In a simple word, yes. 10mm spacers are safe for four-wheeling, daily driving, and track duty. The vehicle’s wheels are actually fastened to the corresponding wheel hub by a clamping force achieved by tightening the wheel bolts of each wheel. All forces will be transmitted through each vehicle’s hub and its corresponding axle. Therefore, the weight of the vehicle will not be placed on any 10mm spacers that are installed. To improve the safety of 10mm wheel spacers, it is recommended to use quality hubcentric 10mm spacers and install them correctly. Quality spacers are made of aircraft-grade (or higher) billet Aluminum that is strong enough to avoid being the weak link in your setup. We have seen them work successfully on countless track events. Racing with 10mm spacers has no problem. Actually, some automakers equip factory cars with wheel spacers as many racing teams have done this regularly over the years.
When to Use 10mm Wheel Spacers?
Sometimes it is hard to find someone using the same offset wheel when fitting a different tire, but sometimes it is easy to find someone using 10mm wheel spacers with the same wheels. Is there a direct relationship between wheel spacers and offsets? Yes, it is. Simply speaking, using a 10mm spacer is the same as adding a -10 wheel offset. Giving an example, if someone has a tire mounted on a stock wheel with the +52 offset, and then puts a 10mm spacer on the wheel, that will push the tire out about the same as someone just using a wheel with a +42 offset (52 – 10 = 42). In addition, 10mm wheel spacers can save you from lifting your car if you’re getting bigger tires for it. They will position your wheels further away from your car to eliminate rubbing of the tires against the wheel wells. This is also very effective in process of adding bigger brake calipers.
How to Improve the Safety of 10mm Spacers?
There are slip-on 10mm wheel spacers and bolt-on 10mm spacers. If you intend to use 10mm spacers safely, then slip-on spacers are better. Slip-on wheel spacers that slide over your existing wheel hub, they normally thin in size, e.g., 5mm spacer, 10mm spacers, 15mm spacers. If you using this kind of 10mm spacers, it is critical to ensure your stock bolts are long enough for the proper thread engagement. At the minimum, thread engagement length must be equal to or greater than the diameter of the fastener. In other words, if the bolt is 14mm in diameter, the thread must be engaged at least 14mm. Assuming the length of your stock wheel bolts is 45mm, then adding 10mm spacers safely would need at least 55mm extended wheel bolts for proper engagement.
