Tire Shops and Wheel Spacers

av8r_bray

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Sep 18, 2019
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Denver
Looking at running wheel spacers for 35's on a TJ. I routinely hear tire shops won't touch a jeep with spacers... a nice benefit of many tire shops is the free re-balance for the life of the tire, something often needed with offroad tires... Do people actually experience this tire shops? If so what do you do? Just take your wheels off and take them into the shop for a rebalance? Do they still do it free if its not on the jeep?
 
I've been going to the same Discount Tire for 8 years. At least half of that time, the Jeep has had bolt on spacers. Only once has a anyone there questioned them during a rebalance and rotation. I told the guy that no one has ever cared in the past and the manager and I have specifically discussed them. Where is Paul? That was the end of it and I got my rebalance rotation done. Basically, I pulled a Karen. 🤣
 
I have TJ to JK adapters on the front only. I had one tire shop break them and then another refuse to work with them. Luckily there is one tire shop near by that also owns a Off-road shop. They will do beadlocks and spacers if needed.

Though if possible, I'd avoid spacers. If you can get different wheels that don't need spacers, do that.
 
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Walk into the service bay and see how they are installing and removing tires. If they are using torque-sticks or a torque wrench for tightening. I would be half confident with them doing the job.
 
My local mom and pop has no problems with my wheel spacers. But….when I asked them to put 26psi in the tires they would only put in 35. Then proceeded to lecture me on tire pressure and over heating the tires. I just smiled took it home and dropped the pressure to 26.
They didn’t even flinch on the wheel spacers.
 
My local mom and pop has no problems with my wheel spacers. But….when I asked them to put 26psi in the tires they would only put in 35. Then proceeded to lecture me on tire pressure and over heating the tires. I just smiled took it home and dropped the pressure to 26.
They didn’t even flinch on the wheel spacers.

I've seen this too. Some tire shops want to go 35 or higher. That's a good sign that it's not the right shop.
 
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During a (free) rotate & balance, they told me they 'tightened' my spacers for me.
I did not appreciate that since I had gone to the trouble of properly mounting and torqueing them the way I wanted.
After that, I clearly marked the stud/nut with paint so they could see there was no need to touch them.
 
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what do you think about 35's on a 4" suspension lift on stock Rubi rims. stock 4:10 manual trans 04 TJ