Wheel Spacers - Good, Bad or just Expensive??

The cheapest and easiest way to achieve this is by fitting a set of wheels with a decent offset. You don't say which wheels you have fitted at the moment but a set of 8 spokes will normally give you a far better offset than the standard LR wheels will. If you go too far with spacers you'll end up with the wheel rim outside the spats which is an MOT failure and may give you insurance problems.

Check that the wheels catch on both sides and that the tracking is correct. Off centre steering adjustment and too much toe out on the tracking can both add to this problem.

In theory they are simple lumps of metal that space out your wheels... in practice they are the only thing holding your wheels on when travelling down the motorway at 70MPH and you hit a lump of wood. You'd need to be VERY sure of the quality and grade of aluminium you use, let alone your engineering skills.

On road - as mentioned, you need to be confident that in a minor collision with a kerb or lump of wood/pallette that you're not going to fracture the aluminium leading to the loss of one or more wheels.

Off road - I don't like using alloy wheels off road as they can shatter at inopportune moments, I wouldn't rely on a block of aluminium to hold my wheel on for the same reason. In some cases the additional width can cause problems, especially if you ever want to go laning in the Yorkshire Dales - Some of the gates are so narrow the spats have to deform to squeeze through.

Just my tuppence worth obviously :-)

cheers

Dave W.

The ad info on spacers claim an improved turning circle but I dont think I would trust them. I worry about extra strain on bearings and things. I agree with the post who said new steelies are the answer. Get 4 modulars for about £100, they look great and last well.

Whether you hit a lump of wood or not, you'd need to make sure that they were machined to tight tolerances - if their centre of gravity isn't concentric with the centre of the wheel, hub, etc., you'll get the same effect as unbalanced wheels (ie. shaking at certain speeds).

Andrew

-- SIII 88" | Member of Club Land Rover Ireland | |

Well the Disco steels have about the worst offset of them all so I'm not surprised you've noticed the tyres rubbing ;-)

Get some 8 spokes ! They cost between 20 and 25 quid each.

cheers

Dave W.

until recently scorpion racing were claiming that their wheel spacers lowered your center of gravity, horse pucky mate

On or around Wed, 9 Jul 2003 13:29:10 +0000 (UTC), "Paraman" enlightened us thusly:

fitting wheels with less offset (and thus further out from the hub) has the same effect as spacers on bearings. Mind you, typical LR/RR wheel bearings are sod-off big things, and not likely to be hurt by an inch or so extra wheel stand-off, however it's achieved.

proper wheel spacers, made, tested and sold for *your model* of vehicle, are not a problem. They're expensive 'cos they have to be both strong and correct size/shape.

Set of 8-spokes on my 110 only just come within the wheelarch eyebrows, and required mudflaps to be moved out to line up with the wheels. Excellent turning circle for a 110 though, after I machined a bit off the lock stops...

Strictly speaking, probably true!

Tim Hobbs

'58 Series 2 '77 101FC Ambulance '95 Discovery V8i

so 10kg of wheel spacers placed 25cm below the C of G on a

I never said that...

Tim Hobbs

'58 Series 2 '77 101FC Ambulance '95 Discovery V8i

You're right, but my point was the claim made by Scorpion Racing was rubbish.

Well, you are also relocating around 50kg of wheel as well - the CofG will move, but not enough to have much effect.

P.

To lower the centre of gravity something somewhere has to be mounted lower than it was before. Putting the wheels further apart, by equal amounts in opposite directions, doesn't do that. However it will reduce the tendency to tip over sideways. A bit. It does however mean that

Or if you want your landy to look more original, you could always go for Wolf rims. I fitted a set to my 110 with 235/85 tyres, and even with the lockstops wound right in, there's plenty of clearance between the tyres and the radius arms.

-- Paul Everett repton at repton dot org

In any case one of the main advantages of a proper Landy is that it has its center of gravity prelly lower than other ordinary 4X4 vehicles which have bodyshells made entirely out of steel.

Take care Pantelis

On or around Wed, 9 Jul 2003 20:59:38 +0100, "Adrian England" enlightened us thusly:

It's probably not rubbish, as it probably does, technically, lower the CoG. However, what they probably *meant* was that it makes you less likely to turn it over, and that may be true, as if you widen the track, it'll be less likely to tip on any given slope.

On or around Wed, 09 Jul 2003 21:27:49 +0100, Paul Everett enlightened us thusly:

next stage is to take a bit off the lock stops :-)

this is what I did to mine, for similar reasons.