Help with Wheel spacers

bankz5152 said:

A half decent set of hubcentric spacers work fine, no issues at all.

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That was my point about quality. Not all of them are equal, I agree that a decent quality set of hubcentric spacers should cause no problem. But it is not a straight forward as buying the first set you come across. Also some spacers are unsuitable for some alloys which centre on the hub rather than the studs.

300bhp/ton said:

And why do you need to see the wheelnuts? Plenty of rims on other vehciles can have hub caps or covers over the wheel nuts.

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You do not need to see them (although it can give early warning if there is problem) but you need to access them to check the torque is still correct. It is far easier to remove a plastic hub cap to check the torque than to jack the vehicle up, remove the road wheel, then check the torque and refit everything, because of this they are far more effort and therefore far less likely to be checked regularly.

300bhp/ton said:

Spacers can be a lot cheaper option and allow a standard wheel look and of course a simple bolt on at home job.

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If you are using standard wheels then swapping tyres onto new rims is a simple at home job. The only thing you would struggle with is balancing but depending on how aggressive the tyre is this is not needed, or you could use balance beads. It is only if you have fancy alloys it becomes more difficult to change a tyre yourself.

dag019 said:

That was my point about quality. Not all of them are equal, I agree that a decent quality set of hubcentric spacers should cause no problem. But it is not a straight forward as buying the first set you come across. Also some spacers are unsuitable for some alloys which centre on the hub rather than the studs.



You do not need to see them (although it can give early warning if there is problem) but you need to access them to check the torque is still correct. It is far easier to remove a plastic hub cap to check the torque than to jack the vehicle up, remove the road wheel, then check the torque and refit everything, because of this they are far more effort and therefore far less likely to be checked regularly.



If you are using standard wheels then swapping tyres onto new rims is a simple at home job. The only thing you would struggle with is balancing but depending on how aggressive the tyre is this is not needed, or you could use balance beads. It is only if you have fancy alloys it becomes more difficult to change a tyre yourself.

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1. Land Rover steel rims are nut centric not hubcentric. So you don’t need hubcentric spacers. And being hubcentric or not has no bearing on the quality of the item.

2. With the wheel in place it is impossible for a spacer nut to undo and fall off as the wheel covers them. They also stand the exact same chance of coming undone as a regular wheel nut. As that is how they are affixed. How often do wheel nuts, when properly fitted actually undo themselves????

3. If you think changing a tyre at home as in taking it off one rim and putting it on another is as simple as fitting wheelspacers. You either live at garage or you are being unrealistic.

300bhp/ton said:

1. Land Rover steel rims are nut centric not hubcentric. So you don’t need hubcentric spacers. And being hubcentric or not has no bearing on the quality of the item.

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Steels are not and centre on the studs, but some alloys are and centre on the hubs, it is therefore dependent on the wheels fitted and care needs to be taken to purchase the correct spacers.

300bhp/ton said:

2. With the wheel in place it is impossible for a spacer nut to undo and fall off as the wheel covers them. They also stand the exact same chance of coming undone as a regular wheel nut. As that is how they are affixed. How often do wheel nuts, when properly fitted actually undo themselves????

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The nut cannot come off but it can still come loose and it is best practice to regularly check the torque is still correct. I may be over cautious as I work in transport and have come across HGV's with loose wheels nuts when they come to be checked and have come across vehicle in the company which have lost wheels while driving.

300bhp/ton said:

3. If you think changing a tyre at home as in taking it off one rim and putting it on another is as simple as fitting wheelspacers. You either live at garage or you are being unrealistic.

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I am not saying it is as simple as changing a complete wheel, but it is not a difficult or technical job and requires very few tools, I would compare it to removing a prop vs replacing a UJ, one is more basic than the other but neither are difficult to do. It is very straight forward to change a tyre and there are plenty of vidoes showing you how to do it (e.g. link1, link2). Again if you have seen HGV tyres being fitted they break the bead with a sledge hammer, remove and refit the tyre with leavers, and pump it up. HGV tyres are not balanced and are not fitted using a machine like car tyres. A steel land rover wheel is closer to an HGV than a low profile car alloy.