Often you won’t notice this at low speeds, but once you’re doing more than around 60 mph, chances are you’ll feel it. In addition to this, this type of spacer can be very hard to center on the hub. While small vehicles with smaller axles can sometimes handle the extra weight on the lugs, it’s just not worth the risk. To counter this, some wheel spacer manufacturers will make lug-centric, or “floating,” wheel spacers for vehicles with smaller axles. This style of spacer are not safe for the simple reason that the manufacturer did not design the lug nuts to handle your vehicle’s entire weight - they manufactured the hub to handle that. Instead, all that torque goes directly on your vehicle’s wheel studs. They still provide their own lug nuts for the vehicle to mount to, but unlike hub-centric spacers they don’t have the lip that puts all the torque on the hub. Lug-centric bolt-on spacers also bolt directly to the wheel studs of your vehicle. This puts all the pressure right back on the hub, which is the strongest point. This design bolts onto your hub and slide over the wheel studs, but they also have a lip that fits around your vehicle’s hub. Hub-centric bolt-on wheel spacers work the same way as your regular wheels do and are completely safe to put on your vehicle. You’ll generally use them for adjustment of 20mm or more. Because of the tighter fitment, bolt-on spacers are often vehicle specific and utilize your existing studs.īolt-on spacers bolt up tightly against your hubs, and your wheels then bolt to these spacers. In addition to this, bolt-on spacers provide a much closer fitment than slip-on spacers. There are several advantages that bolt-on wheel spacers provide, namely that you rarely have to worry about your wheel studs being long enough. With bolt-on spacers, it basically means that the spacers are meshing up and bolting directly to the hub. Some are safer for your vehicle than others and it all comes down to how they distribute your vehicle’s weight. While there are multiple designs available, the four most common are: Generally you’re aiming for a better aesthetic and you’ll use spacers to get the perfect wheel fitment.
While you can put spacers on either the front or rear axle, your choice will be down to the type of car you have and the size of wheels you’re using.įor example, your staggered wheel setup might mean you are running wider, negative offset wheels on the rear that don’t require any spacers, but your front wheels still need to pushed further outward. The spacers sit between the hub flange and your wheel flange, which pushes your wheel further out. While there are several different types of wheel spacers, they all perform the same function - it’s just that they just attach to the vehicle in a different way. By creating this additional space, they can help to stop your wheels and tires from rubbing against wheel well liners, brakes or other suspension components.
Simply put, wheel spacers are components that attach to a vehicle’s wheel studs, so the tires sit farther out from your hubs.