Wheel spacers on a Defender 110XS
Discussion
I put some new tyres on the 110 making them wider from 235/86 to 285/75. This closed the clearance on the inside to just enough to get your fingers in and also changed the turning circle from river barge to oil tanker. So I got some wheel spacers.
This photo is of the car before I put them on ….
A side view ….
And a rear view ……
I then bought these off of eBay, they are made by Bulldog, a little expensive, but they had the centre placement thingy on them and made of aluminium, apparently they weight 9kg and are 30mm wide.
The instructions said that we had to make sure the hub was clean so they sit right, fortunately the car is not very old, so it still had the existing grease on the hubs etc
The fit was (obviously) perfect, having said that I’m not so sure its obvious, the times I have bought something and find that I have to modify it, to make it fit….
Torqued the nuts up to 100lbsft as detailed in the instructions.
I wanted to do this myself because TBH, I just don’t trust anyone else to do it. This was reinforced when I was taking the wheels off, of the 20 bolts holding the wheels on, 5 of them I had to stand on the wheel brace to undo them, 2 of them were hardly done up tight and 1 was almost hand-tight. My fault for not checking what a professional tyre fitter did.
This way, I could make sure the hubs were clean, the spacers sat right and all the bolts were torqued to the correct setting.
It pushed the wheels out to this view….
And this view ……
Gave the car a run and the turning circle is back to the good old river barge circle with no noises, gave me loads of space between the tyre and the suspension and so if I have to put snow chains on (and I will when I’m in the EU) then all should be fine, and I think it gives the car a better, “look”, but that is totally subjective …..
This photo is of the car before I put them on ….
A side view ….
And a rear view ……
I then bought these off of eBay, they are made by Bulldog, a little expensive, but they had the centre placement thingy on them and made of aluminium, apparently they weight 9kg and are 30mm wide.
The instructions said that we had to make sure the hub was clean so they sit right, fortunately the car is not very old, so it still had the existing grease on the hubs etc
The fit was (obviously) perfect, having said that I’m not so sure its obvious, the times I have bought something and find that I have to modify it, to make it fit….
Torqued the nuts up to 100lbsft as detailed in the instructions.
I wanted to do this myself because TBH, I just don’t trust anyone else to do it. This was reinforced when I was taking the wheels off, of the 20 bolts holding the wheels on, 5 of them I had to stand on the wheel brace to undo them, 2 of them were hardly done up tight and 1 was almost hand-tight. My fault for not checking what a professional tyre fitter did.
This way, I could make sure the hubs were clean, the spacers sat right and all the bolts were torqued to the correct setting.
It pushed the wheels out to this view….
And this view ……
Gave the car a run and the turning circle is back to the good old river barge circle with no noises, gave me loads of space between the tyre and the suspension and so if I have to put snow chains on (and I will when I’m in the EU) then all should be fine, and I think it gives the car a better, “look”, but that is totally subjective …..
2.5pi said:
Look great but won't they fail an mot on the basis they protrude beyond arch? Not sure on regs tho 
Good question and I don't know either, I took this photo .....
The, "sidewall", of the tyres sticks out by 3/8 of an inch, but the tread is obviously covered. Do we have any MOT testers on PH who could answer this question?
Crossflow Kid said:
What they will do though is spray crud up the sides of truck when it rains.
I never thought of that 
I've got big mudflaps, will that make a difference...?Having said that are there any wheel arch liners for the back? When I look up in the wheel arch, there is nothing there and had some beautful places to collect mud and as you accuratley called it, "crude"....?
MaverickV12 said:
Good question and I don't know either, I took this photo .....
The, "sidewall", of the tyres sticks out by 3/8 of an inch, but the tread is obviously covered. Do we have any MOT testers on PH who could answer this question?
I wouldn't fail it and I can't find anything about tyres protruding outside the bodywork either.The, "sidewall", of the tyres sticks out by 3/8 of an inch, but the tread is obviously covered. Do we have any MOT testers on PH who could answer this question?
MaverickV12 said:
I've got big mudflaps, will that make a difference...?Where the wheel arch eyebrow tapers off towards the bottom edge, see how much tread is visible? That's where the crud comes from. Your door mirrors are gonna get filthy.
Forget wheel arch liners. All they'll do is hide all the crud trapped in the places you've identified.
MaverickV12 said:
Hello Jagracer, I looked on your profile, but it does not say what you do, by the answer you give, I'm assuming (amoung other things) you are an MOT tester? Or that you have asked someone who is an MOT Tester.
Thanks for your clarification..
I am an MOT tester and HGV driver. I'm just going on what I would pass or fail, it may not meet C&U regs though.Thanks for your clarification..
MaverickV12 said:
Hello Jagracer, I looked on your profile, but it does not say what you do, by the answer you give, I'm assuming (amoung other things) you are an MOT tester? Or that you have asked someone who is an MOT Tester.
Thanks for your clarification..
I think it only becomes an issue if the treads/wheels as a whole are so exposed they come under the "posing a hazard to pedestrians/other road users" thing. All comes down to how the MOT man feels about it I guess.Thanks for your clarification..
mikeh501 said:
A company called mud uk do these little plastic mud deflectors for the problem you will have btw.
I've seen the thingies you mean, and they won't stop anything flung off the that part of the tread that extends beyond the outer edge of the wheel arch eyebrow. Seen it on many trucks, entire sides effectively repainted with rain, salt and mud.
C Lee Farquar said:
I guess you could fit 235/85 tyres........
Sorry, just not an option ...... TBH, if I had know how good and easy the spacers were, I might have considered some 305 tyres, maybe even 325, but that might unbalance the cars looks. the 285 fit perfectly, the only reason the spacers are there is to allow me,1) Better turning circle
2) Better internal clearance against the suspension, and thus snow chains can be used without any bother
.... a by-product of the spacers are that I, "think", the car looks better, but that is very subjective to me personally.
.... another by-product is, unfortunately, I get a load of dirty rain water up the side of the car. I have yet to see this happen, but I have yet to drive the car in a lot of rain. However, I can see the theory is sound, so i should not dismiss the gunge up the side of the car.
..... like I said, perhaps I'll only drive in the sunshine on dry tarmac .....
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