Spacers. Yes or No? If yes, then how?

[ArmyRover]

Don't know on that to be honest

 

[jwest]

The LK8 LR4 is on EAS. Retained full travel and steering as well. Complete beast off road from what I saw at Red Clay as well.

Basically not possible to have 100% movements with the tire that wide and that diameter with them also not tucked in. They will run into the fender flares upon full compression. This does not happen often as most videos and my own experience shows it takes quite the situation to fully stuff one side up in. I first did my driveway tests by dumping the air from the system and bringing wheels up onto blocking/ramps.

The front of course is most critical during certain amounts of turn angle and also depends on the bumper.

When I tested mine also off road, using spacers will set the tire too far out and absolutely makes contact in the rear wheel arch and up front during turning. Their tire being wider and taller and what looked like wider offset, will also end up the same way.

 

[jwest]

On the truck in question, I recall that they had gone to the extent of cutting the inside portion of the wheel flares so that the wheels would tuck in on compression.

Ok. This makes more sense now and would be the only way that bigger tire on the lr4 would actually work fully.

 

[Socialseb83]

Haha. I was there for that post.

That thread was the Bible for LR4 mods at the time.

He was correct. I'm on 33.3 KO2s now going incrementally from 19" Zeons, to 265/65/18, to 265/75/18 to 275/70/18.

As I mentioned earlier, I broke out the angle grinder for the most recent set. The rubbing was actually pretty minimal on my sliders, but I want the clearance to run snow chains if needed.

There is another good thread on Expo of a guy doing part of the Rubicon in his LR3.

Anybody want to meet in Truckee next summer?

What does it mean to “break out the angle grinder?”

what are you doing. Pics? Video?

 

[jwest]

What does it mean to “break out the angle grinder?”

what are you doing. Pics? Video?

An angle grinder is used to take off some of the brake caliper material where it would contact the inside barrel of the rim. It has been used for fitting factory 18" wheels on lr4's or in my case factory 17" wheels even with 25mm spacers. The rear is the one that required more grinding.

Then I changed the rotors to the size used on the LR3 that came with 17" wheels so they'd fit just fine.

 

[avslash]

An angle grinder is used to take off some of the brake caliper material where it would contact the inside barrel of the rim. It has been used for fitting factory 18" wheels on lr4's or in my case factory 17" wheels even with 25mm spacers. The rear is the one that required more grinding.

Then I changed the rotors to the size used on the LR3 that came with 17" wheels so they'd fit just fine.

What @jwest said is correct. I did that when I first switched to LR3 wheels many years ago.

What I was referring to in my comment was using an angle grinder with a cutoff wheel to remove some of the vertical portions of my TR sliders that protrude into the front wheel wells. Needed to do that to eliminate some rubbing on my current 33.3"/Compomotive setup.

 

[Socialseb83]

An angle grinder is used to take off some of the brake caliper material where it would contact the inside barrel of the rim. It has been used for fitting factory 18" wheels on lr4's or in my case factory 17" wheels even with 25mm spacers. The rear is the one that required more grinding.

Then I changed the rotors to the size used on the LR3 that came with 17" wheels so they'd fit just fine.

So is this something i shoukd best leave to a pro, or is it easily doable by a first-timer like me?

 

[avslash]

So is this something i shoukd best leave to a pro, or is it easily doable by a first-timer like me?

If you have the use of both arms and can plug in an angle grinder you can do it.

Get the front end off the ground. Install spacers and wheels. Spin wheel and see if you hear or feel grinding. If so remove wheel and grind a little off the cooling fins of the caliper.

Repeat process until the wheel spins freely.

 

[jwest]

So is this something i shoukd best leave to a pro, or is it easily doable by a first-timer like me?

Like Avslash said, test the wheel on so you can get it to make a mark where contact starts. You only want to remove enough to clear maybe 3mm at that point (in my opinion).

Keep in mind that when you get new tires or balancing, they CANNOT put the weights along that path on the rim or they'll just get scraped right off before leaving the tire shop.

It's not hard but it is loud and seems a little scary that you might damage the caliper. You should read more about it from people who've done it, maybe on the expedition portal site too. Mine have been that way since maybe 2015 but then I changed the rotor size and it became irrelevant. In total time of effort the rotor and caliper carrier swap took less time that grinding the rotors and you end up with a 100% solution without the added limitations the spacers create by setting the tire outboard more.

 

[Gravey]

Want to drop my stock 19"s and go to 18"s. I was told I have the option of buying expensive 18"s that got perfectly ok my LR4,or it so ing spacers to fit wheels from a different vehicle.

Apparently some people swear against them. Others have told me this is what they did and they had no problem.

What's your opinion and why?
If you say yes, then what is a brand of spacers and wheels that had gotten great results on LR4s?

I have tuffant 18" with no spacer and not expensive like the compomotive wheels. the tuffants fit perfcectly.