I have been asking myself this same question for 6 months now. I would like to keep stock wheels but push them out as well. I actually bought some 1 1/4 adapters from H&R Spring and had them on the truck for about 1 month. Everything seemed to be fine, I just chickened out and took them off. The only thing you will notice with adapters is more "road feel" and more "scrub". When you use adapters you will increase the scrub radius so when you turn you will hear/feel the tires more. I am trying to find somebody I trust to tell me that adapters are safe because I would like to go back to them. From what I have found out so far, you are not actually putting more stress on the lugs, just the ball joints and wheel bearings. You are moving the load on the bearings out an inch which could cause premature failure. But offset wheels do the same thing. All the stress on the lugs come from sheer force, and you are not changing that with adapters. Also, if you are going to use stock rims (or rims that are hub centric) then make sure you get adapters that are hub centric to the hub AS WELL as the wheel. The adapters from H&R Spring are only hub centric to the hub, not the wheel. One more thing, make sure you specify that you want to use ADAPTERS not spacers. Spacers are NOT safe. I think that when you say spacers (and mean adapters) people will say that they are not safe. Or I could be completely wrong about all of this. I would really like to know what DJ thinks about the use of ADAPTERS.
|