You'll see they came with a set of instructions that includes the liability disclaimer, "For off-road use only". That is how they avoid lawsuits. Here's a lot of related information from a couple of days ago:
https://www.2carpros.com/questions/wheel-studs-keep-breaking
The first problem is the studs are not designed to hold up the weight of the vehicle. That is the job of the wheel, and to do that, it has to sit snugly on the center hub. If I understand correctly, the lip you're referring to is that hub that fits the center hole of the wheel. Without that hub to hold the wheel in place, the wheel will have repeated up and down forces acting on it with each revolution. The nuts don't actually have to work loose. The wheel will be sliding up and down under the nuts, and that will wear away the mating friction surfaces. That is what usually leads to the loose wheel.
I've used these spacers in the past, and I was constantly having to retighten the lug nuts. What I wasn't aware of at that time was once the nuts worked loose, they chewed up the matching friction surfaces on the wheel that hold the nuts tight. At that point the wheel and nuts must be replaced.
The other issue most people aren't aware of is the wheels and tires are considered safety items. As such, they're going to be inspected very closely if you're involved in a crash. If the other guy runs a red light and causes the crash, his lawyer or insurance investigator will convince a jury that you were partly at fault because you were less able to avoid it, and they will usually be right. The biggest offender that results in increased stopping distance, reduced steering response, and poor handling is altered suspension ride height, as in raised trucks and lowered cars. That changes the carefully-designed geometric angles of the control arms and other steering and suspension parts. Another seldom-referred to secondary alignment angle is "scrub radius". If you draw an imaginary line through the two steering pivots, in your case, the upper and lower ball joints, that line will intersect the road surface at a very specific point in the middle of the tire tread. Anything that changes that point will be discovered by the insurance investigator. That includes tires of a substantially different outer circumference, tires wider than original, and wheels with a deeper offset that moves the center of the tire out further.
You'll also notice when we had two separate front wheel bearings, the inner one was a lot larger than the outer one. That's because the inner one had to carry the weight of the vehicle and the outer one just held the wheel straight up and down. By moving the center of the wheel out further, the vehicle's weight is moved to a weaker point in the bearings. Being placed out further also lets the wheel act as a larger handle on the lever which is the spindle. That leads to early bearing failure. An inch is plenty of offset to cause you to have more "road feel". Road shock has to pass through the wheels, spindles, control arms, and steering linkage before it gets to the steering wheel. By changing direction so many times, you are going to feel only a small percentage of that additional shock that's passing through the wheel bearings. That's why it's hard for us to understand why offset wheels are so hard on bearings.
When you're wondering about other modifications that affect safety, comfort, or handling, remember the world of automotive marketing is extremely competitive. If a manufacturer could design and build raised trucks, lowered cars, or any other popular modifications, you can be sure they would do it to increase their sales. In fact, they know it can't be done without compromising safety. Their teams of lawyers would have a collective stroke if a marketing genius proposed some of the things we do to our cars and trucks.
Saturday, April 4th, 2020 AT 5:11 PM
