Even offset wheels wear front end components. The same amount of leverege is applied to the bearings etc when you have a 4.5"backspaced wheel and a 5.5" backspaced wheel with a 1" spacer.
In the case where stock wheels of 5.75"BS w/1" spacers will be less pressure exerted on the hubs than the norm of putting on 4.5"BS aftermarket wheels.
The leverage is still outwards from the centerline.

 

Man there is a ton of guys that are running 1/4" spacers on 3rd gen ram, 4th gen ram, ford, chevys etc without a single issue, dont let these guys scare you off. Now if you looking to go wider than a 1/4" then you possibly need to look at differnet offset wheels etc, or adapter/spacer. Even guys on here and other forums that go with different offset wheels a lot of times still have to run 1/4" spacers with there wider mud tires because they hit.

 

I know a lot of guys who run them - but I also personally know two guys who have had them fail. One of which got to watch his wheel/tire pass him on an exit ramp off of I75 in Atlanta.

Personally, I would buy a wheel with the proper backspacing for the look I wanted...

 

Any QUALITY brand of spacers out there that might be up to the task of daily driving and occasional off road experience? I was looking at 1 1/2 inch aluminum spacers from 4wheelparts.com. I am going for appearance without sacrificing too much functionality.

 

If they are small thin spacers, I dont see the issue. Anything over 1" thick and I personally would start to feel uneasy. But then again, Ive never had any. However, my vote does go to doing ot right the first time and getting wider rims and tires.

 

I work in an auto shop.

I personally see at least two trucks a week with wheel spacers that have failed and broken off all the studs. Its not safe period. Its bad enough that 90 percent of tire shops now have a policy that they wont touch your truck if it has spacers. The problem is not the spacer the problem is its impossible to correctly torque the wheels. Which results in lug shear. Torquing wheels is a big deal. Big enough that the procedure to so properly included buffing the rust off the rotor hat because any small amount of anything between the wheel and hub will not allow the proper torque to be set. I wouldnt risk my life personally for a wider look.

 

Yeah there's a couple of guys on here that think it's their business telling people what they can or can't own based on their own biased opinions of what a truck is and what they think it should be used for. It's your money, you do what makes you happy.

 

It's a mix of cheap spacers and people not installing them correctly that they et a bad rep. You can most certainly torque them properly as long as the studs are seated from behind properly. Many times they aren't pulled through 100% and that can lead to a wheel nut coming loose. I've purchased a few sets where the studs hadn't been seated properly and they take more than the 120 or so ft/lbs needed to torque the wheels to seat them all the way. A press is really needed so the threads dont get all twisted.
The biggest thing is people never pull their wheels off entirely to re-torque the spacers after the first 100 miles. It's an out of sight out of mind type of deal.

Bottom line. Spacers are safe for the driver if they are quality built and properly tightened/torqued. They are not good for the wheel bearings as they place more stress on them. Same goes for smaller backspaced wheels.

 

Thanks guys. This truck will be my Zombie Apocalypse survival machine, so thank you in helping me choose durability against appearance.