Wheel Spacers; Good or Bad?

Frenchy

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Thanks to Misfittoy, Frenchie and oc Phil for such a detailed analysis. I think my (limited) money would be better spent elsewhere like LED lights or a nudge bar. Still putting off tires and wheels till next year when I win the lottery (I guess I better start buying tickets!) or Mama (Congress!) authorizes the line item!
Always enjoy reading replies in this thread, is a nice change from cell microbiology or how the body produces ATP (especially when I get into my Ranger w Tux and we go for a ride!!) Ha! Thx again.
If you are still looking at bigger tires you can fit 265/70-17 on stock wheels with no modifications. Ford has approved this through ford performance and the only other thing you need to do is adjust the speedometer which can be done with a tuner or Forscan.
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txquailguy

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Papaw has been busy this weekend. I HyperDipped my side vents last night and I finally installed my FactionFab 1.5" wheel spacers on Friday night. I really love the look of the wider stance and I definitely love the feel of that extra 3" of footprint on the pavement. (You can definitely feel it!)

I wanted to let everyone know that I ran into a safety issue when trying to get good installation instructions for these very well spec'd wheel spacers.

First off, if you watch the Stage3motorsports installation video (that's who I purchased from), they are installing the spacers on a brand new truck with brand new hubs, no rust. Also, they only torque the spacer nuts to 100 ft/lbs. They do not use anti-seize, but they do use blue loctite.

Flash to the FactionFab installation video, they recommend using an anti-seize compound and they torque the spacer nuts at 150 ft/lbs. Both of these differences are HUGE! You MUST use the anti-seize compound as a weapon against the inevitable corrosion that is already occurring on your hub. When you seat that wheel spacer made of a "dissimilar" metal, corrosion will take over and create big problems. Also, the difference between 100 and 150 ft/lbs or torque I don't even need to point out. They do not use a loctite compound on their installation.

So I used some Permatex anti-seize, did some prep work on the hubs with a wire brush, used a little blue loctite (red is for permanent), and torqued to 150 ft/lbs. I'm feeling very secure in my installation and the FactionFab product specifications.

Big thanks to my other neighbor Dan who showed up with this awesome, brand new, never been used air tool set and his compressor to help me in my wheel spacer installation endeavor :clap:

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SheepDogRain-Jar

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Mark;
Didn't you learn anything from the beginning of these thread??? The Devil sells spacers in the US and China in every other country! Phil C had to take the rest of the week off and sit on his porch drinking Mint Juleps after explaining wheel spacers and scuff from his working years, to Misfit Toys. He burned up A LOT of memory cells.
Thanks for the tips, and shhhhhh don't tell those guys I'm doing the same. It's a lease, so I hope the po' bastard that will buy my Ranger from the dealer isn't on this thread, when I am driving a new 2023 Ford Ranger Raptor.....

Edit: (boy I wish I had memory cells) Apologies to Phil, that should say "Phil S.". Also "Msfitoy" and don't forget Frenchy was there too. If my wheels fall off I'm grabbing my wife, dog (maybe not in that order) and my plates and torching it. Ford has "zero fault" clause on leases. Just drop off keys to dealer.....
 
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HenryMac

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Papaw has been busy this weekend. I HyperDipped my side vents last night and I finally installed my FactionFab 1.5" wheel spacers on Friday night. I really love the look of the wider stance and I definitely love the feel of that extra 3" of footprint on the pavement. (You can definitely feel it!)

I wanted to let everyone know that I ran into a safety issue when trying to get good installation instructions for these very well spec'd wheel spacers.

First off, if you watch the Stage3motorsports installation video (that's who I purchased from), they are installing the spacers on a brand new truck with brand new hubs, no rust. Also, they only torque the spacer nuts to 100 ft/lbs. They do not use anti-seize, but they do use blue loctite.

Flash to the FactionFab installation video, they recommend using an anti-seize compound and they torque the spacer nuts at 150 ft/lbs. Both of these differences are HUGE! You MUST use the anti-seize compound as a weapon against the inevitable corrosion that is already occurring on your hub. When you seat that wheel spacer made of a "dissimilar" metal, corrosion will take over and create big problems. Also, the difference between 100 and 150 ft/lbs or torque I don't even need to point out. They do not use a loctite compound on their installation.

So I used some Permatex anti-seize, did some prep work on the hubs with a wire brush, used a little blue loctite (red is for permanent), and torqued to 150 ft/lbs. I'm feeling very secure in my installation and the FactionFab product specifications.

Big thanks to my other neighbor Dan who showed up with this awesome, brand new, never been used air tool set and his compressor to help me in my wheel spacer installation endeavor

STOP! Don't Drive Your Truck !!!!!!

FactionFab How To Install F-150 Wheel Spacers <--- This Video is for a F-150

@ 3:28 he states "OEM Torque specs which is 150 ft-lbs" that's for M-14 lugs on a F-150

OEM Torque Spec for 2019 - 2020 Ranger M-12 lugs is 100 ft-lbs

Side note: They only use anti-seize on the hub-centric portion of the spacer, and none on the actual wheel lugs. Not sure based on your post above if you realized that?

Worst case scenario: You need to replace all the studs, since you over torqued them. Are they ok? No way to know. Replacing them is the smart play.

Best case scenario: You need to disassemble everything and re-torque to 100 ft-lbs.
 
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Cape Cruiser

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Papaw has been busy this weekend. I HyperDipped my side vents last night and I finally installed my FactionFab 1.5" wheel spacers on Friday night. I really love the look of the wider stance and I definitely love the feel of that extra 3" of footprint on the pavement. (You can definitely feel it!)

I wanted to let everyone know that I ran into a safety issue when trying to get good installation instructions for these very well spec'd wheel spacers.

First off, if you watch the Stage3motorsports installation video (that's who I purchased from), they are installing the spacers on a brand new truck with brand new hubs, no rust. Also, they only torque the spacer nuts to 100 ft/lbs. They do not use anti-seize, but they do use blue loctite.

Flash to the FactionFab installation video, they recommend using an anti-seize compound and they torque the spacer nuts at 150 ft/lbs. Both of these differences are HUGE! You MUST use the anti-seize compound as a weapon against the inevitable corrosion that is already occurring on your hub. When you seat that wheel spacer made of a "dissimilar" metal, corrosion will take over and create big problems. Also, the difference between 100 and 150 ft/lbs or torque I don't even need to point out. They do not use a loctite compound on their installation.

So I used some Permatex anti-seize, did some prep work on the hubs with a wire brush, used a little blue loctite (red is for permanent), and torqued to 150 ft/lbs. I'm feeling very secure in my installation and the FactionFab product specifications.

Big thanks to my other neighbor Dan who showed up with this awesome, brand new, never been used air tool set and his compressor to help me in my wheel spacer installation endeavor :clap:

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Mark, do the lug nuts have full thread engagement on the spacer ? Doesnt look like it in the pics. Bret
 


NvrFinished

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Yikes! I'm surprised you did not snap a stud when torqueing them to 150 ft. lbs. You definitely want to back those off and re torque to 100 ft. lbs. Unfortunately, there is no real way of determining if they were stretched too much and weakened.
 

txquailguy

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Mark, do the lug nuts have full thread engagement on the spacer ? Doesnt look like it in the pics. Bret
I'm going to retorque them after the game and see where I'm at. I have definitely pushed those wheels since installing the spacers on Friday night. I went out running around after and then again last night. I sure hope I don't cause an issue by messing with them. I was using a Pittsburg torque wrench from Harbor Freight so you wonder how accurate a $20 torque wrench is.....I'm fairly educated on torque wrenches, I used to calibrate all torque wrenches for my entire maintenance operation in the Air Force. We actually had to calibrate this monstrosity the was used to torque the lug nuts on B-52 bombers. The head on that thing was like 6 feet long and the rod was 15 feet long. It would take four of us to break that thing over. I can't remember what the foot pound rating was for that thing but it was a trip to deal with.....Thanks to you and HenryMac for pointing out the error of my torqueing ways.

Update: Of course there is no way for me to tell if any of the studs/bolts where over stressed. I just finished the first rear wheel and everything looked fine and went back together fine and torqued to 100 ft/lbs with blue loctite just fine. I'm not using the red because I worry about not being able to get it off if I wanted. Also, FactionFab doesn't use any loctite at all on there F150 install. Thank you all again so much! That could have been a disaster that I'm pretty sure was averted :fistbump:
 
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Trigganometry

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The beauty of design engineering today is it’s done with computer modeling and stress analysis on these designs. Things get moved around until at some point you reach an equilibrium. Then testing starts to verify these designs and some of those tests push the high and low limits of the design to build in predicability.

It doesn’t take much to affect this. Moving a pivot point or ‘offset’ technically trashes original specs. So in essence what you’re building on has a possible higher stress points that lead to rapid failure.
 
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HenryMac

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The beauty of design engineering today is it’s done with computer modeling and stress analysis on these designs.
That's a bad assumption Rick.

Case in point: I emailed the folks at Fabtech about their Intrusion Beam Relocation Kit and asked if they did any stress analysis or destructive testing. They said they don't do anything like that.

Some of the aftermarket parts have zero testing, just some folks makin' parts. And depending on the criticality of the part, that's fine. But some parts, the stuff that could kill you if it breaks, a guy would be wise to ask questions before they buy.

The more you dig.. the less analysis and testing you'll find.

Caveat Emptor
 
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Trigganometry

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That's a bad assumption Rick.

Case in point: I emailed the folks at Fabtech about their Intrusion Beam Relocation Kit and asked if they did any stress analysis or destructive testing. They said they don't do anything like that.

Some of the aftermarket parts have zero testing, just some folks makin' parts. And depending on the criticality of the part, that's fine. But some parts, the stuff that could kill you if it breaks, a guy would be wise to ask questions before they buy.

Caveat Emptor
Agreed, most aftermarket stuff is untested. Factory has vast resources for doing just this. To the point of, look at all the flavors and options we are getting from the factory now. They test them before giving the Ford blessing
 

OFC Ranger

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That's a bad assumption Rick.

Case in point: I emailed the folks at Fabtech about their Intrusion Beam Relocation Kit and asked if they did any stress analysis or destructive testing. They said they don't do anything like that.

Some of the aftermarket parts have zero testing, just some folks makin' parts. And depending on the criticality of the part, that's fine. But some parts, the stuff that could kill you if it breaks, a guy would be wise to ask questions before they buy.

The more you dig.. the less analysis and testing you'll find.

Caveat Emptor
If I owned a company at the end of the day my first consideration is going to be liability. If I consider liability then safety automatically attaches to that. They are making and selling a product that common knowledge indicates its a safety component. I don't see how they could argue in a civil court that they never intended the product to fall under a safety component. A decent lawyer for the plaintiff should easily be able to establish that "my client and all other customers who purchased this product were of the notion that the defendant was offering a product that increased the safety of their vehicle."

They are rolling the dice and have been lucky so far.
 

OFC Ranger

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Also, straight from Fabtech's website:

Fabtech’s Offset Intrusion Beam Kit for the 2019 Ford Ranger 4WD allows the use of larger tires. The factory Intrusion Beams are located in the front fenderwells, forward and back of the tire. They limit the size of the tire you can install, while being an integral part of the front collision safety impact feature of the vehicle. Rather than modifying or removing the Beams for tire clearance, Fabtech provides replacement Offset Intrusion Beams. They are constructed of 1/4" thick steel and are a welded box design for maximum strength.
Lawyer to Fabtech Rep in Court: "Sir can you provide documentation that your product provides the same level - or any level - of protection as you market it as a direct replacement with no other disclaimers on your product indicating otherwise?"

Edit: To clarify, we know modding vehicles comes with some inherit odd-ball risk. Im commenting strictly from the aspect that if I was the owner of the company either:

A. Disclaimers would be on my products of this nature
B. I wouldn't sell them
 

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I've always been advised not to use anti-seize on wheel studs as they will act as lubricant and allow over torquing at the same ft lb number...correct me if I'm wrong...

I followed mounting instructions to use Locktite Red to bolt spacer to hub...I check a week later and they were still at 100ftlbs...
 

HenryMac

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I've always been advised not to use anti-seize on wheel studs as they will act as lubricant and allow over torquing at the same ft lb number...correct me if I'm wrong...
You're right. No anti-seize, oil, grease, nada on wheel studs or lug nuts.

I don't think Mark did based on the photo's. I just wanted to be sure he was aware of that though as his wording in his post was unclear, at least to me.

If he had used anti-sieze and 150 ft-lbs, I'm thinking the first stud would have shown him something was wrong..
 

FInoob

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