Jbp19classic
Senior Member
Ok, the thread title is slightly click bait, lol! My wheel spacers didn’t self destruct or send my wheel rolling past me on the highway or anything like that....but I did end up taking them off. I’m generally not against wheel spacers at all, and have ran them with success on several different cars/trucks. But, I’m also not going to pretend they’re 100% without their faults, and the one problem I have seen a few times is balancing issues. But usually that’s only with non hub-centric spacers.
The spacers I was running are 1.5” hub centric and I put about 1000 miles on them with no issues while still running the stock goodyear’s. But since I got new tires a few weeks ago I’ve been chasing a slight high speed vibration between 60-70 mph. Since the vibration came after the tires, I obviously pointed the finger toward them, but after having them rebalanced and rotated the vibration was still there. I personally watched the tires get balanced, and they all balanced out easily with very little weight so the tires all seemed well made.
So the next logical step was to try pulling off the spacers, which I did last night. Sure enough, the vibration is gone and it’s back to riding smooth as glass all the way up to 80/90/etc.. My theory is the stock Goodyear’s are soft and light enough that they were able soak up the slight imbalance of the spacers so I didn’t feel it. But since my new tires are heavy hybrid/mud tires and a lot stiffer, they aren’t as forgiving and thus transmitted the vibration through the chassis so I could feel it. I’m actually glad it was just the spacers, because I really like the tires and didn’t want to have to go back to a less aggressive tire. So anyway, I liked how it looked with the spacers, but having a new truck that doesn’t ride like poop is more important than the cool stance so the spacers had to go! Just figured I’d share.
The spacers I was running are 1.5” hub centric and I put about 1000 miles on them with no issues while still running the stock goodyear’s. But since I got new tires a few weeks ago I’ve been chasing a slight high speed vibration between 60-70 mph. Since the vibration came after the tires, I obviously pointed the finger toward them, but after having them rebalanced and rotated the vibration was still there. I personally watched the tires get balanced, and they all balanced out easily with very little weight so the tires all seemed well made.
So the next logical step was to try pulling off the spacers, which I did last night. Sure enough, the vibration is gone and it’s back to riding smooth as glass all the way up to 80/90/etc.. My theory is the stock Goodyear’s are soft and light enough that they were able soak up the slight imbalance of the spacers so I didn’t feel it. But since my new tires are heavy hybrid/mud tires and a lot stiffer, they aren’t as forgiving and thus transmitted the vibration through the chassis so I could feel it. I’m actually glad it was just the spacers, because I really like the tires and didn’t want to have to go back to a less aggressive tire. So anyway, I liked how it looked with the spacers, but having a new truck that doesn’t ride like poop is more important than the cool stance so the spacers had to go! Just figured I’d share.