2" wheel spacers strong?

[dfred]

Are these 2" thick wheel adapter/ spacers people are running to put ZR1/ 4 th gen Camaro wheels on older camaro/ Gbodys strong enough for say track days and every day driving? I have always stayed away from any type of wheel spacers but I sure like the zr1s on 1st gens and I have a Gbody I would like to put big brakes on and think silver ZR1's would look great on that to. Dose anyone make custom offset ZR1 wheels?

Thanks, Dan

[Mkelcy]

I've got 28,000 street miles, including a lot of fast mountain driving, and one track day on my 2" bolt on spacers.

[dfred]

Any trouble coming loose or any thing? what brand or were do you get them or are they made by local machine shops or home made? A spacer wouldn't be any harder on bearings than the correct back spaced wheels would they?

[Mkelcy]

Any trouble coming loose or any thing? what brand or were do you get them or are they made by local machine shops or home made? A spacer wouldn't be any harder on bearings than the correct back spaced wheels would they?

Had them made by these guys - http://www.motorsport-tech.com/

No issues with them ever loosening - just torque them like a wheel.

I've been told that in theory they might be slightly harder on wheel bearings than proper offset wheels, but in real life you'd never know the difference. Maybe an engineer can weigh in on that issue.

[79-TA]

One thing you might notice with wheel spacers is that you get a lot more feedback from the steering wheel, whether for better or for worse. This is because you've added a lot more tire while basically adding to the kingpin offset with the spacer. That is, when steered, the front wheels rotate more around the inside edge of the tire rather than the center.

To imagine this, just think of a tire on the ground and spinning it on its center - not too hard. Now try to rotate it about a point outside of thet tire without rolling it. Given that most American cars have pretty overboosted powersteering, the feel might not be a bad thing, though it is more work for your power steering. This will be most noticable in no to low speed parking lot type situations.

That's basically the main reason that larger wheels on new cars come with so much positive offset: that is, to keep the kingpin closer to the centerline of the wheel for easier steering.



From what I've heard, people running spacers find them to be pretty reliable. Mkelcy's wheel bearing comment makes sense as the spacer will act as a lever arm, but I have no idea whether that does anything significant to the life expectancy of the wheel bearing.

[nicks67camaro]

I also have the motorsport tech adapters and they work perfect. I actually liked the order process with them since you can custom order the exact size you need. I nailed the BS on the 18x8.5's I'm running.

[nicks67camaro]

I've got 28,000 street miles, including a lot of fast mountain driving, and one track day on my 2" bolt on spacers.

You never had a problem running adapters past the tech inspections? I havn't done any HPD events yet but was nervous about the adapters.

[Mkelcy]

You never had a problem running adapters past the tech inspections? I havn't done any HPD events yet but was nervous about the adapters.

I was worried about it too, but the group I ran with didn't seem to care.

The only issue I've run into is that most chain tire stores won't work on a car with spacers.

[79-TA]

Also, you can ignore most of my stuff on increased kingpin offset . . . the positive offset of the wheel itself makes up for that.

[Bow Tie 67]

I run 1 3/4" on the front and 4" on the back ( not a typo ) when I'm using my R compound tires at the track. No problem with tech or driving it hard.

I use Skulte adapters. One word of caution: when you torque the adapters on dont use anything to wedge between the studs. I bought a Ridgid strap wrench to hold the adapter during torquing. If you dont do it like this you run the risk of putting a side load on the studs in the the adapter and making them loose.

[86Cutlass383SR]

Just a note, I was on Skulte website the other night and they no longer make adapters, or anything else apparently. Seems they went out of business.

From what I've read on adapters, if you take a wheel with a lot of positive offset and using an adapter that makes the offset closer to 0* offset where it bolts to the hub, it's actually better on the bearings than a higher positive offset.

I've got an 86 Cutlass I'm wanting to bolt on some 17'' x 8.5" wheels with a 5.25" bs (13* offset) with 245/45's all around. I've got to do my measurements first but I'm looking at somewhere between 1" & 1.25" adapter giving me a 4.25" or 4" bs.

Since my wheels (Rondell 58's) were designed for the BMW with a 120mm bolt pattern, I've noticed some companies can adapt the 120.65mm (120.7 ?) GM pattern to the Beemer 120mm pattern.

[kst8engineer]

Also, you can ignore most of my stuff on increased kingpin offset . . . the positive offset of the wheel itself makes up for that.

I agree with your updated thoughts. The combination of wheel and adapter translates into the vehicle seeing the exact same geometery that it would see if you had a wheel with the "proper" backspacing to begin with, both from a steering and wheel bearing standpoint.

[prozoo]

This is all good to hear, as I am going to use C6 wheels on my 67 Camaro. Please post what sizes you ended up using as I have not yet bought my spacers, would like to know what other guys are using.

[Mkelcy]

This is all good to hear, as I am going to use C6 wheels on my 67 Camaro. Please post what sizes you ended up using as I have not yet bought my spacers, would like to know what other guys are using.

2" adapter in rear/1.875" adapter in front with C5 wheels. Slight rubbing with big bumps in turns when the suspension is already loaded.

[ROEINONDUBS]

2" adapter in rear/1.875" adapter in front with C5 wheels. Slight rubbing with big bumps in turns when the suspension is already loaded.

You have caddy breaks in the rear right? Do u know the difference between the ls1 rotor hat and yours?

[Mkelcy]

You have caddy breaks in the rear right? Do u know the difference between the ls1 rotor hat and yours?

Sorry, no clue. I also have rolled rear fender lips on the car.

[Weezy F]

Im running 2" spacers on my first gen with z06 wheels. Im very happy with them.

[ROEINONDUBS]

Im running 2" spacers on my first gen with z06 wheels. Im very happy with them.

Really do u have a mini tub? Also what breaks are u running in the rear ?

[Rod]

I run the spacers front and rear for over a year and a complete SCCA solo season and never had the product loosen or fail an any way (I run about 450+ HP in my 383), I do remember the horror stories from the 80's about cracked spacers and back then I did damage a few myself ( both the spacers and lowering blocks) back then were sand cast products the new stuff is all machined billet and machined steel and for the most part have no problems, my stuff is from a shop called ezaccessory

[Johnny Blaze]

They are not NHRA legal,

but as said, I know of plenty of guys running them with no problems.