Hi folks

I have a question regarding wheel spacers.
I have found a set of rims and tires off a 95 dodge 3/4 ton that fit my 49 Mercury M68.
Problem is with the off set 6.5" vs 4.5" on stock split rims but I need to off set them to allow the fronts to turn to the locks.
I would value your opinions
Thanks in advance

Allan

 

Hi Allen, Not sure of your question... but I will try to help ya... I think your asking about using wheel spacers... Never like the idea on a front of a vehicle (reminds me of people using Blocks on front of trucks to lift them). Do people do it... Yes. Would I... NO! your adding the a lot of stress on the front spindal & bearings when you add a spacer... On the rear axle you have the length of the axle to support that offset. Just my two cents.. Good luck..

 

So if we just put wheel spacers on the rear would that be ok? Im about to get a spindle lift and I know the front sticks out a little bit from that type of lift. Im wanting to make the rear even with the front once I do that.

 

Many people have done that over the years. The one thing you have to remember when you have wheel spacers is that you can't see the nuts for the spacers.

 

I just bought Aluminum alloy 6061 wheel spacers for my truck rear. They are 2" wide! Yeah! I read early in my joining the website, about the Explorer 8.8 disk brake unit fitting well. I didn't take into consideration the extra width of my 8" express bed and wanted to use the wheels I already have. so thats what I got to make up the difference. Make sure you get scapers that are "hubcentric" aka they fit the end of the axle center. My axleshafts have a center that sticks out about 1/2" and the spacer rides on that to help with balance, and supports the wieght of wheel and tire along with hitting potholes or etc. taking some of the stress off the wheel studs. hope that makes sense. I paid like $75 for them.. I couldn't do anything else any cheaper.

 

People in the tire and wheel industry doesn't like hubcentric... Unless your truck started out with them it doesn't do much good to convert to them. Your lug nuts will center the spacer and the wheel/tire... And if your working on 1/2 ton axles they don't have anything there to use as a hub... Just 2 more cents...

 

Hi Moe,
I don't know what you call the ford explorer 8.8(if its a 1/2 ton axle or what)
but it has a center to the end of the axle between the wheel studs. and the spacers I bought fit snug around that center. I debated the whole hubcentric idea to begin with, but when I started to research it, there were a several threads where guys were having balancing issues/ and wheel stud breakage/ etc. Now I didn't change my mind based on what I bought because who knows what each individual did for installation or retorque checks after running them.
But I liked the idea of them being supported by the end of the axle along with the wheel studs. Then I got these Weld draglites and they are NOT supported by anything except the wheel studs. I hope one day to end up with steel wheels with the baby moons, but that is a long way off.
I would prefer to NOT use a spacer at all and maybe later on in the end I will do something different. I agree that I would not want to use them in the front.
Hubcentric or not I was gonna go whatever route I had to go to make what I had, work. If I had to do it over I certainly would have a wider axle. I just didn't have the ambition for a redo!

 

I'm by far no expert. I understand that if a car was made for the use of Hub-centric then they should always... when a car isn't designed and made Hub-centric it's rough cased/forged (how ever it was made) and the machine work hasn't been done to make the outside to to run true to center... Also I didn't know that Draglites are hub-certric... the spacer.... Sounds like your mixing your products. I don't know if explorer is hub-centric. The other route you could have done was tub the f3 bed side to accommodate the axle width.

 

Yeah maybe this is gettin too technical for me and we are on the same page, just not the same paragraph! LOL anyways, tubbing the bed would have helped with the tires rubbing on the inside but since I have F1 fenders on an F3 bed(8' express bed) the clearance from the outer edge of the tire to the wheel opening, was way too much. I just wanted a simple/cheap/less time consuming way to close that gap. And no the Draglites are not hubcentric.
On my 8.8 axles the center is machined where the rotors slide over it.
The explorer rear end is a good fit/replacement (width wise) for an F1. Not so great for an F3. I failed to think that over when I bought the axle. Thats what happens when you don't think ahead!