Two (2) issues that seem to have anecdotal responses.

[FloydXJ]

but does that make a wheel spacer a ticking time bomb? XXXX no. but it's also not 'identical', theres an extra peice of metal in there.

If you are referring to the previous post, he didn't say the set up was the same, just the leverage. The leverage on the bearings and lugs is the same. The risk factor in spacers IMO is just that there is an added point of potential failure. As long as the bolts/lugs on both the spacer and wheel are properly torqued and checked routinely, this should be a failure that never happens, just like with normal lugs. I opted away from spacers mainly because in order to check the torque, the wheel has to come off. When I want to check my lug torques, I prefer to just walk up to it and check it.

 

[xjtrailrider]

I've seen first hand how lift blocks and an all around "improper" lift on a XJ can have catastrophic results.

On a club trail ride 2 years ago, 3 XJ's showed up that no one knew who they were. We greeted the kids, talked a bit and looked their rigs over. On one of the XJ's, the kid had put 3" blocks under the rear, he popped the money for some 3" springs in the front but was still on the stock trac-bar. Okay, the front was fine for the off-road even though he was side-winding going down the road, LOL! But I remember one of us telling him that the lift blocks, coupled with stock springs and a slip yoke DS was a bad combo.

Anyway, we went on the trail ride and the kid made it fine, which was cool with us, we didn't have fix anything on his rig. After the trail ride was over we all started home.

We had about 3 miles of gravel road before we hit hard top. A deer bolted out in front of the kid on the gravel road and he locked down the brakes. When he did, the axle rolled back, and the drive shaft spit out off of the slip yoke, dug into the road surface and I watched the rear end of the kids jeep go 3' into the air, start over sideways and miraculously land back on all fours.

He broke the yoke on the D-35 and the DS was toast, he was white as a ghost! He felt very lucky to not have rolled it and really appreciated our help in getting him home safely on front wheel drive.

Had we been running faster than 25 mph, I think it would have rolled and we would have had much worse results to deal with.

The stock XJ springs can't handle lift blocks, and I'm leery of any lift blocks over 1" tall on any XJ spring.

JMHO and $.02

 

[Phil]

One of the Sierra chapter guys installed some aluminum 2" lift blocks in the rear of his very overloaded rig before running Fordyce Creek trail during Sierrafest in August of '04. He destroyed the blocks and did a bunch of damage to his rig.

I ran some 3/4" or 1" steel lift blocks in the rear of my rig for a year or so and it was just fine, light to moderately loaded, mild driving style.

A short steel block, with tight u-bolts, under good leaf springs, will probably be fine.

A friend of mine runs 2" spacers on his rear D60 in his buggy. On his first weekend running the buggy after building a new chassis, in competition, on 39" sticky Krawlers, with a hot V-8, he sheared all ten rear lug studs (5x5.5 pattern) on the shafts. This was the first event for the new chassis and he was pretty sure the spacers had not been torqued down. I would be willing to run spacers. Just check the lugs when you change the oil and rotate the tires.

 

[cal]

I have 2.5" blocks over the rear d60 on my (previously Goatman's) XJ using MJ leafs, spring over. There is a traction bar installed to cut down on axle wrap, but the leafs with 2.5" blocks have been installed on this XJ for many years with no problems. It gets heavily abused on 37's with a stroker, atlas, and every trail you can think of.

The blocks arent the problem, not engineering a system that uses them is the problem.

My '62 Ford F100 4x4 has 3" blocks in the rear, on top of very soft 2" wide leafs (way wimpier than XJ leafs). Factory setup, 48 years on the road, and the leafs are still in fine shape - in fact, I had to replace the housing due to wear (the leaf perches were tearing off..) but the leafs don't show any sign of block related damage.


Blocks and spacers can be an issue if they are not handled correctly, but they are not the issue people make them out to be.

 

[ArmyDad]

All sorts of good information here. Thank you, all!

 

[XJRunner]

Wheel spacers are nothing more than a band-aid for the problem of having the wrong wheel backspacing for the application at hand. The proper, correct, and strongest thing to do is to get the correct wheels for that application. The easier, cheaper, and weaker thing to do is wheel spacers.

The strongest way to mount the wheel to the axle is to bolt the wheel directly to the axle.

When you put a spacer in between the wheel and the axle mounting flange, you now have multiplied the leverage forces on the wheel flange and lug studs by having the wheel mounted further away from the flange, not to mention that almost all spacers are made of aluminum and flex because of the increased leverage and will eventually crack and/or break. It's not a matter of "if", it's a matter of "when" the spacers will break. They are the major weak link in the "chain".

And I agree about the added strain on the leaf springs from using blocks, Just DON'T USE THEM. Also a band-aid. Save your pennies and buy the proper springs.

my dads ran the same wheel spacers on his jeep with a 505hp 383 for 15 years. no cracks, broken studs or prematurely worn bearings. oh and it has 35in BFG Bajas. Heavy tires