Wheel Spacers a bad idea?

[newbe351]

As hard as 6 lug wheels are to come by, I finally settled on a set of 17" x 8" Centerline Eclipse wheels with 275/55/17 tires on all fours. They come with a 4 1/2" back space. I just recently received my 4-inch lowering leafs from ECE (66 GMC). Upon installation of the springs, my tires and wheels will not fit the wheel well. They rub on the inside of the wheel well. After a bunch of measuring, etc., we determined a 3 1/2" back space would do the trick. As long and hard as it was to come up with this tire/wheel combination (plus it took Centerline 4 months to manufacture them), I don't want to redo the wheels. One option is to use wheel spacers. Summit has a set of 1.25" spacers that look like they might be a solution to my problem but the shop I'm working with doesn't like spacers and feel that they are unsafe.

Any opinions or advice from the group?
Thanks


http://centerlinewheels.com/wheels_d...id=2&sw_id=662

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/CAL-75820/

[tincan1966]

Properly installed and torqued to mfg specs- spacers work fine. Most that have problems do not install them correctly. If you are looking at 1 25" I assume the spacer bolts to axle, then wheel bolts to spacer.

Most of the failures I've seen thru our shop are the 1/4 - 1/2" type, and people do not install longer lug studs to compensate.

Personally, I'd install new lug studs anyway to replace the 50+ year old ones as a preventative maintenace thing.

Just my 2 cents worth, but if done correctly, nothing to worry about.

[61_FL_Apache]

Originally Posted by tincan1966

Properly installed and torqued to mfg specs- spacers work fine. Most that have problems do not install them correctly. If you are looking at 1 25" I assume the spacer bolts to axle, then wheel bolts to spacer.

Most of the failures I've seen thru our shop are the 1/4 - 1/2" type, and people do not install longer lug studs to compensate.

Personally, I'd install new lug studs anyway to replace the 50+ year old ones as a preventative maintenace thing.

Just my 2 cents worth, but if done correctly, nothing to worry about.

I agree with that!