30mm wheel spacers (second attempt)

2 -

I wouldn't buy parts from someone who can't spell aluminium.

Steve

Its a spacer, what's to break ?

Steve

That cuts out any American supplier then.

Stuart

I suffer from mild dyslexia and acute dictionary failure so I would :-) and I'd not probably even notice it was spelt wrongly.

Infact some of the best engineers I know are dyslexic. They tend to be very technically minded and naturals when it comes to hands on and doing stuff - especially numbers..... and measurements... of ... like....gutters... ;-)

Lee D

Insurance and TUV spring to mind - no idea why, they just popped in there and said BOO.. just like that.

Lee

First of all don't be too quick to condemn 'homemade' parts. Colin didn't after all say that he was going to hack them out of old beer barrels with a hammer and chisel!

There are many in this group who have both the practical and theoretical skills to design and manufacture parts which are every bit as good (and frequently better) than those offered for sale in the wider market.

Common sense and engineering judgement must prevail but it is an over-simplification to rule out anything that is not 'sold'.

The one to which Mark links is a bit more than a spacer - it is an adaptor providing an alternative set of wheel studs and more significantly a new mounting for those studs. There is an opportunity for it to fail if inadequately designed, badly made and/or made from an unsuitable material. Who knows how the Paddock product, for example, stacks up against those criteria.

Amen.

Steve

Why so it does.

Steve

They can spell it, they just can't pronounce it properly.

Alex

hm... so no measurements then.

If i do get them made, it would be by a firm of automotive engineers.

I would imagine the faf involved would probably mean i would just buy the things though.

thanks for the posts so far.

colin

Why do you want spacers ?

If you already have a Landy then just measure up what you have got ? The wheel studs are 6.5 inch PCD (90 and 110) -the rest is simple, the ID is probably next most critical. You need longer studs of course, and you will load up the wheel bearings more. Any old steel should do, but I wouldn't use aluminium, not even Dural. There is no point in risking corrosion and wheel nut loosening to save a few ounces weight on a live steel axle.

Steve

So what exactly stops aluminium wheels from falling off?

'cos they spell it like they say it: aluminum

Stuart

Nope, they spell it like they say it: aluminum (no second i )

Stuart

The nuts ! I suppose its a combination of the grade of alloy for strength (they are not pure aluminium) and anodising to stop galloping corrosion (the sort that happens where the aluminium body of a LandRover meets the steel chassis if you leave the rubber strips out). If you machine wheel spacers and they are a close fit on the wheel studs - which they should be - then the different metals will make for more rapid corrosion that if both are steel - and you can maker matters worse by using copper grease. Copper and aluminium attack each other really aggressively. Anodising them will help a lot as it builds up a thick protective oxide film, which keeps the different metals apart.

Aluminium wheels are AFAIK an Al-Si-Mg alloy such as A356, which is heat treated to get a yield stress of about 185 MPa. Unalloyed aluminium is just awful, less than 50MPa yield stress, and maybe as low as 10MPa depending on its purity and whether it has been cold- worked. Mild steel yield stress is also rather variable but is in the

Mind you I would never put alloy wheels on a Defender, one big rock and you need a new wheel. The reason for using ally wheels on sports cars etc is to reduce unsprung weight, which is the weight of the tyre, wheel, brake, hub assembly. That helps the wheel follow the road by reducing the inertia. On a Land Rover the unsprung weight is the entire axle, differential, drive shafts, swivel hubs, as well. So its going to make bugger all difference.

Steel is cheaper, stronger and you don't have to anodise it or worry over electrochemical corrosion - so I reckon steel spacers are best, and if you are ever going to play off road where there are rocks (or use it in snow where you might bash a kerb), then I reckon its also best to have steel wheels. At least you can knock out a dent in the rim with a hammer, an ally wheel will crack.

Steve

On or around Sat, 09 Jun 2007 08:45:33 +0200, Stuart Gray enlightened us thusly:

they can't prononce it either.

On or around Fri, 08 Jun 2007 15:07:45 -0700, cg enlightened us thusly:

frankly, anyone that makes 'em for you to the same standard as a) the ones you buy and b) is acceptable will charge as much, unless you can get "mate's rates" or similar.

Consider what's required:

• Cut 4 rings of suitable metal 30mm thick, machined round inside and out and faced parallel on both sides

• Drill 10 off accurately spaced holes

• Counterbore the ones that will be used to fit the spacer to the hub with a suitable chamfer at the bottom of the counterbore

• Counterbore the "back" side of the ones that will have studs fitted (noting that these are a different size - so really, it's drill 2 x 5 off holes)

• Supply 20 off studs, press into holes

• Supply 20 off wheelnuts to fit spacers to hubs.

I'd charge 200 quid an' all. In fact, as a one-off, I'd probably charge more than 200 quid. The blokes making them probably have a CNC lathe set up to do the machining, which reduces the labour quite a bit.

Oh, and none of that includes the operating costs of the workshop and paying for suitable liability insurance so that when someone botches fitting it and it fails you don't get your arse sued off.

On or around Fri, 08 Jun 2007 21:41:53 +0100, Dougal enlightened us thusly:

I assume that's the one that lets you fit P38-style wheels to an older LR?

Saw some at the show last weekend. Quite a complex bit of machining.