It may or may not, but since it's centered on the lugs, it doesn't really matter, as long as it fits in there. (i.e. a badly damaged hub may cause problems)

As long as you can put the wheel on the studs (much harder without the hub, especially if the wheel is large and heavy) it should be centered properly when the nuts are tightened. Take off one lugnut, and take a look at both the nut and the wheel -- when the conic sections meet during tightening, that will force the stud to be at the center of the hole.

 

So, if I may beat this horse into glue for just a bit longer, the above quote is TRUE... AND in fact MUST be true lest the wheels not remain concentric to the axle hubs thereby causing the very problem I have been deliniating from the beginning. Having the hole in the wheel center the same size as the axle hub itself is merely an added convenience for installation purposes. The wheel lugs in conjunction with the stud spacing MUST hold the wheel centered over the hub regardless of whether or not this additional feature is incorprated into the design or not.

 

The wheels on my Bronco are both hubcentric and lugcentric. Being hubcentric means the wheel bore is the same size as the hub flange, thereby centering the wheel. The wheel is also centered by the (tapered) lugs, when they are torqued up to the hub.

Most aftermarket wheels are lugcentric only, so they will fit as many applications as possible with just a different lug bolt spacing. There are hubcentric rings available to make these wheels also a hubcentric fit.

I assume the purpose of a hubcentric fit is for added strength and rigidity. I don't know if this is really true or not, but I like the idea.....

 

you just not getting it
not ALL wheel use the wheel stud to center the wheel

Look at a mid-80s F350 dually with 2 piece lug nuts, then you know exactly what hub-centric means.
or any f600 with a 5 lug front end/10 lug rear. It's easier to see and understand the design on the larger rims.

 

Sorry I started a ****ing contest here guys, I was just trying to find out if the aftermarket wheels will fit my truck.

Here's a quick question that may get us all thinking on another tangent--What would you call a wheel design like the old Jags and MG's that used a center nut (knock off) to hold the wheel on, and what would keep it from spinning under the center nut?

 

Yes I get it just fine! And I do understand that not all wheels are what is being (erroneously) referred to as hub centric. What I am saying is that no matter what the situation, the combination of the lug and wheel studs must ultimately retain a concentric alignment of wheel and axle hub. Torque would destroy the studs or the wheels over time if the combination did not perform this function because no matter how tight the lugs were clamped down, they could NOT effectively hold against the torque of the axle on acceleration and ANY slop between the diameter of the holes for the wheel studs and the studs themselves would allow the wheel to shift in a rotary manner if the lugs used were not of sufficient diameter to fill in the "slop" or gap around the stud. So, I say again, because the laws of physics don't change, that having a wheel, regardless of size, diameter, mass, etc. that leaves ANY slop around the wheel studs MUST have a lug setup that will effectively eliminate that gap. In doing so, even though there may be an additional portion of the axle hub that maintains the concentricity of the wheel and axle hub, the combination of wheel studs and lugs will, by nature of the laws of physics, perform the same function lest the wheel studs and or the wheel itself become damaged from the forces of torque applied.

Lets look at it this way....assume for a minute I could machine away the hub of an axle that utilized this "hub centric" wheel design. Now all you have left is a flat flange with several wheel studs protruding from it. Now lets assume I attempt to install the proper wheel on this altered axle hub. You would have me believe that because the "centering" portion of the "hub centric" axle hub has been removed, I could NOT install the wheel with ANY hope of having the wheel centered on the axle hub BECAUSE by your definition, the lugs would not hold the wheel in the centered-on-hub position. So in fact, as you describe it, if the center of a hub centric axle is removed, that would render the wheel unmountable because even with the proper lugs installed and torqued down, there would be no way that the wheel would be perfectly centered on the axle hub. Is this true? Because if it is, how do the lugs keep the axle from torquing behind the wheel and slamming the studs into the sides of the holes drilled in the wheels that they pass through? Or would you have me believe that the mere clamping force applied by the lugs is enough to combat the extreme torque pressures applied between wheel and hub during acceleration?

Or, as I have argued, would fully installing the wheel on the aforementioned modified axle with the proper lugs still acheive a centered-on-hub position thus still allowing the setup to work even withouth the centering portion of the hub. See what I'm saying....even without having the hub centric section cast into the hub, if the lugs are installed and are going to keep the wheel from shifting in a rotary manner on the axle, the gap between the studs and the sides of the holes that they protrude through must be filled to keep this rotary shift from occurring and consequently, the combination of the correct lugs and the wheel will still cause a centered-on-hub condition even if the aligning portion of the hub is removed (machined away) and just the lugs installed.

In reading my own post I can come up with ONLY ONE possible way that a "hub centric" setup would be vital (as opposed to a mere convenience) to maintaining the necessary alignment between axle hub and wheel. The wheel studs themselves would HAVE to lack ANY rigid connection to the axle hub until pressure was applied to hold them into the hub and would therefore require that the wheel be held in the centered position until the lugs could be fastened. And since loosening a lug would allow the stud to shift, the casting in the axle hub would be necessary to keep the wheel centered. So in short, if the wheel studs are merely slipped through holes in the axle hub and not rigidly seated in the hub then yes I can see why a sytem of holding the wheel centered on the hub would be necessary.