to bend and snap. Additionally, these spacers don't allow you to get as many turns on your lugnuts, creating more potential problems. If you're going to get this type of spacer I would strongly recommend some strong, longer-than-stock studs. Billet adapter spacers would be your best bet for worry-free driving.

If you're looking to buy adapter spacers, there are alot of good ones, I got some cheap ones off ebay that are really good, high quality. The best sandwich style spacers I've found are Baer billet spacers from Thunder Racing.

 

First of all, let me go over some terminology just to avoid confusion since I've been criticized for this in the past.

1) Spacer - a slip-on design that fits over the wheel studs and is clamped up much like a brake rotor.

2) Adapter - a thicker design that has pressed-in wheel studs. These are normally used to convert one bolt pattern to another for folks who want to use a wheel with a different pattern. They can also have the same bolt pattern as the hub to which they are bolting to get additional width beyond what you would run with a spacer.

Okay, with that out of the way, the rule of thumb on a slip-on spacer with OEM wheel studs is ~1/4" max thickness. Wider than this and you will want to use longer wheel studs. Its just a rule of thumb, though, and the bottom line is that you want to get at least 6 threads worth of lugnut engagement on the wheel stud in any case.

With wheel adapters you will get stuck with a minimum width of ~ 3/4" and I've seen them as wide as 2"+.

The main things to consider in purchasing a spacer/adapter is quality. Sure, you can find the one-size-fits-all cheapass cast spacers at PepBoys for like $7, but do you really want to leave your safety up to a $7 part found in the ricer section? The correct way to do it is to get a nice, wheel-centric/hub-centric, billet aluminum spacer that is machined to match your bolt-pattern. These aren't cheap - plan to spend upwards of $75 for slip-on spacers and $150 for adapters, but you're buying peace of mind.

As I've stated before here, I can HIGHLY recommend Andris Skulte for all of your wheel adapter/spacer needs. He is a great guy to deal with and builds a top notch product. He will also do custom stuff if you talk to him.

HTH

 

I run 1" spacers (adapters) with no problems, but i'm sure you've seen them.