what happened with the spacers?
What did you do on your 70 series today? (31 Viewers)
- Thread starter IH8MUD
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All spacers and wheel adapters are ticking time bombs. Avoid them.
I hear this type of sentiment shared often but I’ve used 1-1.5” (quality/reputable) wheel spacers for years and know many others who also use them and have not had any issues. And when I say use them I mean use them … I like to go pretty hard in the dirt. My personal opinion is anything 1.5” or less that is installed and maintained properly is not an issue. Change my mind
prwillard2
SILVER Star
BORA backs their spacers and claims their strength is higher than the OEM axle.I hear this type of sentiment shared often but I’ve used 1-1.5” (quality/reputable) wheel spacers for years and know many others who also use them and have not had any issues. And when I say use them I mean use them … I like to go pretty hard in the dirt. My personal opinion is anything 1.5” or less that is installed and maintained properly is not an issue. Change my mind
Trust me, I felt the same and then four of the lug studs sheared going 75mph. It's also easy for a company to make a claim like that and do nothing about failure. YMMV...
If you use spacers you absolutely must not cut any corners on install or follow up and use loctite to bolt on the spacers. If your spacers are more than 1" you really need to do alot of follow up checking. It's likely more the attention to detail on install and follow up than it is on "quality of the spacer".I hear this type of sentiment shared often but I’ve used 1-1.5” (quality/reputable) wheel spacers for years and know many others who also use them and have not had any issues. And when I say use them I mean use them … I like to go pretty hard in the dirt. My personal opinion is anything 1.5” or less that is installed and maintained properly is not an issue. Change my mind
Tacoma steelies will fit on a 70 series with 1" spacers. You must trim a little from the wheel lugs. Steelies aren't perfectly flat where they mate with the aluminum spacer. Your wheel hubs are also not perfect. Steel bumps will wear into the aluminum spacer. You must recheck and retighten till they have properly worn/mated to one another. Do NOT bolt them on and forget them.
I bought 2" spacers that were Hub Centric. The hub centric lip was too small for the locking hubs in the front so I ground off the lip in effect making them lug centric. In the back the steel rims weren't perfectly flat. I almost lost a wheel in the frunt due to broken lugs from the wheel becoming loose. In the back the steel rim eventually wore the aluminum space to become loose and the spacer broke free and I lost a wheel.......................I went to 1" spacers instead of 2" as 2" was overkill. I got spacers that fit properly from the factory and used permanent loctite on install and rechecked tightness at 500 miles. I have no issues and thousands of miles on them to include a couple of tire rotations.....Live and learn, share to help.
I guess I just have trouble understanding why some people go through all that trouble for spacers when it seems to make more sense to just bolt on wheels that fits without them for peace of mind. It does suck that wheel options for the 70 series is so limited.
I wouldn’t want to have to worry about spacers or adapters failing while driving. Not using them is one less thing to break.
I guess my time seeing all the spacer fail related carnage when I worked at a tire shop years ago made me shy away from them.
I wouldn’t want to have to worry about spacers or adapters failing while driving. Not using them is one less thing to break.
I guess my time seeing all the spacer fail related carnage when I worked at a tire shop years ago made me shy away from them.
prwillard2
SILVER Star
I'd love to not run spacers, but having issues finding a good aftermarket wheel to run. I'd rather increased wheel size to accommodate for larger front brakes, but finding the right offset has been brutal. 3.5" backspace seems to be the only guaranteed fitment.
I ran some Mickey Thompson wheels 16x8 classic II or III back in the day when I had the BJ70.
Hello,
Very good point.
It makes a lot more sense getting wheels with the right offset. It may cost more (sometimes a lot more) than a set of spacers, but it is one less thing to break.
Fewer things that break do have an effect on reliability.
Juan
A tiny mod that makes a whole lot of difference (at least for me) in comfort... One stone armrests 
A tiny mod that makes a whole lot of difference (at least for me) in comfort... One stone armrests
does it just have sticky tape to mount? it's cool I like it
Lots of people these days seem to want the retro utilility look of steelies. Steel rims can also be repaired trailside with a big 5lb hammer and a ball peen, if you dent a bead runing low pressure. 16" gives you more tire options than original 15"s. If that's you then here's a few options: 1. $70+- Tacoma 16" steelie with 1" spacers and dubious attention to install(loctite/torque spec) and follow up after several hundred miles and after tire rotations(retorque).
2. The very nice aluminum aftermarket rims that look like steelies more $ but a more sound choice minus the trailside repairability. Google this and you will find more than one company that makes them.
3. Modern 70 series 5 lug split rims with 6-5 lug conversion spacers. You will occasionaly find these on Ebay. They are likely coming off of overseas toyota trucks and LC's brought stateside for modifications and sent back overseas. With this rim you would have to spacer/adapter issues and the issue with having to use tubes and proper liners. I would have gone this route as I had a chance to score for free, but I had already bought my tacoma steelies.
Honestly, I almost went with Tacoma 16" steelies plus spacers at one time. I personally could have gotten them for free as I used to see many of those get scrapped by the hundreds but I just feel I am asking for trouble with spacers so I never went with those.
I didn't mean to offend anyone with my anti-spacer/adapter comments.
One thing I definitely agree on that I love steel wheels over aluminum for the ease of repair.
I didn't mean to offend anyone with my anti-spacer/adapter comments.
One thing I definitely agree on that I love steel wheels over aluminum for the ease of repair.
