Wheel Spacers!!?!?!

Hi we have bought some Insa Turbo Special Track Tyres 265/75/R16 for our freestyle rims and they catch the radius arms at full lock. Will 30mm wheel spacers stop this? we have wound out the steering stops but the turning circle is too poor. With wheel spacers will the tyres catch anything else? Its a 90 and has a 2" lift. Help Please Cheers Joe

buy a box full of wheel bearings, you'll need em

Chunks of your tyres and shiny rubbed patches on your radius arms all bad things, but for trialling its great can lock the spinning wheel and mabe just mabe, get you out of a hole past the next gate!

As for wheel spacers they put alot of strain on the wheel bearings, hubs steering like Yella says but they will stop you rubbing your wheels! or just learn to have a larger turning circe. Jai


Jai

Two suggestions
1. adjust your lock stops to stop rubbing
2. fit FC /109 1 ton/ 130DC rims
sorry its three suggestions
3. Do not fit spacers for reasons given above

Just a thought... I know everyone disses spacers and they are a bit poncey, but this problem is down to the rims, not the tyres - me and Trewey have the same size tyres on our cars but mine are on disco alloys and his are on sensible rims. Mine rub and his don't. Surely spacers only wear out bearings and things due to the offset of the whole tyre (not the rim) on the hub. This means that the important bit isn't the spacer, it's where the centre line of the tyre is in relation to the bearings and hub.

Therefore if my tyres are say 2" further into the vehicle than Trewey's, which is why they rub, the effect on my bearings (and everything else people say get knackerd) putting spacers on would have would only be the same effect as fitting wheels with a deeper dish, as the stresses are caused by the offset, not the small piece of metal.

Therefore, physicist odenne says don't fit em coz everyone will think you're a ponce, not coz of the additional wear on yer bearings etc!

Please can someone shoot me down and tell me why this theory is wrong!

you gotta find out wot the standard offset is for yer landy....think its sumwhere between 25-30. if yer tyres r rubbing on the inside, then the rim offset is incorrect fer the landy....then spacers make sense to correct the offset

in other wurds...find the correct offset fer the landy rims [normally found on the inside of the rim] and the offset of yer current rims, then buy spacers to correct it

zackly my point, so in some circumstances, ie when they're rubbing, spacers might actually be better for bearings, steering etc (still make people think you're a c-nut though, but that's another issue!)

In my book wheel spacers were always considered a weak point , although depends on how they are engineered.
With the correct landrover rim upto FC rim allows you to fit without spacers and still within LR allowable offset (the FC rim being the biggest offset). Setting the lockstop bolts to suit. will also give the minimum turning circle. JMHO

Spacers don't put that much extra load on your wheel bearings and how often do you need to change them anyway. I've done 123000 miles in mine. 62000 since I put 30mm spacers on and I'm still on the original wheel beariings with no sign of movement in any of the wheels. Probably Jynxed that now tho.

Spacers don't dramatically improve your turning circle but they will allow you to fit the bigger tyres and maintain your turning circle. They do however improve the handling of your landy.

Cheers thanks for your positive contributions. Spacers just seem the ideal way around our problem. any chance you can send us a picture of your vehicle with the spacers on please. Joe Thanks Everyone

Here are some pics of my 90 with wheel spacers on. Hope they help! I've not had any bother with them at all, though one thing which may be worth noting (on these in particular) is that the studs pattern is different to the originals - as in, your wheels might not fit (I've got 18" Range Rover alloys on mine). Oh, and wider wheel arches have just jumped right up on my list of priorities as it gets seriously filthy, even on the tarmac!

The ride is fantastic though, with hardly any roll at all and it's very stable both on and off road.

Hope this helps!