Is there any difference between putting wheel spacers in rather than having wheels with more back spacing (besides having a deeper dish wheel)?
Seems to me any more stress on the bearings or changes to the turn radius would be the same for either option. Comments?
For what it's worth, I have read many many times people concerned or telling other people to be concerned about bearing stress or turning radius with different offset wheels.
My dad's '52 with an S-10 frame is running 8" wheels with 3.5" backspace on the front and has over 20,000 KM's (12,500 miles) on the truck since built with absolutely no chassis issues. The truck has a 454 in it, and the bearings were checked and repacked but not replaced when the truck was built and are still tight and have no issue. The rear runs 10" wheels with 3.75" backspacing with 285/70 tires on the stock S-10 rear end, with no issues either. My 46 is over 6300 KM (3900 miles), with the same wheel and tires sizes and offsets and the same result.
All those with concern about bearing life because of wheel offset might want to keep this in mind.
