Many people know about wheel spacers but still wonder whether the wheel spacers are safe. To tell the truth, wheel spacers are exactly safe. They are mechanical components that push your wheels away from the original wheel mounting hub. There are two main types of them that exist on the market: bolt-on wheel spacers and slip-on wheel spacers: one goes on the wheel studs, secured by lug nuts, and the other slides over your existing wheel hub, fastened by extended wheel bolts. In decades, wheel spacers are used for various reasons, such as adding track width to a vehicle, helping to clear brakes clearance issues, or helping alleviate tire rubbing. The similar variants are wheel adapters, which effectively add width to your vehicle while changing the original bolt pattern to adapt it to a wider variety of wheels and tires. Since these two parts are very similar, most of the information about wheel spacers is actually true for wheel adapters.

Rules for Keeping Wheel Spacers Safe:

  1. Use high-quality wheel spacers or adapters from a reputable store. Quality spacers would use forged billet aluminum material (6061-T6 or 7075-T6 is better). This material ensures they can withstand a large load when driving down a road or on the trail.
  2. Use precise hub-centric wheel spacers rather than universal lug-centric spacers. A hub-centric wheel spacer allows the wheel to support the vehicle’s weight and fill the remaining space for a more tightly fit, reducing vibration.
  3. Use wheel spacers with high-strength wheel studs (grade 12.9) and lug nuts (grade 10). Wheel studs and lug nuts are very important parts to secure the spacers and wheels, higher strength wheel lugs provide stronger load-bearing capacity.
  4. Follow the guide of included instructions when installing these parts. Both wheel spacers and adapters need to be installed correctly. Make sure they are firmly seated and flush against the hubs. Use a torque wrench with the manufacturer-recommended torque specification to fasten the lug nuts/bolts.
  5. We do not recommend use impact wrenches on wheel spacers or adapters, because it can damage the lug nuts.
  6. Never stack wheel spacers or adapters more than two. This looks cool but actually is dangerous.

In summary, if installed properly, high-quality wheel spacers won’t exert more force on your suspension than wheels with similar backspacing, thus you won’t have any safety problems. Avoid buying cheap spacers or you may ultimately pay much more for them. It is always a great idea to regularly inspect and give the spacers another check after 100 miles of driving to make sure they’re still in place well and the lug nuts are tight. Authentic stores that are able to customize to your needs can provide products made with genuine quality and help you avoid deception by unscrupulous merchants.