Wheel Spacers

[flash1]

Bought some nice Carterham wheels off a fellow Westfield owner offset of ET13 195/50/15s, the ones on the front went on a treat but when i came to puting the rear ones on the spacer of 20mm i had on before does not fit my new wheels  (HUBCENTRIC) is it worth paying £116 for ones that do fit, or replacing the studs for shorter ones and just having a shorter wheel base? think it will look a bit naff if so, will it affect the handling, or is there an easier way of doing it.

Be gentle  

[John Loudon - Sponsorship Liaison]

I remember those. I didnt need spacers on my car and the rear track was approx 1 inch narrower than the front per side

If you do want spacers, hubcentric spacers are not essential IMO. Just use long studs and ordinary spacers. Rally Design sell 19mm spacer kits which include studs although they also sell the spacers separately. Not sure why you would want shorter studs to not use spacers unless its to make less turns of the wheel brace when changing wheels  

[carpetstu]

personally I would not put spacers on a car. I can not see how increasing the amount of metal to metal surafaces in a good option.

[chazpowerslide]

I'd go hubcentric.

The wheel should be supported on the flange on the hub/spacer not on the studs which are basically to there to clamp the wheel to the hub (via the nuts) not to support the weight of the car.

Without the hubcentric spacers the studs are effictivly loaded in sheer (load at 90 degrees to the length of the stud) as well as tension (caused by the tightened wheel nut stretching the stud)

The studs only really should be loaded in tension as Mr Ford intended.

That said mechanially there would be plenty of margin on studs specced for a 2 tonne saloon on a 750KG Westy so there is nothing to stop you using cheaper non hubcentric spacers.

You pays ypur money......................

Chaz.

[Blatman]

Static weight... what about dynamic forces?

That said, there are plenty of Westfields out there without hubcentric spacers fitted, so empirically, there seems to be little risk. But a proper solution exists with even less risk, so I'd go hubcentric too...

[GINGESEIW]

Can you not just get the spacers you have machined down to fit the new wheels? You say they don't fit, to me that can only mean the part the wheel fits over is too large?

[flash1]

I was gping to put shorter studs on, but  with the new wheels on they stuck through way too much with out the spacer, i like the idea of machining the spacers down to fit the new wheels though, thanks for suggestions  

[Mike H]

Nothing wrong with ordinary spacers as long as you use the right nuts.  Hubcentric spacers help in that they make sure the wheel is ... er ... concentric with the hub and that the spacer itself is too.  Hubcentric spacers DO NOT take the load.  The clamping force of the studs/nuts and the countersunk nature of the nuts is what keeps the wheel in place on the hub and the clamping force is what handles the load.

Mike

[John Loudon - Sponsorship Liaison]

Exactly Mike. My rear axle has a disc conversion and as such doesnt have any hub spigot protruding due to the disc thickness on the hub flange so there would be no point in using a hubcentric spacer

[flash1]