15" Steel Wheel Backspacing for Facelift R50s

[cham]

I'm looking at a set of 15x8 D-hole steel wheels but the seller doesn't remember the backspacing.  I could not find any definitive answers on what offset/backspacing would prevent the wheel from rubbing the calipers of a facelift Pathfinder.  I'm curious if anyone knows the limit of offset that will work for my 2002.  Sounds like for 8" wheels, 3.75" backspacing has always worked.  It also seems that 4" should work as well.  What about 4.25" or 4.5", anyone tried it?  I'll try to measure it while I'm there.

 

I think I'm going to bring a floor jack too and check fitment at the sellers place before I leave.  I know you can grind the caliper down a little so how much rubbing is okay?

Edited June 6, 2023 by cham

[Slartibartfast]

I'm no help on backspacing, but I would want more than bare minimum clearance on the brakes. My dad had a set of winter rims/tires for his Tundra which sat pretty close to the calipers. Most of the time, they were fine, but now and then they'd make a racket like the world was ending. Near as I could work out, this was due to a rock or something getting caught in between the caliper and the rim. It never tore off a caliper or punched a hole in a rim, but the noise scared us pretty bad once or twice. Also keep in mind that the calipers may stick out more with new pads on them, so what barely clears now may not clear after your next brake job.

[cham]

I think that is a fair statement, especially since I do take my vehicle on trails in the backcountry.  If it has 4" of backspacing or less I'll probably take them since I've seen success from people with those numbers.  Also I'll check fitment and if it rubs at all, then I'll probably move on.  If it doesn't that's a plus and in combination with grinding a little more material off the caliper I'm guessing that sort of clearance is acceptable.  I did read on another post what you mention about caliper pads altering clearance; 15" wheels just look ideal with 31" tires ugh.  

[cham]

For anyone interested I'll share my current situation and experience for any others who happen across this thread.  I picked up the wheels I had been looking into; unfortunately the buyer did not know the brand or backspacing/offset.  Turns out they were 4" backspacing 15x8 black D hole steel wheels.  The more I looked into it I found that CT&W was inscribed on the wheel which is the manufacturer for Cragar wheels.  I called up Cragar and confirmed these were in fact theirs but their D hole design is essentially identical to other brands.

 

After test fitting the wheel, it very narrowly missed the front calipers.  I mean very narrowly.  I'd guess it has a clearance of 2mm at best and this is with three year old pads.  New pads would definitely rub; in my opinion it's not worth it.  I'll more than likely be going a different route now as 3.75" backspacing will probably create to much fender rub in the front and the look is not quite my taste.  I mention this because I figure most all D-hole steel 15x8 wheels will run into this issue and I'm assuming the similarly designed Soft 8 wheels. 

 

If you're thinking about going this route in the future; stick to 3.75" backspacing for 15x8 steelies or go up to 16s and have fun with the backspacing.  If you found aluminum wheels in a 15x8 with a semi-large offset they'll actually probably work because it's the recess in the steel wheel around its circumference that causes the issue; most alloy wheels don't incorporate this into the design.  

 

[cham]

Anyone know if you can use Mag Shank nut wheels on an originally Acorn/conical vehicle?  Are the nuts for the Lego wheels M12x1.25?  Pretty sure the torque specs are the same at 100ft/lbs.

[XPLORx4]

Mag shank lug nuts are usually used for hub-centric wheels. Acorn-style nuts are typically used for lug-centric wheels. Unless you have wheels that are hub-centric, I would stick to acorn nuts. Also, I'm curious why you want to use 15" wheels instead of 16". The tire selection for 15" wheels is quite a bit more limited on 15's. It seems that many newer AT tires are only available for wheels as small as 16 and/or 17, but not 15.

[cham]

In my personal opinion I find 31x10.5x15s to be the ideal tire size for our rigs.  The sidewall ratio is more ideal for airing down offroad, not to mention proportionally it just looks better with 15s.  Any bigger in tire size and in my opinion its a negative return of investment with the amount of supporting mods needed to accommodate.  My factory wheels are of course hub centric and lug centric so I was actually going to use some WD21 15x7 lego wheels since they have the same hub bore and some hub-centric/lug-centric Bora spacers to get them to clear the caliper.  I've since changed my mind simply because of the amount of moving parts needed to make it work.  In addition I think I will be changing platforms here sometime soon so no sense in doing trimming to a factory rig.

 

For anyone interested in the future, there was another user "bushnut" who did this exact setup.  He used hardbody lego wheels with 31x10.5x5 tires and 1.25" wheel spacers to clear his 2000 facelift Calipers.  Not sure if there was another alteration of caliper size between 2000 and onward but personally I think 1.5" or 1.75" spacers would look a little better anyway.  For reference, that would get you in the realm of 4.5"-4.25" of backspacing with a regular 15x8 steel wheel.