Frog Rubicon

Don't install spacers more than 1.5", because you will have problems with youre wheel bearings. Probably not with the stock tires, but if you install bigger tires, you will see that having a nice Jeep is $$$ in repairs

thegrinch

That's what I was thinking originally, but my front tires are slightly rubbing the control arms at full turn, left and right.

I didn't realize that the 2" may cause wheel bearing stress, so I may get the 1.5" spidertrax and call it good. I'll just deal with a small rub on the max steer left and right.

bly109

Well the wheel bearing stress depends more on total backspacing then the wheel spacer width alone. If you put a 2" spacer with a 6.25 backspaced wheel you will end up with 4.25 backspacing. Really any backspacing less than stock is going to cause additional leaverage on the wheel bearings and ball joints causing them to fail quicker. 4.75 seems to be the mininum amount to keep a 12.5" tire from hitting at full turn. So you should be fine with a 1.5 spacers and a stock backspaced wheel. If not you can adjust the steering stops slightly to eliminate the rubbing.

BTW, Very sharp looking JK

2drREDROCK

I think this forum is awesome
I read as much as possible from here and decided on the 1.5" and I'm very happy.
I'm running stock Sahara wheels with 35" Mickey Thompsons ATZ with the spacers and theres no rubbing at all.
I'm so happy,thought I was going to adjust the steering and end up loosing the turn radius,but not at all.
The first time with the wheels the wife and I went to a parking lot and tried the steering,even at full turn its perfect

whpony96

There is on down fall to spacers. There is now a weak point between the wheel and the hub. There is a possibility that the spacer can break when you are rock climbing. The factory wheel hub is steel for a reason, strength. Even the aircraft aluminum is not as strong as steel. I easily stripped one of the studs where it was pressed into the spacer and when I went to remove it all the nut and stud did was spin. I ended up having to Dremel the nut off to get the wheel off. (yes I did end up messing up the surface of my wheel. But that was the reason I was taking them off I purchased new wheels and tires.) If that would have happened on the trail a simple tire change on the trail could have ended up being a HUGE Pain in the Caboose!

I will say this they were nice till that happened and it woke me up. For on road or just trail rigs I think spacers are fine. For rock climbing or rough terrain they could be a huge problem.

Cruiser

Also one downfall,, check you local inspection laws,, some states like Pa and NJ its a big NO to any wheel spacer of any kind.. If put on right and monitored they are safe,, but it does give one extra fail point(possible fail) and even tho it is rare it is possible..

armycop

Actually, the spacers could prove to be a benefit in some states that require full tire coverage (like NJ). You can take the spacers off for inspection and put them back after it's done. If you get aftermarket wheels, you can't correct the backspacing for inspection.

Cruiser

But if your spacing the wheels out so they dont rub and they rub when its in for inspection that would fail too.. Spacers are best if you leave them alone,, either on or off,, They are not made to be pulled on and off constantly..

BlackNorthernJK

x2 EXACTLY!

No offense...and we're all guilty of doing this from time to time, but you should have done a little more research before getting the 1.25" spacers. It's been discussed on here before that they do NOT provide adequate clearance and cause the EXACT problem you had...the 1.5" spacers are a perfect fit for our JK's....sorry you guys found out the hard way.

BlackNorthernJK

I'm going to add one more thing, if your investing this much into your ride already... do yourself a HUGE favour and invest about 100 bucks (or less even) in a good torque wrench and socket so you can PROPERLY install your tires if your rotating them yourself, this way you can avoid some potential problems as mentioned before with spinning a stud within the spacer itself... which can happen if your simply cutting corners and blasting things on with an impact gun