Hub Centering Rings

really good idea but lots of people run without and have no issues they know of.

use Aluminum, not plastic.
 
I highly recommend them for racing. They shift the shear load from the wheel studs to the hub itself. With the way some of us bang curbs and rumble stips, it can only be a benefit. Use aluminium ones. The plastic ones can melt or deform from the heat transfered through the hubs.
 
Anyone know where I can buy alum ones? I just refuse to use the plastic ones for the reasons mentioned above. Thanks, Mickey
 
Unless they are available OTC, many times you need to have someone make them in Aluminum.

Don't worry about the plastic ones, they will work better than you think...and they are cheap!
 
joeg said:
Unless they are available OTC, many times you need to have someone make them in Aluminum.
Click to expand...

That's what I did for myself and a friend. We both use the Enkei RFP1
wheels.
Just this past weekend I made a a pair of one piece wheel/hubcentric spacers for the front of my car. Now the hub spacer stays on the rotor all the time. I'm thinking of making a pair for the rear to keep the track the same. The spacers were made because I found that the tires rubed on the struts when it they were set to max neg. camber. The spacers are only .250 thick. I made them from 1/2 alum. plate cut into 5.5 inch circles then rough drilled a center hole. The rest of the work was done on my lathe with the holes for the studs done on the drill press.
 
The H & R Wheel spacers are really nice units and might be an option if you want to increase track and need to remain hub-centric.
The 10mm and wider spacers have the integrated hub centering ring
I think Tire Rack carries these. If I recall I ordered mine thru King but that was 7 years ago. Mine still work great.

http://www.trakplus.com/
 
As a point of data, never used them in 15 years of racing civics, del sol,and Teg R including about 10 6 to 12 hour endurance races. Never had a problem.

please note; your results may vary.
 
A quick search on amazon.com showed a few, as well as Ebay.

Some of them are made by Enkei, so maybe Enkei has part numbers on their website. haven't bothered to look.

I have a couple sets made of steel, and RTV'd them into my two sets of dry-weather wheels. that way I don't have to worry about loose pieces falling out, and I can still remove them easily with a screwdriver and a whack from the hammer.

That said, I've used them on and off in various track cars for 10+ years and have yet to have a wheel stud failure of any sort. (Using NISMO, H&R, and ARP wheel studs)..
 
Tristan Smith said:
I highly recommend them for racing. They shift the shear load from the wheel studs to the hub itself. With the way some of us bang curbs and rumble stips, it can only be a benefit. Use aluminium ones. The plastic ones can melt or deform from the heat transfered through the hubs.
Click to expand...

They won't do squat for carrying load. The load is carried by the friction between the hub and the wheel faces, that is caused by tightening the lug nuts. Each tightened lug nut causes a clamping force of approximately 9,000 lbs.

In order for the hub centric rings to carry any of the load, they would have to press fit onto the hub, and your wheel press fit onto them. If there is a gap of even 0.002" they aren't going to carry any load.


My wheel centers are about 0.5" bigger than my hubs and have never had a problem. Tighten the lugs evenly and you won't have a problem.
 
true in a perfect world but:

1. center rings help get the wheel on straight where the lugs might not, particularly due to the friction between the wheel and hub mating faces, gauges in the lug seats, and other real world factors. so the ring helps the wheel run true, consistently, without a lot of work in getting there.

2. large, sudden ("jerk") loads happen, both linearly and in rotation. wide heat cycles happen. vibration happens, a lot. corrosion happens. etc. wheels can and do shift small amounts on the hub face even when torqued correctly. spacers make that likelihood higher. Shifted wheels don't shift far, and less so when there's a hub center ring to stop them.
 
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