Looking to add about 2 inches or so to my bj60's axel's to get a wider stance for a less tippy ride. Are wheel spacers going to be hard on the bearings? What other risks run? I'd be running 33" tires aswell.
J/k, the only things I can think of that cause problems are if the studs pressed into the spacer are not fully seated or lugs not tight then u have issues. Shaky steering aka death wobble will show its ugly face. Otherwise, your wheel bearings and knuckle brgs are designed to withstand a crap load of side load.
For the longest time I leaned away from running spacers, but the more people I talked to that used them (even on seriously beefed up crawlers), the more I started to think there wasn't really any problem as long as they're installed correctly. One friend of mine grenaded both lockout hubs on his pickup a while back without doing any damage to the 1" spacers (Spidertrax IIRC) he was running.
Myself, I now run 2" spacers from US Wheel Adapters and have no problem with them. I'm running hub centric '09 Tacoma wheels that have a 4.5" backspace on my '62, and with the 2" spacers, the centerline of each wheel is moved out 1" farther than the stockers. When I installed them I snugged them down enough to align them properly on the hubs, then one at a time I pulled off each lug nut, applied a little blue thread locker, reinstalled and torqued to 90 ft-lbs, going around in a star pattern. I don't see myself having any problem with them at all in the future.
No matter how you move the tire's contact patch further away from the wheel bearings it will be harder on the bearings. Can do it with spacers, can do it with shallowly back-spaced wheels, the end result for the bearings is the same - more leverage against them.
I don't like aluminum spacers because of fatigue. If they were iron or steel it wouldn't be a problem even though the design is loaded with stress risers. If you don't put many miles on the aluminum spacers then you may not ever have a problem. My last trip was 2785 miles, and that is about normal. Aluminum is a no-go for me.
I've been running 1.25" spacers (aluminum spider trax) on my 4runner for a couple years, no issues whatsoever. Running 33" and 35" tires depending on the season. It goes off road. They survived a 45mph rollover without any hint of a problem.
Just be sure you mount the spacer onto the truck with a torque wrench and locktite, then mount the wheel onto the spacer with a torque wrench. Then a week or two later take off the wheels and check the torque on the spacer by dialling it back a few pounds and see if it clicks. Once you do that proceedure, they are pretty much fail-proof barring a major collision or something like that.
I've run wheel spacers almost since I've had my 60 due to the wheels.....no failures. I don't DD drive mine and its not driven a lot anyway, mostly on trails when I go. 2 inch spacers.
NEVER NEVER NEVER use anti seize on lug nuts. If any gets on the tapered part it'll cause you to greatly over torque the nut onto the stud, which will stretch the stud and lead to it shearing off while driving.
Anyone who says to use anti seize is a ticking time bomb on their way to losing a wheel and at best being stranded, at worst being on the highway and causing a pileup.
That Youtube video linked is a recipe for disaster.
If you use anti-seize you have to adjust your torque by 15-20% less. That goes for all fasteners. I'd go with the manuf recommendations, but if you ever want to remove the things, you'll need flame.
i have 1.5 inch spacers on all 4 corners from slee attached to 37 in tires with steel wheels. Not my favorite set up, i would have preferred not to use them, but I can't say I've had any issues. I've taken them 4 wheeling a few times and they've held up well. In the beginning you'll be very paranoid and keep checking to make sure they are torqued well. Oh and use the RED locktite.
I use anti-seize on every lug stud and ever since I had a nut seize on a stud about 25 years ago so badly that we had to use a torch to get the wheel off. A little anti-seize goes a very long way. I do not put it on the nuts unless they are the old school mag wheel type which get a thin smear on the body of the nut so that they do not seize in the hole in the wheel. And as mentioned you do have to adjust just how tight you turn the lug wrench, with it you can easily yield the studs and then they break.
Not me. I won't go near any lug studs or nuts with anti seize. I knew one guy (not particularly a friend more than just an acquaintance) who was killed when he lost a wheel on the freeway and crashed at speed a few years back. Found out through one of his close friends that he had used anti seize on his lug nuts. Dude seemed smart enough to know not to slather anti seize on when it's used, so I figure he knew enough to avoid that with the lug nuts. Another former co-worker's brother ended up paralyzed from the neck down when his Corvette lost a wheel, also on the freeway and also due to anti seize on the lug nuts (using spacers in that case).
Blue Loctite all the way for me. A little dab'll do ya. Keeps stuff from seizing too every time I've used it. Red will work like a boss too, but who wants to break out the torch every time you have to take a wheel and/or spacer off?
Blue loctite on clean studs is a good suggestion. But FWIW, I've been using thin smear of good anti-seize on wheel studs and nuts for close to 30 years now and never an issue and never a buggered stud. But I do kick all my vehicle wheels once and a while just to check for any cattywampusness.
No lock-tite on lug nuts for me. It shouldn't be needed. If it is you've got something wrong.
I average 15-20k miles a year on studs with anti-seize applied directly to the stud threads only. Been doing that and driving that much for nearly 25 years. The ONLY problem (singular) that I have ever had was when I KNOW that I failed to fully tighten one wheel. I was in a rush and forgot it. I caught it before it caused an accident, but I'm now very careful to always check that I did tighten every lug nut.
On this coastal desert even plated fasteners rust way too fast to not use something in the threads. Run them across any of the desert playas when moist and the problem is amplified by a factor of at least 10. Properly tightened the nuts are not going to back off, no matter what is in the threads. (Lubricants, not Lock-tite are all that is called out for con-rod & main cap bolts, yet those almost never back off and they don't have anything special about their threads or any locking features.) The seating cones on the wheels and nuts isn't just to center the wheel on the hub, they also perform a locking function. OE steel wheels in particular have this function designed into their shape around those conic seats. Even a little anti-seize on the seating cones will defeat this and that is why I am very careful to never allow any to remain there.
Not me. I won't go near any lug studs or nuts with anti seize. I knew one guy (not particularly a friend more than just an acquaintance) who was killed when he lost a wheel on the freeway and crashed at speed a few years back. Found out through one of his close friends that he had used anti seize on his lug nuts. Dude seemed smart enough to know not to slather anti seize on when it's used, so I figure he knew enough to avoid that with the lug nuts. Another former co-worker's brother ended up paralyzed from the neck down when his Corvette lost a wheel, also on the freeway and also due to anti seize on the lug nuts (using spacers in that case).
Blue Loctite all the way for me. A little dab'll do ya. Keeps stuff from seizing too every time I've used it. Red will work like a boss too, but who wants to break out the torch every time you have to take a wheel and/or spacer off?
Loctite isn't needed in this application, is likely to do more harm than good. The most common failure that I have seen, when mounting different wheels and/or spacers is, failure to clean the hub face. The wheel mount faces should be metal to metal, any debris (heavy paint, rust, dirt, etc) will crush/move reducing the fastener tension without the nuts turning.
The proper method for changing wheel type and/or adding spacers is to fully clean contact surfaces to flat, solid metal, mount and torque to spec. Drive for 100mi or so then recheck torque, the fasteners should not move, if they do, there is a problem. Loctite will make this very important step meaningless, did the torque wrench click at spec because the fastener is at correct tension or because the nut is glued to the stud? It is very possible to have a fastener with zero tension and the torque click correctly.
