Vredestein tires & Spacers

I am looking for a set of rims/tires for my 355.

I am talking with a vendor selling rims that will fit this car, they are brand new, but no name brand... he says that if my brakes are too big i will need spacers, which are included in the price. (as are the lugs)

What are the disadvantages of spacers?

Additionally: the brand of tires on there, i have not heard of, they are "Vredestein tires". Any opinions on these?

Thanks in advance.

 

Bimmian,

The Vredesteins were very good (at least as snow tires) when I owned them. Had them on an Audi in Colorado for several winters. Excellent grip. Good wear. Noise was acceptable.

As far as the spacers go, well, are they hub- or wheel-centric? If they're hub centric, it shouldn't make any difference whatsoever from what I can gather. If they're wheel-centric, they require lengthened lug bolts. Lengthened lug bolts are subject to more forces of leverage (think of the spacer as a fulcrum) and are more stressed. Hence, they wear out faster and can break if made of poor quality materials.

I have spacers on my wheels and have never had an issue, although, it is also rumored that the wheel hubs may wear out faster with spacers than without.

I don't think it would be a problem, but certainly there may be additional issues I may not be aware of.

CW

 

Thanks for your insight... i think they are probably wheel centric ones, although i dont fully understand what hub centric would be.. These ones do use lengthened bolts.

Any other opinions on this?

Thanks

 

Bimmian,

Is sounds like you have wheel-centric hubs (with the longer lugbolts). The hub centric spacers mount onto the hub (with shortened bolts and then you use your own lugbolts to mount the wheel to the spacer I believe) as opposed to mounting the spacers to the back side of the wheel.

You might consider posting this question in a tuners forum. I think you'd get more replies from the BMW, Audi or even Honda forums on spacers. Not a big mod for Ferrari owners.

I will tell you that there is a line of thinking that if you need spacers to make the wheels fit, then you shouldn't buy the wheels as they were not manufactured specifically for your car and this is a stopgap fix to make them fit. Small-batch manufacturers produce a design and then manufacture them in a couple of widths and sizes. However, they're not always the correct offset for every car. Thus, the need for spacers. There are those who believe that if they're not designed and manufactured from the onset to go on the car, then you shouldn't. It's true, though, that as the revolutions go up at faster speeds, the forces exerted on the lugbolts, spacers and hubs will increase. This could, of course, lead to a catastrophic failure of the wheel hub. However, I would think that the average speeds at which we can operate our cars at, you're safely within the metallurgical limits of the lugbolts and hubs.

CW

 

I have Vredestein snows and they're schfantastic.

 

Thanks very much for your input. Sounds like i should just get proper rims, i dont want to take any risks with my safety.
Thanks

 

See my posts in the following thread for good pictures of the rims, spacers, Vredestein tires, etc. The spacers are likely the same ones coming in your package, and they're hub-centric. Work fine on my 456.

Pics about half-way down on this page:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=118629&page=2

 

Imagine an axis going through the centers of the upper and the lower ball joints of the front wheel, this axis will hit the road at P1.
Let's call the middle of the contact area of the tire with the ground P2.
A car manufacturer designs the geometry of the frontweels in such a way that P1 coincides with P2.

This is done by purpose, because when one front wheel hits an obstacle over the full width, no force to the steering wheel is transferred.

Adding a spacer means that P1 no longer coinciceds with P2.
Hitting an object now in the same way as above, will create a momentum of the bump force times the distance from P1 to P2.

To make a long story short, the more offset you apply to your wheel, the more vibrations you will experience in your steering wheel, and the more nervous your car will drive.

 

That is actually a pretty rational sounding explaination.
Thanks for your help. I guess spacers should just be avoided, and i have already made that decision.

Thanks guys

 

Ian - for what it's worth, when I had a small repair shop in upstate NY, I also sold tires.

Having sold/mounted/balanced over 400 Vredesteins, I can honestly say that they were some of the best quality tires I've ever sold (and, I also still use them).

I purchased mine from Eurotire in New Jersey.

If they are available in size and speed ratings suitable for your car, I would not hesitate to use them.

Bob Z.

 

This discussion is precisely correct, though the more accurate term to use throughout would be "offset". In the application with my rims, spacers were used to achieve the factory offset, hence, you avoid the problem stated above.

Just because spacers are used in an application does not necessarily imply that the offset has changed. Many of the cheaper (Chinese) rim manufacturers produce rims with very low offsets so that the rim along with an appropriate spacer can then be used across a variety of platforms.

This is economical for the manufacturer in that they don't have to produce molds and inventory for a wide variety of offsets; a single rim can fit many vehicles. The downside is you have to order the proper spacer to bring the rim back to the correct offset.