On my way home from a concert Saturday night on i95 all of the studs on my drivers side front wheel spacer sheared off and my wheel went rolling down the highway. Nobody was hurt and literally the only damage was the broken spacer and the center cap of the wheel was broken when I found it. I'll be replacing the rotor for good measure anyways. I ordered new wheels today with 4.5 back spacing instead of 5 so I can ditch the spacers. If anyone wants the passenger side spacer ill give it to you. I will be selling the rockstars which fit great on a non lifted h3 so if anyone is interested in buying them just send me a PM.
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Ditching the spacers
- Thread starter benlaud87
- Start date
06 H3
a.k.a. "The Jackal"
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- 9,496
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- Meridian, ID
what spacers were they?
06 H3
a.k.a. "The Jackal"
- Messages
- 9,496
- Location
- Meridian, ID
Damn...I was just wondering if it was Motorsport techs spacer.
reaper
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- Denver, Colorado
Sending PM. Would like it as a spare.
MtnRsqDawg
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Glad nobody was hurt - sorry to hear you had to go through that...ouch!
reaper
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Email sent... thanks!
Scarsman
Sponsor
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- Monroe, WA
Agreed! From my days as a tire monkey I decided I would never run spacers on a street vehicle. Seen many bad bad things! Its all about leverage.
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Expendable
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I don't suggest running spacers/adapters. But what I have noticed is that you:
1. Need good quality brand.
2. Needs to be torqued properly (order of bolts and torque amount)
3. After driving it 5-10 miles, Torque again (I do this to my wheels whether or not I use Spacers/Adapters)
4. With your usual check (once a week oil check, check while refueling, etc), look at the lug nuts, any loose?
5. Before long trip/aggressive driving/off roading check them.
I do know of people running 1.5" and 2" thick spacers/adapters that do autocross, etc and have had no problems.
But you always run the risk of something happening since the vehicle wasn't designed for use with wheels and spacers.
1. Need good quality brand.
2. Needs to be torqued properly (order of bolts and torque amount)
3. After driving it 5-10 miles, Torque again (I do this to my wheels whether or not I use Spacers/Adapters)
4. With your usual check (once a week oil check, check while refueling, etc), look at the lug nuts, any loose?
5. Before long trip/aggressive driving/off roading check them.
I do know of people running 1.5" and 2" thick spacers/adapters that do autocross, etc and have had no problems.
But you always run the risk of something happening since the vehicle wasn't designed for use with wheels and spacers.
06 H3
a.k.a. "The Jackal"
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- 9,496
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- Meridian, ID
I gotta disagree here. Spacers IMO can be bad but can be just as good as an aftermarket rim if done right.
Talking about leverage the same exact thing is happening with aftermarket rims. The further you go out via rim backspacing or spacer the more leverage. Rims give just as much leverage depending on backspacing.
I have run spacers for almost a year now, I havent had a single issue. I bought the hub centric spacers that are billet aluminum not cast iron spacers (stay away from those!) the spacer I bought was on the higher end of the spacer market. Not a single issue, I used the spacers since the rancho lift and have about 10-12k miles on them, offroading on over 15-20 different trails in the past year including a 700+ mile drive non stop to moab. Running crappy spacers or misinstallation causes issues. IMO you must use loctite on the studs from the hub and retorque after the initial drive. I retorqued them after a quick 10 mile drive and they were still fine and havent touched them since.
I know someone who is in the same town as I am and he has a 2 door Jeep JK on 39s. Hes running stock D44 axles, 3.5in backspacing rims that have real beadlocks and a 1.25in spacer. Stock backspacing is 5.5in and he is at 2.75in backspacing. Almost 3 inches per side with extremely heavy tires and extremely heavy rims and he runs the johnson valley hammer trails which are tougher trails then most of the offroading world will ever run. He has never had an issue either, its the isolated incidents that have given spacers a bad name.
In the off chance I do break a spacer I have two spares and they are on the rear. The rancho lift doesnt require any rim backspacing on the rear but I have them to keep the same trackwidth. If in the weird chance I have an issue I will take off that spacer on the rear and throw it on the front.
Benlaud, were you using motorsport tech spacers? If the stud just sheered off I would call them and question them why they just broke off like that.
Talking about leverage the same exact thing is happening with aftermarket rims. The further you go out via rim backspacing or spacer the more leverage. Rims give just as much leverage depending on backspacing.
I have run spacers for almost a year now, I havent had a single issue. I bought the hub centric spacers that are billet aluminum not cast iron spacers (stay away from those!) the spacer I bought was on the higher end of the spacer market. Not a single issue, I used the spacers since the rancho lift and have about 10-12k miles on them, offroading on over 15-20 different trails in the past year including a 700+ mile drive non stop to moab. Running crappy spacers or misinstallation causes issues. IMO you must use loctite on the studs from the hub and retorque after the initial drive. I retorqued them after a quick 10 mile drive and they were still fine and havent touched them since.
I know someone who is in the same town as I am and he has a 2 door Jeep JK on 39s. Hes running stock D44 axles, 3.5in backspacing rims that have real beadlocks and a 1.25in spacer. Stock backspacing is 5.5in and he is at 2.75in backspacing. Almost 3 inches per side with extremely heavy tires and extremely heavy rims and he runs the johnson valley hammer trails which are tougher trails then most of the offroading world will ever run. He has never had an issue either, its the isolated incidents that have given spacers a bad name.
In the off chance I do break a spacer I have two spares and they are on the rear. The rancho lift doesnt require any rim backspacing on the rear but I have them to keep the same trackwidth. If in the weird chance I have an issue I will take off that spacer on the rear and throw it on the front.
Benlaud, were you using motorsport tech spacers? If the stud just sheered off I would call them and question them why they just broke off like that.
I had those spacers for almost 2 years. I believe they broke off because some of the lug nuts came loose on the drive down to the concert I went to. I started to feel a shake or vibration in the steering wheel that progressively got worse. By the time I realized it was my wheel in a death wobble just as I was pulling off to the shoulder the wheel/tire rolled down the highway. I've had problems with the lug nuts coming loose before, or studs breaking once in a while but never anything like this. I still don't necessarily think spacers are bad, they just add a few extra checks that should be done to ensure they're torqued properly, etc.
ArtHummer
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- Gaithersburg/MD
I don't know but spacers give me chills down my back. Why don't you get the wheels with the correct offset???
06 H3
a.k.a. "The Jackal"
- Messages
- 9,496
- Location
- Meridian, ID
For the rancho kit If I wanna keep my 16 in rim I need 4.5 in backspacing but that isn't enough for a 16 as reaper found out. I don't wanna go out to a 4.0 or less backspaced rim, that's too wide IMO. 17 in rims and new tires is expensive and even cheap steel rims are heavier then then the stockers, I wanna keep weight down, with the exception of beadlocks. I also can't imagine spending money on rims that I destroy...I get enough rock rash to the point where one of these days the rims won't even balance. It's just a matter of time, its also cheap and easy to just spray bed liner on the rims every few months after getting rock rash. I would only spend money if I have issues with the spacers and so far I love em.
I'm not sure how a properly torqued lug nut or multiples can just become loose, unless there is some flexing of something to contribute to that result. If there are forces causing that and you want to continue using spacers some red level thread locker may be the way to go and carry a torque wrench.
This might be a good time to learn about "magnafluxing"
Be careful out there!
This might be a good time to learn about "magnafluxing"
Be careful out there!
Last edited:
4speedfunk
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Quite a spark show huh?
ArtHummer
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- Gaithersburg/MD
Well, it really good that this turned out alright. Happy to hear that.
There is guy that i know, he used to drive a Prelude. He came to our shop saying that he has some shaking when driving. He had problem with lower boll joint, but he decided not to fix it right away. Few weeks later it poppet out on highway at 80pmh. He flue of road, jumped of the bank and landed with his roof in to the light pole. He crashed so hard, the car wrapped around the pole and was hanging few yards of the ground on it. Miraculously he survived, but broke his spine. Now he is paralyzed from waist down.
Stay safe.
There is guy that i know, he used to drive a Prelude. He came to our shop saying that he has some shaking when driving. He had problem with lower boll joint, but he decided not to fix it right away. Few weeks later it poppet out on highway at 80pmh. He flue of road, jumped of the bank and landed with his roof in to the light pole. He crashed so hard, the car wrapped around the pole and was hanging few yards of the ground on it. Miraculously he survived, but broke his spine. Now he is paralyzed from waist down.
Stay safe.
backcountryislife
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- Dumont, CO
Of the JK guys I wheel with about 80% of them have spacers so they can run stock rims & 35's... and none have any kind of issues, BUT, running spacers does require a bit more attention than running stock, you just need to locktite the he!! out of them, and pay attention to them.
Keep in mind if you use Red Locktite, once you apply it and torque it down, you are done. It is designed for permanent installations. If you go to re-torque the lugs, you then break the bond of the locktite which defeats its purpose.
As far as spacers go, not all are created equally. Some of the Made in China crap on Ebay are complete and utter junk.
As far as spacers go, not all are created equally. Some of the Made in China crap on Ebay are complete and utter junk.
If you use the locktite, and being done, it's a good thing. Nothing is permanent. That stuff will break loose with enough torque applied with a socket but not from vibration. Don't believe that hype about permanent. But it would be difficult for multiple lug nuts to fall off. I have used it on lots of components and never had anything come apart. Blue works well too if you are concerned but most important is use the proper cleaner to remove oil and dirt.
Periodic checking torque slightly below the specified ft lbs may not break the seal.
If it does, reapply, which also would detect if it had gotten loose.
I don't use it with my wheels on the Hummer but I check the torque after wheeling hard and before and after long road trips. It's free!
I do use it on my large triple axle boat trailer that gets lots of load on it.
In this case where some one had a wheel come off using spacers sounds like some sort of preventative procedures needs to be implemented.
Periodic checking torque slightly below the specified ft lbs may not break the seal.
If it does, reapply, which also would detect if it had gotten loose.
I don't use it with my wheels on the Hummer but I check the torque after wheeling hard and before and after long road trips. It's free!
I do use it on my large triple axle boat trailer that gets lots of load on it.
In this case where some one had a wheel come off using spacers sounds like some sort of preventative procedures needs to be implemented.
backcountryislife
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- 858
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- Dumont, CO
Spidertrax tells you to use locktite red, then re-torque after 50 miles, so you're saying that locktite should be re-applied because of the bond being broken?
If the nut moves any signifcant amount, the red locktight will crack and flake. It dries hard like varnish. I'd mount them up to torque specs before adding locktite, then remove the nuts, add the locktite, and re-torque. This helps seat the mounting surfaces before adding the locktite.