Can you flip stock steel rims inside out?

[delicat]

I have a set of stock steel rims that I think could still fit if I mounted them inside out (the side that face the hub would now face the outside...)

Doing so would give me a smaller offset and a much desirable wider stance, especially with the skinny tires currently mounted on the rims. I don't think I'd try that with alloy rims but with steelies...

Any ideas?

[Luna-Sea]

I think you would be better off with spacer no?
Flippin em is an old school rat rod trick,but I
Don't know how safe it is.
Some people are terrified of spacers too,but properly
Intalled and torqued and maintained they should be ok.


Right On!

[jessef]

I don't see an issue so long as the face of the wheel that sits against the hub is symetrical (both sides the same) and your fine with the valve stem facing inside the wheel.

[EnviroImports.com]

also, are your holes for your lug nuts "dished"? so the lug nut locks into place with a sort of flare? are you thinking of just going with hub caps? so its not so clear your running your rims inside out ? I would think its a pretty quick way to get an inspection notice, but I guess it depends on what is viewable....

[Golf Cart]

Go with spacers. That is my plan. The cost looks like $200 for all 4 corners

[delicat]

Cool, thanks guys!

Don't want to spend anything, more like an experiment and maybe a way to save my Mud tires for city driving... Plus I'd like to feel how quick Mitsushi would get from going 31" to 29"...

[Green1]

Go with spacers. That is my plan. The cost looks like $200 for all 4 corners

Whatever you do, NEVER use spacers! there's a post on this forum somewhere from someone who learned this the hard way when his wheel fell off on the road
They greatly increase the forces on your lugs and are a safety nightmare.

[thedjjack]

Tapered holes would be the problem I see.

Personally for the price of spacers I would look for steel rims with the proper off-set.

I have heard bad things about spacers....Twice as many bolts holding on a wheel does seem to open up the door for bad things to happen.

BC4x4 has a big Toyota crowd, you can usually find good 6 bolts rims there cheep.

[audi4life20v]

Spacers should be fine, if there was a huge scare then no one would use em eh? Just find a good set and not some ebay set and I dont see an issue. Alot of the VW guys use em and those are for mounting Biiiig 9.5" wide wheels on a lil mk3! on top of that the suspentions are made of rocks so shock loads are probably huuge!

Get a set, torque em, re torque em and your good to go. The previously mentioned story probably didnt have his/her tires retorqued and if a shop installed em they might said ohhh one torque is good nuff and never bothed to inform said customer to come back to ger them done, or cheep quality. ect ect.

That and with spacers/adaptors you now have a limitless list of rims to chose from!

[delicat]

One has to remember who had the "spacer incident" and that would explain a lot! Sarcasm aside I agree that spacers are a good option as long as you remain aware of their needs ie. torque maintenance...

Cheers!

[Golf Cart]

Go with spacers. That is my plan. The cost looks like $200 for all 4 corners

Whatever you do, NEVER use spacers! there's a post on this forum somewhere from someone who learned this the hard way when his wheel fell off on the road
They greatly increase the forces on your lugs and are a safety nightmare.

Have you ever used spacers?

[Green1]

Have you ever used spacers?

There are many things that I have never done, but don't need to to know they are a very bad idea. The incident I was referring to with wheels falling off after using spacers is certainly not an isolated incident and it is very easy to find many such instances if you look around.

One has to remember who had the "spacer incident" and that would explain a lot! Sarcasm aside I agree that spacers are a good option as long as you remain aware of their needs ie. torque maintenance...

funny, you weren't such a fan of them a couple years ago when you posted in this thread:

DO NOT USE SPACERS!
DANGEROUS!

More glowing reviews of spacers can be found in this thread and again in this thread here and of course the "incident in question" where in all the threads the BEST thing anyone was able to say about them was that the high end ones would be acceptable, but would increase wear on ball joints and bearings, and that anything less than the high end ones would be dangerous....

[psilosin]

the high end ones would be acceptable, but would increase wear on ball joints and bearings

It doesen't make a difference if you widen track using spacers or a wheel with a different offset...both will result in increased wear from higher stresses from the increased radius...so that's an irrelevant point in the pro/con debate.

[cobsweb]

Hey David,
maybe these rims will work for you?

http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/van/p ... 03812.html

[jessef]

When it comes to wheel spacers, you get what you pay for.

Cheap aluminum spacers are susceptible to cracking and there is a proven track record on them.

High grade aluminum or cold rolled steel machined spacers that have been tested for shear and crack tolerances are an option however they usually cost as much or more than a set of cheap steel rims.

People that pay for good quality spacers usually use them on rims that are not available for their required offset or the rims are just too expensive to replace hence the spacers.

You can use Toyota 6 on 5.5 spacers.

My last set of aluminum machined 1.25" wheel spacers cost me $480 for four but they are excellent quality and will probably outlast the rims they are spacing out.