I've been running 1" wheel spacers on one vehicle since 1982. I think that is time enough to prove they are not an issue.

Most people think they're unsafe because they've heard the horror stories of eBay spacers made of the finest chinesium installed by a backyard mechanic.

Yep it's a big close fitting washer with holes for the bolts, it will compress slightly and work fine. People panic far too much.

Thank you so much for posting a video, Eric! Your videos are one of the things I look forward to on KZfaq on a weekly basis.

Eric, for your own sanity, stop reading the comments. You will never please everyone. If in a particular episode you happen to discover cold fusion, the key to immortality and invent a time travel machine all at once, someone will be unhappy about it.

I think it's safe as long as the bolts are long enough, and the tires properly aligned. Quality explanation as always Eric.

I worked in tire and auto service till retiring in 2012. I generally took a very dim view on spacers, mainly because they were often too thick and not hub-centric. Eric, yours is one of the rare times where a modest spacer that is properly fitted is really appropriate.

Man I haven't been to your channel in a long time, man your picture quality is top notch these days. Always enjoy your vids. Keep up the good work👌

Nice job Eric, I appreciate you and all your hard work bringing us these videos. Keep up the good work, we love your channel.

A lot can go wrong when people do wheel spacers badly. Wheel track, offset, suspension, steering, rotating balance, lug protrusion, centering and more. But on the flipside, Porsche have been factory fitting spacers for many years to increase rear wheel track depending tyre width and adhesion. Porsche know what they are doing. Countless race cars use spacers over 2 inches thick and enormously long studs/lugs. Then they fit a 13 inch wide tire and go circuit racing subjecting the assembly to huge load. Spacers are only dangerous if you have no idea what you are doing. Anyone getting bent out of shape over this minor spacer install clearly is just a repeater, repeating something they heard someone say somewhere.

Used to watch you all the time back when you had videos in your old shop and I had my honda, now I find myself back again, this time with a jeep I've lifted and unfortunately looking to get wheel spacers to clear my UCAs. Not too excited about it but hearing you confirm it's safety makes me feel a lot better. Much respect for the all famous ETCG!

"No problem" says it all. I've used them on my earlier cars and never had an issue. Thanks for the video Eric, always good to hear from you.

I can absolutely understand Eric's frustration with some comments. Constructive criticism is one thing, but this is just ignorant bashing from people who heard that wheelspacers are "bad".

Theres one rule that probably applies to everything (even wheel spacers): Everything can become dangerous when somebody bolts something together that he doesn't have any clue about ... Keep going Eric, love your videos greetings from germany

I think where a lot of concern that I saw was the fact that the original spacers were not hub-centric. I'm glad to see these ones are and that the wheel will center on the hub properly and nothing is going to move around (or have the slim ability to move around). Keep on keepin on Eric!

Relax and recharge, ETCG. I'm glad you're taking time off, get stuff done, be with your Family.

When I welded a Camaro sub frame on my 51 chevy truck I had quite a few experts predict massive failure soon. It's 28 years and a lot of miles on new England roads . All is well.

Been running Hubcentric Wheel spacers on my Volvo 850 T-5R for 15 years because my brake calibers wont clear the Wheels NEVER had an issue

Great Video Eric,thanks for clearing doubts about Wheel Spacers.Keep posting your Videos,I enjoy them alot and get my Inspiration from them.

I have learned more from the Fairmount Project that I could list - fantastic series - thanks Eric!

Wheel spacers aren’t dangerous IF they are hub centric and the wheel is also hub centric. Also, I have seen 800HP drift cars with 2x 5cm rear wheel spacers stacked on each side! One of the downside is that the load on the bearings change and it can lead to more ware.

Living is dangerous! No one escapes alive.

Great video Eric, I like the detail you put into explaining wheel spacers. Thank you, and Cheers from Oregon!

Thanks so much for this video, and the link you provided. I have not yet touched wheel spacers, or have needed to, but this explanation has made me feel comfortable about using them in the future. Keep doing what you do!

i have looked into spacers before. my GT4 came with 25mm spacers in the rear wheels, I removed them not because "spacers will kill you" but because the spacers i had were not hub-centric, my view is that if you have enough hub lip coming out its ok to use non-hubcentric spacers. personally, if i fit spacers in my car, i will have to buy hubcentric ones. which in turn cost a small fortune

I use 2cm spacers on all 4 corners with longer bolts(not studs). No problems, no loosening, no vibrations

Jumped on to find something else but can't resist a new etcg1 video

I use 1/4" wheel spacers for wheel clearance issues on my custom S10 that's still in the works but still drive it as often as I can, have not had any problems with the spacers at all, I just keep the torque in check every so often and worries. Thanks for sharing, great info

how are you gonna drive around with no seat, no motor, and no hood? Thats unsafe Eric, sheesh!

Plus those black painted steel rims. Unassuming look perfect for the sleeper. Better than fancy show-off rims for this

nice to see you still sharing your "space" with us dude.

Where I've run into failure of wheel spacers was with one of the bolt-on style units that use their own studs. A friend of mine was tracking his car with r-comp tires on wheels that weren't the right offset to clear his front suspension, which necessitated spacers. That high amount of grip from the tires was causing the lugs to come loose after each session and they needed to be re-torqued each time. By some miracle the final session got cancelled. As soon as we got back on the road leaving the track, one of the wheels completely detached from the hub at around 40 mph and lodged itself into the fender well. The studs of the spacer had pulled through enough to completely come away from the spacer body itself. Had that happened on the race track mid-corner, we for sure could have risked flipping. The lesson to be learned is, if you're going to run bolt-on spacers, make sure they're of sufficient quality and strength. Best case, don't run them on a car that'll see high sustained g-force from sticky tires.

Need a poster in the back of the shop, "ERIC YOUR DOING IT WRONG" - random youtube commenter.

Lets not forget the wheels and tyres episode where Eric discovers "these wheels aren't round!"

The way you did those adapters is 100% safe. And I love the steel wheel look.

Thank You For this explanation. You are like the Alton Brown of cars. You always make things easy to understand. Been watching for a long time. Really Thank You.

If some armchair engineer can explain to me how using a spacer of reasonable thickness (like, 1" or less) is ANY different than using a different offset wheel to accomplish the thing, I'd LOVE to hear it. The spacer argument is hilariously stupid (and old). As long as your studs or bolts are long enough they are fine. Also, good quality spacers are key - not because of strength issues, but because of vibration issues. It's amazing what little imbalance caused from a crappy spacer can be felt.

Now prepare for the butthurts claiming not using a torque wrench on your wheellstuds kills the ozone layer...

Agreed, fan of spacers, running steel wheels, longer studs , not tearing up pavement in the lowered c10 and never an issue.. good video.

Like you said as long as the spacer is installed correctly there will be no problem. One other thing to consider is that the inner and outer surfaces are machined parallel. If they are not then you might have a problem. But for the most part they are done with a high degree of accuracy

I run 2" Wheel Spacers and 32"" Tires on my Bronco they have help up just fine over a years worth of daily driving and beating the shit out of it 4 buying as well.

Great video. I think most of your viewership will appreciate this one (or at least they/we should!). Stay dirty.

Hey Eric, I was just reading your Agugst 2017 newsletter. And let me tell you, everything is fine! I don't expect anything from you, and you take everything as slow or as fast as you need to! Nonetheless, I am of course excited to see the Fairmont run and how it runs, but that can wait. If you decide that your personal life and your family are more important right now, I will happily wait another year or two (or however it may take you to get things sorted out) before there are any ETCG videos again. Just focus on what's most important in life for you now, and then follow that path, because that's what it is all about! You can always figure out later how to make money out of it...

i used to use half inch spacers and spacer stud extenders with no problems for 30 years plus on the british mini also used to use belted rims keep up the good work eric

Be the 1st car to cross the finish line without a driver. Should we call you Ricky Bobby !

There are far more of us that support you Eric then the nay Sayers

ty, i have a liberty 06, and I am lifting it 2,5 and spacing stock wheels 1.25in out and I was afraid, now I will make sure that they are hub centric, and most important installed correctly. Thank you, God Bless.

It’s cool that you did a whole video on this! I was the one who originally commented! I totally agree with you Eric.

German wheel brand RH provides inch thick adapters with certain wheels models from factory. If they would not be safe they would not make it that way.

Ive taken wheels off before and 10 washers fell on to the ground.

I added a 7.5 lift on my Ford Excursion, then added on 37's on it, but after I finished up with the job my front tires would always rub when I turned. Always wondered if I had to down size my tires, but after watching this vid I am going to look at spacers. Thanks for the Vid!

Great video and explanation. I did something similar with 1971 Pontiac LeMans. I also used stock rims.

it makes me laugh a lot , everyone's an expert from behind their keyboard , if it works and it's been deemed to be safe by engineers who fabricate the parts then it's all good in my book .

wheel spacers.. have we got clearance Clarence ??.. ( airplane RIP leslie neilson)

The only concern I would have is by moving the wheel out you are making it easier to create travel. (Granted not much with only a quarter inch) Think of it like a wrench handle. The longer the handle is the more force you can apply. The a arm from the point the shock is mounted to out (including the tire) is the handle. This would also be the case if you get offset rims. You may need to stiffen your shocks slightly when you do either of these. The only way to tell of course is by getting the car on the road and driving it. Which I am sure you would greatly love to do. Keep up the great work Eric and remember that SOME of those people out there that are screaming "you're doing it wrong" are doing so because they care about you and not just because they are trolls. Please don't get discouraged.

i like your head on approach to the comment wars, Eric. Thx for researching the facts and sharing. Hope you're having a nice break.

has anyone taken apart a ford f250. f350 4x4. the front hubs have like a massive 4inch wheel spacer that bolts to the rotor and the wheel bolts on to it.. for real .. research it

Biggest danger with vehicles is the loose nut behind the wheel.

Once upon of time I had a 75 Chevy Monza 2+2 V8 with a 4 speed. Of course, being young and dumb in some areas (actually a lot of areas), I decided to use some wheel spacers to try and improve my cornering capability by widening the track and to get a bit better wider wheel stance to decrease body roll in corners.. They were quarter inch spacers so it increased the track by 1/2 inch. It made the car look a little better, but really It did not improve the performance in any noticible way except I could now install snow chains on the rear in the winter. The down side was the leverage on the front suspension. It put extra leverage on the front suspension to the point it was bottoming out much more often and hitting the bump stops much harder. It was enough force that it allowed the bottom of the oil pan to come in contact with the pavement on passing through some higher crowned intersections. The unintended result was one day the oil pan got dented a little bit and the lip of the drain plug came in contact with the ground at about 35 mph and was instantly unscrewed. The oil soon drained out and I got a red light on the dash for oil pressure. Shut off the engine and coasted to a stop. After walking around the car and seeing the oil trail, I saw the last of the oil dripping out of the drain hole. I walked Back to the intersection, found my drain plug, put it back in and took a long walk to a store to buy replacement oil to put back into the crankcase. After I got back home, I took off the front wheel spacers and my bottoming out problem almost went entirely away. That was one of my first solid clues that there was more to suspension performance than fat performance tires and stiff shocks.

I bet at least a few of them saw the video from Engineering Explained, he covered this but he was talking about 3 or more inch spacers. Its not that much spacing and you are doing it safe. Keep up the videos.

Oh shit it actually is my birthday!!!!

the haters dont know about engineering eric

You got a remember it's usually human error when installing parts ..wheel spacers are safe when you properly do that ..I've had them on my truck never a problem..because they're properly installed.i'm also a mechanic glad you clarified that to the other people thank you💯👌

Man the etcg1 video the day after my birthday had two happy birthdays! Thanks eric

Eric has made a career of bolting shit together and making sure it stays that way. I think he's got this. What the keyboard safety police forget is that the same lack of maintenance that makes wheels WITH spacers dangerous would make ANY wheel dangerous.

I highly doubt you'll track it hard enough to "flex" those wheels. Though cheap and mass produced, those wheels were engineered for extreme police duty and they've been crash tested. Keep the sleeper look, black steelie are cool anyways!

I have had 1/4 in wheel spacers on my Mustang for 20+ years, I needed them for clearance between the tire and quad shocks, they are not Hub Centric but have never caused a wheel to come loose or been any problem. At one time I had installed a pair of the aluminum space saver spare wheels on the front of my car and had to use 1/2 in spacers so the wheels would clear the brakes and had no problems, they were for driving to the dragstrip and back but were also driven on the street. Those narrow tires and wheels did not corner very well but that had nothing to do with the spacers. Back in the 80's I had a set of spacers the went from a ford bolt circle to a chevy bolt circle and those did end up with slight cracking in them between the studs but the material being used today is much better than what was being made back then. I would not but used spacers that have studs in them, get a new set instead of saving $5.

Great video buddy. I love your information, It has really helped me many times! Keep it up please!

Putting too wide a spacer on the hub can cause premature bearing-wear but I can't see why they'd be problem otherwise as long as they are installed properly.

They are totally not safe. A guy threw one at me and those things really hurt!

Happy to see a new video posted, keep them coming

100% agree! Used 1/4 inch Lug Centric behind alloys and got longer alloy lugs so the pass though the rim and into the spacer without bottoming out on the hub. 2 years no issues.

If you were a real car guy you would ghost ride that thing!

If you are able to break those studs (with or without the spacers installed,) then you are probably in a crash, and aren't thinking about the studs and spacers anyway. ;-)

I'm sorry to see that you're going away and not producing your videos yourself I extremely like the content that you show and the procedures that you go through to get to your end result but you keep doing what you're doing my brother and Godspeed

Now that you're not doing regular repair videos, I subscribed.

Today's my birthday! It's 6am my time and someone tried stealing stuff from inside my car. Good thing they didn't take anything. Plus it doesn't help that I have a 4 day old newborn baby keeping me up.

Who's this guy? ETCG is not on youtube anymore, he made a video saying he wasnt making anymore video's. I call shenanigans.

I have 1.25" hub centric spacers on my Tacoma which are the more extreme one Eric mentioned with their own studs. I bought them from a very reputable company.(Spidertrax) They came with great instructions on mounting them correctly, using locktite, and torque specifications. I would never buy such a critical part on Ebay.

I’ve been waiting so long to watch one of these videos on my birthday. Thank you Eric

Seen a lot of stuff about spacers causing wheel bearing issues. In reality, I've no evidence that wheel spacers wreak wheel bearings any more than wheel bearings normally wreak themselves. But armchair mechanics gonna armchair.

You really need to ignore the armchair experts Eric they really have no clue what they are talking about.

I would bet most no Sayer's are not even back yard mechanic material! I mean really how much experience dose it take? Your a pro and have about seen it or done it all! Thanks for your videos all of them are interisting and informative!

There can be issues with non hubcentric spacers. They then rely on the studs/bolts to hold the wheel central on the hb. Most people don't realise this is done by the raised lip on the hub sitting in the hole in the centre of the wheel. The other issue spacers can give is when the installer doesn't maintain suffiecient thread contact by not increasing the stud/bolt length. I've just fitted 35mm thick hubcentric spacers to my Land Rover to give me increased steering angle. The hubcentric version were a lot more expensive than the standard ones. Both sets come with fitted studs to maintain the standard stud length, but the hubcentric ones will keep the wheel located centrally on the hub. And thanks for the birthday wishes. Much appreciated, although i'm a little concerned how you knew it was my birthday......

Step 1: Put spacer on car Step 2: Put tire on car Step 3: Tighten lug nuts How in the world can you improperly install spacers to make it dangerous?

Good golly! He's using an impact wrench to put the lug nuts on!!!! What about proper torque!!! Run away!!!!!

Thanks. I always wondered. . . especially the ones that are much wider.

Glad I found this. Thinking about adding to the rear on my saleen to give it a better look. Has original saleen wheels and I want a wider stance and staggered

i thought he quit youtube?

Thanks Eric for this very educational video!

Always have wondered about wheel spacers and now I know. And today is my birthday (7/26) so thanks for that and the informative video.

Great Video Eric, I think you did everything necessary to make the spaces safe.

Dually trucks use very large wheel spacers on the front axle from the factory to change the offset to allow the same rims to be used on the front and rear axles. If properly engineered and installed they are perfectly fine.

Thanks for taking the time to make this video...

Although I'm against modifying any vehicle from stock. I used to work where we did addons to jeeps, canister relocation, lift kits, bumpers, wenches lights etc. Iagree with you 100% I do have a few horror stories, 1 was washers for wheel extenders.

Respect you alot. Been watching you for a couple years. Im an aging diesel tech for over 20 years. 50 in a few months. You do speak the truth.. take care

The key is that your wheel spacers have been modified to be hub-centric. I find it interesting that you've done that, as prior to watching this video, I'd only heard of the term with regards to BMWs. Good job Eric!

Those spacers are safe, I have no doubt at all. I love the ring that is welded to make them hubcentric, I think that is going to be a massive upgrade to those spacers. Eric, I love how you are planning out each step of this project. I know it has been trial and error along the way but you and "we" have learned a lot from it. I hope it continues to be this great journey.

Didn't know anybody was still working on those old Fairmonts anymore. Man a 2 door coupe was my first car. 3 spd. Inline 200 6 banger. Memories man. I bet I've had every configuration too. 2 door coupes, sedans, 4 doors, wagons, and even a Fairmont pickup. Tough little cars that was fun to make sleepers out of back in the day. Slap a 302 or 289 in it and man hold on. Surprised many a mustang years ago, and even jumped a railroad track once racing a Honda. He stopped we didn't. Other than being airborne and Damn near ripping the front bumper off little damage.

Eric, something that neither you nor the linked article addressed is that moving the tire farther away from the hub increases the load on the wheel bearing. Admittedly in your case, 1/4" isn't much and will probably never cause a problem. But I do regularly see jacked up pickups at my shop with 2" spacers and heavily offset wheels going through bearings much faster than usual.