Wheel spacers & saftey

[diablo1]

Why is it that when we put spacers on single wheel axles front or rear we say for safety reasons that the vehicle should be for trail use/ off road only?

But when we convert a single axle truck to a dually which increases the stability of the vehicle for towing very heavy loads, increases the wider stance and puts more leverage on the bearings this is ok for street use?

For example converting a dodge truck from single wheel axle to a dually they just bolt on front and rear spacers? Some axles have a little different configuration in stock form as a dually from the factory.

Are Steel spacers safer/better/stronger than aluminum?

Depending on where you live some states require a vehicle inspection at the time of purchase for title, some require annual and every two year inspections. So they must see these aftermarket conversions on single wheel trucks to duallys all the time.

So whats different? And why is one deemed safe and one is not?

Not trying to argue a point of right or wrong, just asking.

Thanks

 

[sweetk30]

stuff for our offroad type use is aluminum.

factory did use steel stuff. and i have only seen aftermarket bolt on steel spacers for rear use. nothing factory as thay did the whole hub to do the drw on the back.

 

[dremu]

Are metal spacers safer/better/stronger than aluminum?

Aluminum being a metal, I assume you mean steel spacers. As mentioned, these are rare, if at all available, in the aftermarket.

Spacers on the FRONT wheels would be A Bad Thing unless coupled with changing the wheels' backspacing, as you'd then be moving the turn point past the center of the tire. This would scrub your tires like crazy and put more stress on the steering. The "changing the wheels' backspacing" includes converting to the crazy-deep-dish wheels used for duallies, so the spacers up front allow the tire to be centered on the turning point as they should.

Spacers in the BACK aren't so bad, though as you mention depending on what else was changed it could add stress to the axle.

The problem with aluminum, as I recall, is that the lug nuts used to hold the spacer on want to back off, so they require more frequent checking for tightness, like aluminum wheels. This means you gotta pop the wheels off, torque the inside set, then pop the wheels back on and torque THEM. This is a pain in the butt, so it gets left undone, and then wheel spacers get a bad name for wheels falling off.

Technically it's due to lack of maintenance, but jeebus, that's a LOT of work for something that might be accomplished through a hub change or other, one-time, effort and parts.

That and all the spacers I found had metric studs, so I had to conjure appropriate SAE threaded studs, slightly drill out the existing holes for the new ones, etc.

Just my .02. I've done it, won't again if there's any alternative.

-- A

 

[ChrisPerry]

I'm running 1.75" aluminium spacers on the rear of my Blazer to make the track width the same as the front. When I put mine on I torqued the lugs down, mounted the wheels, and drove it for 20 miles. When I got home I re-torqued the spacers. Now that they were well seated, I removed the lugs one at a time, loctited each one and re-torqued. I'm pretty sure I won't have to worry about them coming loose.
I wouldn't have any second thoughts about running them on a daily driver either, if torqued and re-torqued properly.

 

[6.2Blazer]

Putting spacers on a SRW axle vs. converting to dually are completely different, assuming you are using a factory style DRW setup. Just look at the wheels on the back of the dually, one is turned inside and the other out so the hub is centered between them. If talking about converting a front axle from SRW to DRW then you can use factory parts. Older axles you change the entire front hub assembly, while on most newer ones the factory used a steel spacer. Again, a typical DRW wheel has lots of offset and therefore the center of the wheel stays centered.

I wouldn't necessary recommend spacers on the front axle but the explanation above is not really any different than putting a wider wheel or one with less backspacing on the front. You can't say putting 15x12's with 2.5" BS are better than 15x8's with 4" BS combined with 1.5" spacers.