what are wheel spacers for?

 

IMO, they are to correct offset differences between what a car requires and what the wheel going on provides.

Also, if you have the clearance, they can be used to make a wider stance for more stability.

Now I'll let someone who knows tell you

 

I think it copes for improper backspacing when you put on a larger wheel.

 

Very simple - they are to widen the track, (i.e. widen the stance of the car).

 

Ken's response (both of his answers) is correct, although the wider stance isn't necessarily for stability, per se. The wider track can be used to alter handling characteristics. For example, you could widen the track at the rear (relative to baseline) to reduce oversteer. Or, you could widen track at the front (relative to baseline) to reduce understeer.

 

I believe spacers are a hack. They can be done so as to
minimize the resultant decrease in structural integrity,
such as when they are bolted to the wheel and the wheel
is separately bolted to the spacers, or they can significantly
weaken the wheel-hub structure if the wheel is bolted to
the hub with longer studs running through a spacer.
The functional intent is to relocate the wheels outward
for clearance, handling, or cosmetic reasons.
If the intent is wheel/tire clearance, the better. more expensive
solution is to obtain a wheel with the correct backspacing to
place the rim and tire where desired.
If the intent is for handling, the same alternative of an
appropriately backspaced wheel is better. A wider track makes
the widened end of the car stick better because for a given
G force corner, there is less weight transfer to the outside
wheel. Sometimes the structure of a wheel that would get the
change in track would be unsound structurally itself. Then,
and perhaps ideally (and of course more expensively), the
suspension components should be lengthened to obtain the
added track.
If the intent is cosmetic, God help us... Chaq'un sans goute...
Joe
(malaprop intended)

 

Joe is essentially correct. However, sometimes, in racing applications the rules permit the use of a spacer, but not the use of a change in backspacing. Strange, but true... In any event, there are times when spacers make sense, despite the fact that the are suboptimal.

P.S. I guess this is probably way more than the original poster wanted to know...

 

One important issue was missed in the above posts. Why would you want to incorporate the spacer as part of the wheel? This adds a lot of unnecessary weight. I bought S Car Go Spacers because over a third of the weight is machined away without the loss of structural integerity. My car is not only set up with wider tires/wheels (265/35's on 9.5"- fronts and 315/30's on 12'- rears) but also use 10 and 12 mm S Car Go spacers.)

 

Chad!
You are leading the way in highest-quality solutions. I am
confident you could get what you want, and better-done
without spacers. I am guessing that you could measure the
width of your spacer, and then ask Fikse or other such wheel
vendor to make you a wheel with the same dimensions as
you're running, except having the hub that much closer to
the car: Presto! no spacer needed.
Joe

 

The sport techno wheels on my car have spacers on the back wheels which are straight from the factory. Why would Porsche use them if they cause such problems. Further, if they couldn't find a way around using the spacers, and they have substatially more R&D dollars than any of us, how could anyone else??

-Lou

 

Good question! I would question them on this, but I assume
it is because they aren't presenting these wheels for
competition/heavy-duty use. *I* would consider the
spacers a kludge.

Yes they could (easily), as I described, by getting the wheel built
with the correct backspacing from the start, like they do with the
stock wheels. It's likely Porsche wants to sell these same wheels
for a number of different cars, and it is cheaper to provide
spacers to fit them to some cars, as opposed to having to make
a full line of precisely-fitting wheels for each model of car.
Call Fikse or any other high quality custom racing wheel
manufacturer. They will happily, easily make a wheel with the
same dimensions as the 'sport techno', but with an offset that
will remove the need for the spacer. like the stock wheel.
Joe

 

Yes they could (easily), as I described, by getting the wheel built
with the correct backspacing from the start, like they do with the
stock wheels. It's likely Porsche wants to sell these same wheels
for a number of different cars, and it is cheaper to provide
spacers to fit them to some cars, as opposed to having to make
a full line of precisely-fitting wheels for each model of car.
Call Fikse or any other high quality custom racing wheel
manufacturer. They will happily, easily make a wheel with the
same dimensions as the 'sport techno', but with an offset that
will remove the need for the spacer. like the stock wheel.
Joe [/B][/QUOTE]

Joe,

That's a good point I never thought of. Porsche does sell the Techno wheel across the line. As a matter of fact, unlike the standard Turbo wheel, the Techno wheel fits directly on the narrow body cars without changing the rear wheel width whereas, the standard Turbo wheel will not fit the narrow body cars unless a smaller rear is used.


-Lou

 

There it is then. As long as the spacers are bolted on clean
and tight with LokTite, and you're not racing, you're probably
fine. If I were racing or running extra-powered, I'd avoid
spacers and an unnecessary extra link to worry about.
Joe

 

Joe,

If the spacers are part of the wheel, then you are carring a lot of extra weight. The spacers I use are milled out and extremely light.

I am not going to credit the spacers for everything, but the handling of this car boarders on insane. You would literally be ready to bail out on turn approaches. S Car Go Racing did an outrageous job in setting up this chassis.

Ask sharkster for a real life commentary.

 

The wheel wouldn't 'have the spacer be part of the wheel'.
The hub would be just the same size and weight as yours is
now, just moved over relative to the rim, by the width of the
spacer, making the spacer unnecessary.
The issue isn't weight, it is wheel-attached-to-spacer-and-
spacer-attached-to-hub vs wheel-to-hub. The extra link adds
a failure possibility.
I'm sure your care handles very well. My concern is the
stress your powerful engine puts on the unnecessary link
between the power and the road.

Joe