Hubcentric????

Should us jeepers be only using hubcentric wheels?
Should we go with hubcentric spacers over lugcentric aftermarket wheels?

Whats the best option? Where can I find aftermarket hubcentric wheels?

Lug centric.

Its really not that big of a deal.
Some folks insist on it, but plenty of us are fine with lug centric
The taper is sufficent.for locating the.wheel

Thanks souske. I had an oh crap moment when I ordered my new wheels. Is this something I should be really concerned about if I start to get into some more serious wheeling?

I wouldnt sweat it.
Think about it, you would still be using tapered lugs if you used a hubcentric wheel.
If the lugs were not in the right spot, you would either have to deform the spacer, bend the wheel, or have the lug not fully seat.

Hubcentric is more for smaller roadgoing cars, where a slight off center would be very noticable. After wheeling on larger agressive tires, they are going to impart way more nvh to the axle than the tiny fraction of slop we are talking about with hub vs lug centric here.

Most of the Jeepspeed crowd run American Racing Outlaw/Outlaw II wheels on stock hubs. They're all lug-centric and they don't have any problems.

Why not get some hubcentric rings for your wheels? They are $10-$20 for a set then you don't have to worry about it.
No matter how you look at it hub centric is better then lug centric rather you think its needed or not.

Here's an interesting article about hub centric vs lug centric.
http://tires.about.com/od/understanding_wheels/a/hub-centric-vs-lug-centric-wheels.htm

Great article. I am having problems identifying the measurements I would need to fit the pro comp 1069 onto my jeep... i.e. I have no clue what size hub rings to get or where to get them.

I would imagine that any tire shop should be able to set you up.

A lot of places online sell them too, there lots of different sizes on ebay.
Just use a caliper to measure your hub then measure the inside of the wheel were the hub would fit and find a ring with the same ID/OD to fill the gap.

So if its really as critical as claimed in that article, a cheezy plastic ribg can bear the weight, but 5, 1/2" steel studs cannot?

You can get the rings in metal too.

Either way its better then lug centric alone and its cheap so why not?

I agree its not going to hurt anything

I just dont believe the hype about the wheels studs not being able to handle the load.
The studs clamp.the wheel to the hub, the friction between hub and wheel provided by the clamping.force bears the load.

As long as you follow proper torquing procedures, its pretty difficult to snug the wheel down off center

Is there some secret tire and wheel committee that I don't know about? I can never find exactly what information I need.

Is there a discount tire near you?
They can order you the right size rings

When I worked for them 10 years ago, we only ever installed the ribgs on japanese and german cars.
Having them on.there isnt going to hurt anything. Its really up to you

smiley said:

Is there some secret tire and wheel committee that I don't know about? I can never find exactly what information I need.

Click to expand...

First rule of : never talk about the secret committees. :gag:

souske said:

I agree its not going to hurt anything

I just dont believe the hype about the wheels studs not being able to handle the load.
The studs clamp.the wheel to the hub, the friction between hub and wheel provided by the clamping.force bears the load.

As long as you follow proper torquing procedures, its pretty difficult to snug the wheel down off center

Click to expand...

I have seen lug studs that sheared off, but I would chalk them up to overtightening. I have never seen a wheel that has sheared off all of the lug studs and gone bye-bye.

Maybe I haven't lived long enough, yet.

souske said:

So if its really as critical as claimed in that article, a cheezy plastic ribg can bear the weight, but 5, 1/2" steel studs cannot?

Click to expand...

The ring is for centering. It bares no weight. All the stress is on the lugs.

So here's the basic scoop as I see the world of wheels.

Factory wheels are lug centric. Yes, the center hole is the size of the hub and will center the wheel, but if the hole wallows out, or you put a Ford wheel on a Jeep, all is good because the lugs will center it.

Most aftermarket wheels are lug centric even though you can get a hub adapter to shrink the center and make it like a factory wheel. The centering ring ensures that even of you have a smaller lug than the holes are drilled for, things will be happy. However, because of the lug taper, lugs will center in the hole anyway.

An example of a hub centric wheel is a slotted mag. The wheel is made to fit most any car with 5 lug nuts and the lug area is a slot not a hole. These wheels did need an adapter ring to center the wheel. If you mounted them without a centering adapter, the results were sometimes interesting.

The only lug issues I have seen have been user created. They installed a aluminum wheel with a lug that was too short and only gripping by a few threads; then torqued to spec.
-Ron

Gotta be careful switching brands, I had to file out the centerbore of a set of exploder rims to fit them over jeep hubs about a year ago.

souske said:

I agree its not going to hurt anything

I just dont believe the hype about the wheels studs not being able to handle the load.
The studs clamp.the wheel to the hub, the friction between hub and wheel provided by the clamping.force bears the load.

As long as you follow proper torquing procedures, its pretty difficult to snug the wheel down off center

Click to expand...

Agreed.

Torque all nuts barely past hand tight in star pattern, continue around in star pattern adding a bit of torque to each. I like to wiggle the wheel/kick as I spin the first 3 lugs down (in star pattern, basically the first 3 you would tighten) to make sure it is seating right.

Then crank em down to whatever you normally set yours to, again in a star pattern.

I have probably done this a hundred times now over the last few years with zero problems.

I've been running Jeep wheels on my Toyota (lugcentric) for over a decade with no problems.

5 grade-8 1/2" bolts in single shear fail at over 88,000 lbs. I believe wheel studs are an even greater grade. Even grade 2 bolts (5) fail at over 43,000 lbs. Somehow I don't see a 3-4,000 lb Jeep exceeding that.