torynich Posted January 9, 2008 Share Posted January 9, 2008 I have run aluminum spacers on my daily driver toyota rock crawler since 2000 with 40" tall Super Swampers and have encountered no problems. I have broken ring gears, birfields, and hubs, but have never had an issue with the spacers. You could check the adapter nuts a couple of miles after initial installation and then every tire rotation if you really wanted to. I am running 2" 4 lug to 5 lug adapters on my 280 with Cobra rims (white with zg flares but only a 5.7 not a 6.0 ) and havent had any issues with this car either, but I havent put a lot of miles on the combo yet (street only car). Tory Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slammed68 Posted January 9, 2008 Author Share Posted January 9, 2008 The problem is that you CAN'T check the lugnuts on the adapters without taking the wheels off. If one of the adapters is not 100% perfectly flush (which can easily happen when placing them over wheels hubs, depending on design), it will get bound up when you are torquing it down. Your torque wrench will show everything being fine, and then the first time you hit a bump and it is unbound, it will loosen very slightly. It might be days or weeks until the nuts work themselves off, but you won't have much warning. Dont be lazy - just take your wheels off at 25 miles, 50 miles, 100 miles, 500 miles and so on and check for anything wrong. I have seen tons of people run adapters and spacers with no problems. I think the reason of these breaking is more of a user fault issue more than a product issue. I had a wheel fall off my 87 Cherokee because once the aluminum settles on the steel, there will not be the tightness like there was. The wheel eventually worked its way off. Ive found that anything ANYTHING aluminum going on drivetrain where there is a chance of settling, needs to be tightened at least once after 25-50-100 miles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nismo280zEd Posted January 9, 2008 Share Posted January 9, 2008 I promise I wasn't exaggerating anything, and I'm not the only person that has happened to. Do you know why your car caught on fire? Do you have a way to change your behavior so that you can be reasonably sure it won't happen again? The problem is that you CAN'T check the lugnuts on the adapters without taking the wheels off. If one of the adapters is not 100% perfectly flush (which can easily happen when placing them over wheels hubs, depending on design), it will get bound up when you are torquing it down. Your torque wrench will show everything being fine, and then the first time you hit a bump and it is unbound, it will loosen very slightly. It might be days or weeks until the nuts work themselves off, but you won't have much warning. Guys who "drift" while using spacers are probably changing their wheels that day. They (hopefully) check their spacer lugs every time the car goes out on the track. There is a big difference between track cars and daily driven cars as I was very careful to specify earlier. you do realize about all spacers are AL, and just like AL wheels... your supposed to retorque them after so many miles to avoid the above stated problems. I'm just sayn' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slammed68 Posted January 10, 2008 Author Share Posted January 10, 2008 It has said in every set of aluminum wheels I have ever bought, in the owners manual, to drive the first 50 miles, and then RE-TORQUE all the fasteners to spec. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slammed68 Posted January 10, 2008 Author Share Posted January 10, 2008 Tars mounted Flares ordered Just for all you haters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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