Slackdaddy

With typical stock rims, the tire/rim is centered over the wheel bearings and the knuckle joints (on the front axle).
When switching to a "Deep Dish" rim the tire center is now "outboard" of the wheel bearings/knuckle.
I imagine this puts a completely different "force" on the bearings/knuckle.
instead of a completely vertical load on the bearing, it is now some what "twisting", and the deeper the "dish" of the rim, the more this force is compounded.
Is this an issue with deep rims? or am I thinking up a non existing problem ?


Slack

caged

some will say it puts more stress on the bearings, which i'm sure it does. but i've been running 10 inch wide rims with only 2.75 inch back spacing and 36x13.5 bias ply tires on timkin/skf wheel bearings and usually get at least 3 years out of a set. not bad since they have a good warranty and can usually get them replaced for free.

5-Speed

I think it does have some effect on how fast the bearings will wear out, but nothing too crazy. It messes with the scrub radius more then anything. The bigger the scrub radius, the more stress on the bearings while turning.

Jeepin'_Aint_EZ

The further the wheel sticks out the more leverage is put on the wheel bearings as well as ball joints. So no, you're not thinking of a non existent problem. For guys that daily their rigs and have extreme backspacing and wide wheels they may have to replace bearings a little more often than those of us who don't daily our rigs. I run 15x8 wheels with 3.75" backspacing as well as 1.5" wheel spacers. Yeah, I like to live dangerously. I also install my wheel spacers properly and torque them to spec so I'm not worried about them coming loose. Been running them for years with no issues.