Wheel spacer kits - yay or nay?

Came across a 30mm wheel spacer kit on ebay, bolts onto the hub and has its own bolts to hold the wheel on, I think they would give my disco a pretty good stance..do they help the road holding and offroad stability much though? currently got a 2 inch lift with 16" wellers, and 255/65/16 tyres, mud tyres.

On deep articulation, the tyres hit the arches, if I fitted extended bumpstops would this help? thanks

cut yo wheelarches and dont fit the spacers.

The Mad Hat Man said:

cut yo wheelarches and dont fit the spacers.

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wot e said.

If you want a 'better stance' get wider wheels ... IOW do it properly.

deffo a nay i wouldn't trust something like that on my mini never mind a big land rover

General opinion seems to they will put too much load on your wheel bearings.

Davec said:

General opinion seems to they will put too much load on your wheel bearings.

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The wheel bearing thing did spring to mind when I saw them. I'll leave them then, put the mone towards a winch and a decent front bumper.

On my old L reg disco, I had 265/75/16 insa turbos on black mods, that thing really would go anywhere, Had a good stance too. But was unbearably slow on the road, and I think due to the size of the wheels the bearings, track rod ends and diffs ate themselves But I was a young pup then, have more idea what im after for my new disco

cheers all

Nay!
The swivel axis, (the line through he top and bottom swvel pins on a Disco or down the McPherson strut on a Freelander) is designed to pass through the centre of the contact patch where the tyre touches the ground. The wheel bearings are then placed symmetrically above this point. Any offset in the position of the wheel increases the bending moment in the system greatly increasing the loads on the bearings. Considering how closely the wheel bearings are spaced along the axis of the stub axle it is easy to double the load on the outer bearing, so spacers should not be used.

Also assuming that acceleration and braking forces act through the centre of the contact patch in the direction of travel along the road in the design position there is no turning moment about the the swivel pin axis. Moving the contact patch outboard will result in a moment which in straight line motion puts compression or tension in the steering (trackrod or rack), thus increasing wear in the rod ends etc. When one wheel loses traction this must be reacted by the steering wheel leading to possible handling difficulties.