Considering using a 1/2" spacer to wide the track a bit? Anyone done this? It would appear that the lug studs are plenty sturdy to handle the stress. Am I wasting my time and money? Thoughts?
0.5" spacer to widen track?
- Thread starter slambson
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
My only recommendation would be to get longer lugs. The lugs thread on the lugs is only about an inch long so a .5 inch spacers would only give .5 inches of contact with the nuts.
I would not go with loose spacers, or shims. Very unsafe.
What I did was install bolt on spacers, also sometime called wheel adapters (because they can be used to change the lug pattern on a vehicle to allow different wheels to be used). These are plates at least as thick as your original lugs, with recessed mounting for nuts to be flush with the surface. They also have new lugs pressed in. You bolt these to your hub and then you have the six new lugs sticking out to which you bolt the wheel. Of course, you need to go at least as thick as the original lugs stick out, which for our trucks is one inch.
You can get them at most speed shops or specialty 4WD places online. Here are the ones I got (in 1.25" thickness):
http://www.marlincrawler.com/wheelspacers.html
HTH,
What I did was install bolt on spacers, also sometime called wheel adapters (because they can be used to change the lug pattern on a vehicle to allow different wheels to be used). These are plates at least as thick as your original lugs, with recessed mounting for nuts to be flush with the surface. They also have new lugs pressed in. You bolt these to your hub and then you have the six new lugs sticking out to which you bolt the wheel. Of course, you need to go at least as thick as the original lugs stick out, which for our trucks is one inch.
You can get them at most speed shops or specialty 4WD places online. Here are the ones I got (in 1.25" thickness):
http://www.marlincrawler.com/wheelspacers.html
HTH,
What about the "hub centricity" of 80's? Is that a factor?
new rims!
I like the 80 series rims...
Score a set of offset rims. Plenty of bling and you get a wider track.
Kalawang
Kalawang
Pontiac says wider is better
Hopefully they are only talking about cars and not women
Wider track = more broken headlights/windsheilds for followers
There ya go Doug.. then you can sell more 3m film
Hopefully they are only talking about cars and not women
Wider track = more broken headlights/windsheilds for followers
There ya go Doug.. then you can sell more 3m film
For those of us that lift our rigs, taller equals more tippy. Wider equals less tippy.
semlin
curmudgeon
Scott I think they were 1/4" spacers not 1/2"
congrats again
congrats again
I had a suspicion that 1/2" would not help much with tip, I tried to brush up on my trig and did some rough math. But finally decided to use a trig calculator I wish I had looked for a calculator before I spent an hour trying to figure out trig again.
it is dark so I did not go and measure my truck, but the NCF calls out tread of 63" (distance between tires), add 275mm x2= 21.6" for a total outside to outside somewhere around 84.6" assuming the center of gravity is centered (it probably is not, but we are interested in tip both ways so this is an average) distance along the ground from CG to outside corner of the tire is 42.3", with a half inch spacer that would be 42.8"
here is where a WAG gets added to rough math, I am guessing the CG is about 30" off the ground, I have no idea is this is even close but is the # I used. Since we are looking for a relative difference between stock and with spacer, not truly what angle the truck will tip at I think this is close enough for these purposes..
Makes for a hypotenuse of (distance from outside corner of tire to CG as the crow flies)
51.8" stock
52.2 with 1/2" spacer,
And an angle of
35.345° stock
35.028° with ½” spacer
Subtract those from 90° and you can therotically traverse
54.655° stock
54.972° with 1/2” spacer
without tipping over
A difference of .3°, Not worth the $ IMO, more accurate CG-height and width measurements will change this # but since the width difference is set at .5” not by a whole lot, there are other variables I cannot calculate, like how the tire and suspension will move differently with the spacer.
Some other downsides, a spacer will move the center of the tire away from the knuckle increasing the leverage and load on the trunion bearings, also changes the arc of the turn possibly throwing off toe in a turn, both are minor differences but both negatives for a minor gain,
A better solution to getting that half inch may be to get wider tires, a 305mm tire is 12” the stock 275mm tires are 10.82 a difference of 1.18” half of witch (just over half an inch) goes to making the track wider, but the center of the tire stays in the same place, no effect on trunion loads nor toe
it is dark so I did not go and measure my truck, but the NCF calls out tread of 63" (distance between tires), add 275mm x2= 21.6" for a total outside to outside somewhere around 84.6" assuming the center of gravity is centered (it probably is not, but we are interested in tip both ways so this is an average) distance along the ground from CG to outside corner of the tire is 42.3", with a half inch spacer that would be 42.8"
here is where a WAG gets added to rough math, I am guessing the CG is about 30" off the ground, I have no idea is this is even close but is the # I used. Since we are looking for a relative difference between stock and with spacer, not truly what angle the truck will tip at I think this is close enough for these purposes..
Makes for a hypotenuse of (distance from outside corner of tire to CG as the crow flies)
51.8" stock
52.2 with 1/2" spacer,
And an angle of
35.345° stock
35.028° with ½” spacer
Subtract those from 90° and you can therotically traverse
54.655° stock
54.972° with 1/2” spacer
without tipping over
A difference of .3°, Not worth the $ IMO, more accurate CG-height and width measurements will change this # but since the width difference is set at .5” not by a whole lot, there are other variables I cannot calculate, like how the tire and suspension will move differently with the spacer.
Some other downsides, a spacer will move the center of the tire away from the knuckle increasing the leverage and load on the trunion bearings, also changes the arc of the turn possibly throwing off toe in a turn, both are minor differences but both negatives for a minor gain,
A better solution to getting that half inch may be to get wider tires, a 305mm tire is 12” the stock 275mm tires are 10.82 a difference of 1.18” half of witch (just over half an inch) goes to making the track wider, but the center of the tire stays in the same place, no effect on trunion loads nor toe
Last edited:
A wider track theoreticaly allows more articulation and softer springing.
Gold Finger said:
It's not a theory, it's reallity.
Koni Raid Shocks £112.00 Each +VAT
Front Min 368mm Max 622mm =254
Rear Min 375mm Max 610mm =235
Any more info please call
Thanks & Regards
Richard
Scorpion Racing Ltd
Unit D, The Coppetts Centre,
North Circular Road, London, N12 0SH
Tel: (+44) 208 8211 4888
Fax: (+44) 208 8211 4999
www.scorpion-racing.co.uk
Front Min 368mm Max 622mm =254
Rear Min 375mm Max 610mm =235
Any more info please call
Thanks & Regards
Richard
Scorpion Racing Ltd
Unit D, The Coppetts Centre,
North Circular Road, London, N12 0SH
Tel: (+44) 208 8211 4888
Fax: (+44) 208 8211 4999
www.scorpion-racing.co.uk
RavenTai said:
I dearly wish I had paid more attention to Math.
I have no idea of what degree of offset my rims have, they are 10" rims R15 and I'm using 33x12.5 R15 M/T Yokos. They made my LC 3 or 4 " wider at the tire than my previous set, 315x75 R16 M/T Yokos on 0 offset 9" rims.
Kalawang
Kalawang said:
So 3.5" wider total, 1.75" each side? Using the same numbers from above that gets you to 55.743° or just over a full degree more tilt.
For a visual on those degree measurements if you are 6" tall and leaned over 3/8" that is .3°, if you leaned 1.25" inches that is 1°
Raven,
I have posted comments in the past pointing out how wider tires, spacers and such do not materially reduce tipover danger (in fact under most conditions wider tires INCREASE tipover danger). But I was literally giggling when I finished your post as I did similar analysis and posted it on another thread years ago, and yours made me laugh at how precise you were.
Suffice to say that I believe you are correct and it's an overall negative to do. Thanks for the analysis and time.
DougM (still giggling)
I have posted comments in the past pointing out how wider tires, spacers and such do not materially reduce tipover danger (in fact under most conditions wider tires INCREASE tipover danger). But I was literally giggling when I finished your post as I did similar analysis and posted it on another thread years ago, and yours made me laugh at how precise you were.
Suffice to say that I believe you are correct and it's an overall negative to do. Thanks for the analysis and time.
DougM (still giggling)
- Thread starter
- #19
RavenTai said:
One issue. 1/2" on either side would add 1" total. So what would the 1.25" spacers on either side add?
