Auto-x with wheel spacers?

[Jr]

Hello everyone,

What’s the general consensus about auto crossing with wheel spacers? I would like to hear your opinions.

Thank you

[craig510]

Not a problem if they are good quality. I like hub centric but lug centric is probably fine.

[carbuff]

How thick? I have run up to 3/8" on my car. I have longer studs to ensure good lug engagement.

If you are talking about 1" or thicker spacers/adapters to run a wheel with a lot of backspace, then I have not done that.

[SSLance]

Agree with the above... If done right in most cases shouldn't be a problem. I've run up to a 3/8s spacer at times as well. Much prefer the proper spec'd wheel in a perfect world but we all know perfect is hard to obtain a lot of the time.

[Jr]

Yes, 1” spacers with their own studs. I screwed up measuring my wheels and...

[silvermonte]

Im not a big fan on it. That being said Ive autocrossed my s10 hard all summer long with 2" wide spacers with faulken tires and have had zero issues. Mine are the type that the spacers are bolted on and then the wheels are bolted to the spacer.

[Jr]

Silvermonte,

I have the same spacers, but mine ar 1” thick.

Are you running them on the front and rear?

[SoloTech]

Rule #1 - Always have adequate thread engagement of the wheel studs.

[SoloTech]

If the spacer is thick enough that your wheel will no longer pilot on the hub, hub centric/wheel centric spacers are recommended.

[UMI Tech]

As mentioned above, wheel spacers within reason while not ideal don't seem to pose a problem. We use a few of them here at UMI but always with ARP studs, properly torqued and maintained.

[cgs74]

Wheel spacers are also a great tuning tool to help out with over/under steer.

[silvermonte]

Silvermonte,

I have the same spacers, but mine ar 1” thick.

Are you running them on the front and rear?

Yes I was running front and back spacers. I had them off the other day to swap to other rims and they are actually 1.25" and not the 2" that I thought. In an ideal world I wouldnt run them but after an entire season of running them and not having any issues I would do it again if I had to. Also as a side note, my s10 still has the stock-ish 4.3 and a 5 speed, by no means a power house. I think max hp in that thing is 150 and that is being very generous.

[CraigS]

On my Cobra replica AXing on 315 A7s I ran 1 inch spacers on the rear for several years. I got Eibach hub centric. They were the style intended to bolt to the hub and then the wheel bolt to them. Expensive but I felt real comfortable using them like this. I knocked the short studs out of them and slid them on the 3 inch ARP studs using the holes that were originally intended to bolt them to the hub. I used the included slightly thinner nuts to torque them in place. So basically I had a wider rear axle. I figured the empty holes where the studs used to be were lightening holes.