I'm hoping to gather some opinions about wheel spacers.  The victim would be an 89 RRC.  I have thoughts about the pros of using spacers but are there cons I should be aware of from those of you who may have used them?  Should I be concerned about "strain" to the axels or braking issues?  I like the idea of a wider stance...even though in some unexpected circumstances she didn't even consider tipping.   Thanks for the input.  It feels like spring today and I have spring fever badly.

~john

My biggest concern would be tires rubbing the body panels when articulating. Easy way to bend the panels and lopping off your lugs. After having had a wider stance in the past, and shearing my tires up, I am planning on tire that "tucks"* nicely in the fenders.

* Disclaimer: not the kind of "tucking" Dan is familiar with.

hmmmm....didn't think of that one.  I'll add it to the list.  Thank you!

and..."tucking nicely in the fenders"...is THAT what the kids are calling it these days? 

*poking minds' eye out with stick*  (Craig needs to add an emoticon for this action based upon recent threads!)

Those are great questions to follow up for Todd...thanks Craig.  Overall, the scorpian racing spacers give the RRC and extra 3 inches total.  Those are the spacers I've found so far.  I wasn't aware of the rear well issue, that's good info.   Todd??

~jrr

WOW John...thank you for the thorough response!  Although a slightly different use than mine, it's still a wealth of information.  I really appreciate the time you took.  It's all a lot to think about but at $500 for the SR spacers, that's a heckuva lot of money for an experiment!  I know that it would be ok up front but as Todd suggested, the rear wells might be the issue.  UGH!! "I used to be confused, but now I just don't know"! 

Thanks guys...

~jrr

What about the D2 hub design makes this moot?  The farther away that the mass of the wheel/tire is away from the bearing will increase the strain on that bearing.

John,

It is cheaper to get aftermarket rims w/ less backspacing.

Determining if they will tuck is easy... you might even be able to use that laser level you got for Christmas.  Just measure how much room you have between the outside edge of the tire and the inside of the wheel well.  Don't count on the axle swinging up in an arch because that only happens when only 1 wheel is tucking at a time.  The wheel will go straight up if you, say, jump your truck (see the video section) or bottom out both wheels when going over a large obstacle like a water bar.

John,

SR is Scorpion Racing.  Their website is kinda fancy...and by fancy I mean hard to navigate.  Try using this link:  http://www.scorpionracing.co.uk/OFFROAD/htm/cats/whe/inner/pros.htm.  If that doesn't work, you'll have to go to their 4x4 section and then select wheels and tyres, then spacers.

If you are going to do it, get them from Adrian at 4x4ag.com.  He has them for $350 in their online store.

Thanks Craig...that's wierd...I had them bookmarked all along.    As for the laser level idea...I'll have to get a pitch fork and see if I can clear the crap off the bench and find it first but it's a great idea.  Thank you for that.

I had to add 1.5" spacers to the back of the troop to keep the tires from rubbing the frame at full stuff. I got lucky and didn't have to trim the lug studs. Also Isuzu's use the chevy bolt pattern so mine were only about 60 bucks off ebay. So far I've had no problems and it was like driving a new truck (handling wise) on the freeway. For 500 bucks though I'd just buy a new set of offset rims...