Hi All
If I remember right we are only talking about thin spacers to avoid cutting
lugs down, I used to drive a Herald Estate with the wheel spacers that
move the wheels out over 1" I was warned that it may cause the bearings to
fail early but suffered no such failure (I figure the force exerted by these
in no way reaches the sort of force on the bearings driving down a rough
highway!) Also with regard to racers they think in terms of traction /
cornering not will I have to do the bearings early etc!
Take away airbags and put daggers or spikes in the middle that'll slow em
daan!!
Graham.
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Thompson <miket@urgrgcc.edu>
To: Silvestre Ortiz <silvestre.ortiz@cditx.com>; <triumphs@autox.team.net>
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2000 3:40 PM
Subject: Wheel spacer safety
>
> Original message:
>
> > From: "Silvestre Ortiz" <silvestre.ortiz@cditx.com>
> > Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2000 08:47:09 -0600
> > To: "Michael Thompson" <miket@urgrgcc.edu>
> > Subject: Re: Wheel spacer Link with pics
> >
> > I have now spacers made to your specifications, and they seem to be just
> > fine. The local machine folks suggested steel for the material, so I
went
> > with it.
> >
> > An engineer friend, also into this Triumph insanity, raised the question
of
> > possible bearing or wheel stud failure brought about by the now longer
arm
> > created by the spacer, although it is small. Is this a consideration you
> > have taken into account with this item? Is there a way to calculate this
> > risk? Should the idea of spacers be re-thought in the light of this
> > potential problem? Is there really a problem, or is this really
mechanically
> > sound? Please get back to me on this. I DO love the idea and would hate
to
> > get rid of the spacers, but safety is foremost.
> >
> > Thanks.
> > Silvestre Ortiz
>
>
> Reply:
>
> Hi Silvestre,
> I wasn't real concerned with this problem. As I said before I use my 48
> spoke wires with white walls for show. Seventy percent of the time I run
> around and drive fast with the steel wheels. Besides could we possibly put
> the same stress on our cars as the racers do with extra wide tires and
> sticky rubber.
> How many miles do you drive per year? I do maybe 3000 per year on my TR3
and
> 500-800 of that on the wires. There probably is a way to calculate it but
> I'm a gambling man. Just for perspective, I had a Mini once that I raced
> that had 6 inch wide tires (originally 3.5 inches) with one inch spacers.
> Also I ran 1 degree of camber. That had to stress something. Maybe I'm
> making too light of the situation, but I think sometimes we worry too much
> about making small changes and over-analyze things. Your engineering
friend
> is right about changing some of the forces on the suspension. And if I was
> designing a car to run 150,000 miles or to run at %120 during an endurance
> race I probably would not set it up this way. But I'm not. And I think the
> benefits far outweigh the small risk of breakage.
> Anyway maybe someone in the tire a wheel business could answer the
question
> worded more like: What if you moved the wheel offset out a quarter inch?
> I'll post this to the list and see if anyone has an answer.
>
> Don't worry, be happy,
> Mike Thompson
>
> But wait there's more,
> What are we worrying about? If we were worried about safety, would we be
> running around in a car that has virtually no doors, no air bags, bumpers
> that are there just for looks, and a steering wheel that will impale us
> because it doesn't collapse on impact. Crumple zones are for wusses.
>
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!ps I was
joking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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