After some help with wheel offsets/ removal of spacers

[smo9499]

G Morning all!

 

After some advice, got these freestyle wheels and spacers that where fitted by previous owner. Some of the wheel bolts are spinning on the spacer bolts so I want to ideally get them off and get rid of the wheels and spacers. They are currently on 285/75R16 tyres and do scrub on radius arms on full lock anway

I'm struggling to find info on what wheels/offset to fit

Found these modulars with ET0
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/X4-NEW-1...159034?hash=item3630c08bba:g:lG4AAOSwx2dYG8jS

and these which show 'ET08 - Offset of the wheel is the distance between the center line of the wheel and the hub-mounting surface. These have a 8mm wider track.'
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Land-Rov...643178&hash=item3f7640ae3a:g:Q90AAOSwOMlaxAec

I want to keep the standard arches and not go to the larger ones, what ET, or modular wheels am I best getting that are a straight swap and will fit without spacers and cause no issues? Any advice is welcomed

Be ideal if I could swap current tyres over also, if not ill just get new ones.

Thanks

[martyn668]

ET is Einpresstiefe, and is weird until you get your head round it. The higher the number, the narrower the track. You want a high MINUS number to get a wider track. Some companies seem to quote “offset”, which (I think) in their heads is the opposite way round. Confused? If you want alloys, then Zu alloys have a high minus ET, and also have a TÜV certificate. I wanted steels, and ended up with Dotz Dakar’s, which have a moderately wider track than standard. Can’t remember the exact numbers now. 

[Mudmonkey]

When talking offset you also have to take the wheels width into consideration don't forget.

I used to run Sawtooth wheels (16x7" ET20) with 285/75/16 BFG Mud KM2s. The tyres were flush with the standard arches so that's around where you want to be if you don't want to fit bigger arches

By comparison your freestyles (without spacers) and boost alloys are 16x7" ET33.

So assuming you have 20mm spacers, you are around ET13.

 

[ballcock]

Are the spacers fitted to allow the alloys to fit or are the axles the later type allowing alloys to fit straight to the hub?

[smo9499]

12 hours ago, ballcock said:

Are the spacers fitted to allow the alloys to fit or are the axles the later type allowing alloys to fit straight to the hub?

Thanks for the reply

Not 100% only just got the landy, believe they have been fitting to make the wheels and not rub as much on full lock

[western]

G reg vehicle would be a drum braked rear axle, so spacers required to fit alloy wheels, if the rear axle has been replaced by a later one with rear disc brakes, no spacers required. 

 

[Snagger]

13 hours ago, ballcock said:

Are the spacers fitted to allow the alloys to fit or are the axles the later type allowing alloys to fit straight to the hub?

A G reg would have the old style axles, if still on the original axles, so would not take alloys without some sort of spacing or machining of the wheel to allow clearance with the drive flanges.

The lock must have already been adjusted if you're getting scrub on the radius arms with spacers, so you'll have to wind them back out and lose a little agility without spacers.  I think it's worthwhile - I had spacers briefly, and like many others, found the nuts securing the spacers to hubs would loosen themselves behind the wheels, even with thread lock.  Personally,  I think they're dangerous things.

[cackshifter]

I have ET0 modular with 265/75s, and you really couldn't go further without arch extensions.  I think officially they should be ET8. I got them primarily for 110 use. On a 90, you could probably afford to have a bit less,which would accomodate your 285s.

[FridgeFreezer]

On 03/05/2018 at 11:18 AM, smo9499 said:

After some advice, got these freestyle wheels and spacers that where fitted by previous owner. Some of the wheel bolts are spinning on the spacer bolts so I want to ideally get them off and get rid of the wheels and spacers.

Um, loose wheel nuts? Get those spacers off NOW before you lose a wheel and kill someone!

[smallfry]

^ What he said. I would rather lose some lock than use spacers. They overload wheel bearings, king pins, and swivels.

[Snagger]

On 05/05/2018 at 7:24 PM, smallfry said:

^ What he said. I would rather lose some lock than use spacers. They overload wheel bearings, king pins, and swivels.

No more than wheels that have offsets that give the same tyre position, but at least the wheels don't undo themselves!  But I agree with you - I don't think they do the axle or steering system any favours, and hitting pot holes, uneven braking or a flat tyre will produce steering inputs that standard tyre positions won't.

[Chicken Drumstick]

On 05/05/2018 at 4:24 PM, smallfry said:

^ What he said. I would rather lose some lock than use spacers. They overload wheel bearings, king pins, and swivels.

Different offset rims do exactly the same. Unless taken to an extreme it really isn’t likely to be an issue tbh. And obviously running them offers other benefits. 

Wheelnuts on the spacers should stand no more chance of undoing than any other wheelnut. 

[landroversforever]

I'll try and remember to post a link tomorrow. Got a page saved at work with a really useful offset calculator. 

[landroversforever]

This is a pretty good visualisation of offset and wheel size changes  

https://tiresize.com/wheel-offset-calculator/

 

[Snagger]

On 08/05/2018 at 4:31 PM, Chicken Drumstick said:

Wheelnuts on the spacers should stand no more chance of undoing than any other wheelnut. 

And yet they do...

[Chicken Drumstick]

4 hours ago, Snagger said:

And yet they do...

Do they? I have 3 sets of spaces run for 15+ years on various different vehciles for 1000’s and 1000’s of miles. Never had a single one undo on its own. 

[landroversforever]

On the spacer front I'd be interested to see what material the ones which loosened are made from. 

Doug has kindly given me his knackered ali ones and you can see where the doing up of the nuts has squashed the material. I think ali is too soft for spacers really. 

[Snagger]

Mine were steel spacers.  All the nuts were done up to specified torque and almost all the nuts loosened themselves.  Refitted with thread lock and they did it again.  I have heard a lot of similar experiences.  I think the slimmer nuts may be part of it, and there may be an issue with the threads being incorrectly cut, but it's not uncommon.

[FridgeFreezer]

I've had wheel nuts loosen on Wolf rims - theory is because the wolf backplate is so thick there's no "give" to keep tension (unlike a cheap modular for example) so it can work loose. There's even a genuine Wolf plaque that states nuts have to be tighter on Wolf rims (170nm IIRC), maybe the same thing happens with spacers?

I do think ali is a dodgy material for spacers. OEM alloy wheels are made of fairly funky alloys, I'm not so sure I believe in whatever the average ali spacer from China is made of...

[landroversforever]

Wolfs have the pressing around the nut, do mods have that? I think also the higher torque with Wolfs is partly down to the less thread engagement on some vehicles. 

[Snagger]

14 hours ago, landroversforever said:

Wolfs have the pressing around the nut, do mods have that? I think also the higher torque with Wolfs is partly down to the less thread engagement on some vehicles. 

I had some 8-spokes.  They had no raised pressing around the stud holes, just countersinking.  They were fairly thick and the nuts overhung the ends of the studs a little, but only about half a thread, so probably less than the LR HD rims.