Looking for pros and cons to the use of wheel spacers. I don't drive the XJ much right now, mostly local on the weekends but I grabbed 5 JK wheels and tires that are 5 x 5 so they are going to need the spacers to work. With the spacers I am all in for about $305. The wheels are here and spacers are ordered, looking for advice and pitfalls. Thanks in advance.

 

Did you get hubcentric spacers?

 

quality spacers installed properly, nothing wrong w/ them. i have used them on several jeeps including my current xj. im not a fan of the wider ones so i use the 1 1/4" ones.

 

Yes, hubcentric and 1.25" .

 

sorry but $25 each are not high quality spacers,i wouldnt use them. quality spacers would be more like $50 each, just go check them out at any 4wd shop or quadratec. but to each his own.

 

The only advice I can give is DON'T use them the correct wheels are just to cheap to use a half azzed deal like a spacer or adapter. A steel wheel is cheaper than a quality spacer/adapter in all cases.


Use the tires buy new wheel's!

 

I appreciate all of the feedback, I was trying to do this on a budget since I have probably put less than 3000 miles on it in a year and a half. My follow up question is the tires are 225/75/16 the Cherokees were supposed to have 15" wheels and tires on them so if I go the route of buying a set of steel wheels rather than the spacers would anyone suggest a 16x7 or 16x8 wheel. This may sound like a stupid question but I literally have never purchased a set of wheels for a car aftermarket. Thanks again.

 

I've been running Rugged Ridge spacers for the past 2 years. Just follow the torquing instructions. I believe it's to install them, retorque after 50 miles, then retorque again after 500. Also every time I have the tires off I check to make sure all nuts torqued down.

I have no complaints about them whatsoever.

I would go with the 16x8 if buying the new wheels, but IMO you will be fine with the spacers. My XJ is like yours in the sense that I don't put a lot of miles on her cuz I am driving a work vehicle all week. With that said, spacers made sense for me. I have done a 3 hour road trip in my XJ with prolonged sections of going as fast as 80-85mph and no tires fell off haha

 

Thanks for the advice.

 

check out the vendors section, plenty of them can give you wheel advice & ship them to you too.

 

I've been running Rough Country spacers for about 3 years with no issues. I check torque whenever the wheels are off and they've never came un-torqued.

 

Thanks for all of the suggestions and information, I have some things to read up on and make my decision. I am short on time so I am leaning towards using a better spacer than I initially ordered and the wheels as they sit. @Fred, I appreciate the point about using steel wheels instead of the spacers I just don't know if I can wait another month to order the wheels due to budget constraints.

 

Hub-centric spacers will be just fine. I am running some on my MJ with JK wheels and no issues.

I picked up a set another set of JK wheels to put on my XJ. I bought a set of Synergy wheel adapters for that, since they are local.

 

Cragar d window steel rims start at 63 bucks for a 15x8 rim.

 

i would go w/ a good set of $ 200 spacers, 4 new wheels are at least $ 250- 275, plus all dismount / mounting & balancing charges, add $ 150 for that.