Effects of Spacers?

[Cclittle72]

Hi everyone, I've seen a few threads here about spacers, but there was a lot of opinion, speculation, and anecdotal evidence...
Has anyone specifically installed 1" or greater spacers on their 2019+ Ranger and had issues after normal driving? What maintenance issues did you have, and after how many miles? Personal experience with Rangers only, please.

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[DukeCanBuildit]

Brace yourself for a bunch more “opinion, speculation, and anecdotal evidence...” ?

 

[Frenchy]

To put simple spacers are not really the greatest idea. Can you run them? Yes you can. Should you? Not really. Why? Well depending on the type of spacer you may lose the amount of threads for your wheel studs I have your Lugnuts grab onto. You may have another design where you boat the wheel spacer to the hub and then both the wheel to the spacer. And that particular design you have to be real careful to make sure the spacers are torqued to the hub correctly. If you do not the wheel can fall off. In how much time from the install you ask? Who knows, it may be within the day or a few months from now. That is the major issue with it.

Another thing to consider when adding wheel spacers or changing wheels is the offset. Others on here can explain in better detail but if you bring the wheel out too much you will run into the possibility of having to cut, remove or replace your crash bars wich result in another safety issue.

Like it pr not what I said is true. When modifying our vehicles we take this risk. Some on here dont give a damn but when the issue happens they will think again on the next choice. I myself try to be a bit careful and still make mistakes along the way. My best advice is to take the safest path when modifying your truck.

 

[awd.nv]

I have a '21 Tremor and put 1" Factionfab wheel spacers. The Tremor has 265/70/17 Grabber ATx tires and the Ranger Raptor wheels. Overall, love it appearance wise but was actually happy to notice the improved stability while towing our Geo Pro 19BH travel trailer. Not that it was bad before, but I notice it to be more stable in crosswinds and such (using Equalizer WDH too).

Have about 1000 miles on the spacers. The Tremor with 1.0" wheel spacers could be closer to 1.5" on sport/fx4 wheels, not sure totally. Just guessing based on Ford marketing the Tremor as 1" wider.

That said, overall no complaints. I would prefer to get this offset with wheels but I do like the Tremor wheels and did not want to replace them, at least not yet. The issue most people get is when they do not use spacers that are hub centric, meaning the studs are the only thing keeping it center, those CAN cause vibrations. I would especially not use those for off-road use. I would also use quality spacers so the hardware used is also quality.

I did have some rubbing in reverse that is about 99% solved by removing the plastic trim on the crash bars along with loosening the front crash bars and pushing them towards the front of the truck, then retightening them.

Zero issues here otherwise and wish I got them sooner.

 

[AutobotXJ]

I had BORA wheel spacers on my truck for about a year and really enjoyed them. Main thing is, get a quality spacer, install it correctly, check the torque after 50-100 miles, and recheck at every oil change. I’d still run them if I didn’t upgrade to new offset wheels.

 

[landiscarrier]

I have about 20k on my Faction Fab 1” spacers with no issues. I agree that is does seem to add some stability. I will say I’m pretty much a pavement guy and rarely go off-road. The only issue is getting it inspected in Pa.

 

[gcan]

I have 1.5” faction fab spacers with over 15,000 miles on them. zero issues. I do recheck torque with every rotation.
I had the same on a wrangler for 5 years and never had any issues or excessive suspension wear.
I do agree, buy a quality product

 

[kieefer]

I’m using Bora 1” adapters. They specifically state to not use Loctite and will void their warranty if found.

Recently TD mounted new tires and when checking out I asked them about adapters and alignment, they told me they wouldn’t mount wheels on adapters/spacers, apparently the Tech didn’t notice or ignored their rule.

I re-toque every 5K and never noticed a problem of loosening.

 

[Msfitoy]

Hi everyone, I've seen a few threads here about spacers, but there was a lot of opinion, speculation, and anecdotal evidence...
Has anyone specifically installed 1" or greater spacers on their 2019+ Ranger and had issues after normal driving? What maintenance issues did you have, and after how many miles? Personal experience with Rangers only, please.

? See what you started? Take this for what it's worth...under normal circumstances, I would prefer not to have spacers as they add unstrung weight...that said, I started out with +20 offset wheels...when my build got wider with addition of 285s and AD fender flairs, my width grew by more than 4" overall...then my tires were flush with the flairs but that didn't sit well...they needed to be out slightly so I installed 1-1/8" spacers for TACOs...you heard that right, same lug pattern, different center bore...here's where I'm against the norm again because I don't use hub rings...I use careful star pattern progressive torquing (wheels off the ground) to get lug centricity...this works for me...no vibration...will my CV and/or bearings break tomorrow? We'll find out...I'm at 85,740 miles now...the spacers went on around 65K...keep in mind that I drive my truck like a school bus (still on original brake pads)...how you drive yours may have differing stress on your truck's parts...in total, my offset is -8...if I had to do it again, I'd just get -12 offset wheels and not need the spacers...

 

[MountainGoat]

I ran spacers on an old track car many years ago. They froze to the hub and every nut stripped instead of loosening. Had to take off the hubs with the spacers on and get new hubs.

Edit: If using spacers make sure they are all steel (nuts and bolts too) to match what the hub is. Mine were aluminum spacers on steel hubs so most likely the gallvanic corrosion seized them together.

 

[DukeCanBuildit]

? See what you started? Take this for what it's worth...under normal circumstances, I would prefer not to have spacers as they add unstrung weight...that said, I started out with +20 offset wheels...when my build got wider with addition of 285s and AD fender flairs, my width grew by more than 4" overall...then my tires were flush with the flairs but that didn't sit well...they needed to be out slightly so I installed 1-1/8" spacers for TACOs...you heard that right, same lug pattern, different center bore...here's where I'm against the norm again because I don't use hub rings...I use careful star pattern progressive torquing (wheels off the ground) to get lug centricity...this works for me...no vibration...will my CV and/or bearings break tomorrow? We'll find out...I'm at 85,740 miles now...the spacers went on around 65K...keep in mind that I drive my truck like a school bus (still on original brake pads)...how you drive yours may have differing stress on your truck's parts...in total, my offset is -8...if I had to do it again, I'd just get -12 offset wheels and not need the spacers...

-12mm offset….how to say you’re from North Carolina without saying you’re from……? ‘morning Sid.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Hi everyone, I've seen a few threads here about spacers, but there was a lot of opinion, speculation, and anecdotal evidence...
Has anyone specifically installed 1" or greater spacers on their 2019+ Ranger and had issues after normal driving? What maintenance issues did you have, and after how many miles? Personal experience with Rangers only, please.

Hi Chris,

From time to time in my career, I had to face wheel separation from the vehicle which caused a vehicle crash. I site the study I initiated concerning wheel loosening. We have a test rig at Ford called the Flat track An A frame built over a upside down giant belt sander. Mounting a wheel/tire on a vehicle hub and spindle. The wheel studs are instrumented so we can track wheel clamp load real time. BTW...instrumented studs cos $1000 each... So part of one of the tests was using wheel spacers that were present on a vehicle that lost a wheel. We torqued the studs/lugnuts to the minimum 85 ft-lbs. Ran the machine up to 20 mph and did a 5° right and left test just to verify the instrumentation and to our amazement we lost significant clamp force in two of the studs. WTF??? So shut off the machine...retorque the lugnuts and tried again...this time clamp load held but during testing but there was some reduction in clamp load noted. Then we repeated without wheel spacers and we noted a slight reduction in clamp load but nothing of note and no need to retorque of the wheels/lugnuts.

So I have test data to support that wheel spacers can be problematic in the case of this vehicle crash, likely the cause in the case in question, not a Ford defect... Lawyers had their data but we continued the study for about two weeks and went through about $75,000 worth of instrumented wheel studs....a small price to pay for valuable data, eh?

Bottom line....I do not like wheel spacers but if you choose to use them you MUST watch them like a hawk and retorque them frequently.

So this is my personal experience...and not anecdotal evidence.

Best,
Phil

 

[gwhalin]

The term “spacer” is used to represent two different devices that achieve the same result but in very different ways.

You have true spacers which are a shim that is sandwiched between the hub and the wheel and are not mechanically connected.

And then you have adaptors which attach to the studs and have a their own studs for the wheel to attach to. These not only can push the wheel further out but also are used in cases where one might want to change the lug pattern.

These are very different devices and have their own pros and cons. A lot of the negatives commonly mentioned are often most often seen with the shim style spacers. However, these negatives are often transferred over to the adaptors due to general confusion of lumping these two together.

Properly torqued adaptors should create a very strong connection and not really be any less of a risk than a wheel with similar offset (additional stress on the axle and suspension due to pushing weight further out and creating a longer lever … physics as RP said).

Would be helpful to use the correct termwhen we talk about this topic instead of just calling everything a spacer.

 

[AdamHarris]

Hi Chris,

From time to time in my career, I had to face wheel separation from the vehicle which caused a vehicle crash. I site the study I initiated concerning wheel loosening. We have a test rig at Ford called the Flat track An A frame built over a upside down giant belt sander. Mounting a wheel/tire on a vehicle hub and spindle. The wheel studs are instrumented so we can track wheel clamp load real time. BTW...instrumented studs cos $1000 each... So part of one of the tests was using wheel spacers that were present on a vehicle that lost a wheel. We torqued the studs/lugnuts to the minimum 85 ft-lbs. Ran the machine up to 20 mph and did a 5° right and left test just to verify the instrumentation and to our amazement we lost significant clamp force in two of the studs. WTF??? So shut off the machine...retorque the lugnuts and tried again...this time clamp load held but during testing but there was some reduction in clamp load noted. Then we repeated without wheel spacers and we noted a slight reduction in clamp load but nothing of note and no need to retorque of the wheels/lugnuts.

So I have test data to support that wheel spacers can be problematic in the case of this vehicle crash, likely the cause in the case in question, not a Ford defect... Lawyers had their data but we continued the study for about two weeks and went through about $75,000 worth of instrumented wheel studs....a small price to pay for valuable data, eh?

Bottom line....I do not like wheel spacers but if you choose to use them you MUST watch them like a hawk and retorque them frequently.

So this is my personal experience...and not anecdotal evidence.

Best,
Phil

85 ft lbs? I'm sorry Mr. Phil but isn't that under torqued?

 

[JohnnyO]

Hi Chris,

From time to time in my career, I had to face wheel separation from the vehicle which caused a vehicle crash. I site the study I initiated concerning wheel loosening. We have a test rig at Ford called the Flat track An A frame built over a upside down giant belt sander. Mounting a wheel/tire on a vehicle hub and spindle. The wheel studs are instrumented so we can track wheel clamp load real time. BTW...instrumented studs cos $1000 each... So part of one of the tests was using wheel spacers that were present on a vehicle that lost a wheel. We torqued the studs/lugnuts to the minimum 85 ft-lbs. Ran the machine up to 20 mph and did a 5° right and left test just to verify the instrumentation and to our amazement we lost significant clamp force in two of the studs. WTF??? So shut off the machine...retorque the lugnuts and tried again...this time clamp load held but during testing but there was some reduction in clamp load noted. Then we repeated without wheel spacers and we noted a slight reduction in clamp load but nothing of note and no need to retorque of the wheels/lugnuts.

So I have test data to support that wheel spacers can be problematic in the case of this vehicle crash, likely the cause in the case in question, not a Ford defect... Lawyers had their data but we continued the study for about two weeks and went through about $75,000 worth of instrumented wheel studs....a small price to pay for valuable data, eh?

Bottom line....I do not like wheel spacers but if you choose to use them you MUST watch them like a hawk and retorque them frequently.

So this is my personal experience...and not anecdotal evidence.

Best,
Phil

I will add that, probably for the reasons Phil mentioned, check your state laws as wheel spacers are not legal in every state. They are not legal in PA where I live and your vehicle will not pass state inspection with them.

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