quote:

Originally posted by 41:
My thinking is that the hub ring is used to just help install the wheel and has little or no bearing on the wheel load transferred to the axle.

No. you're right they have nothing to do with the load transfer, you are 100% wrong thinking they have anything to do with making a wheel easier to install. the rings are exactly what they sound like. They make up the difference in the size between the hub and the inside of the center of an off the shelf wheel.

Custom wheels are cut per vehicle.. the offset, hub size, etc are machined based on the car the whee is going on, off the shelf wheels like American racing, enkei, etc. come in a handful of sizes and offsets and people use spacers and hubcentric rings to make them fit specific applications. They have zero to do with ease of installation.

quote:

Originally posted by Jaywendland1981:
You're overthinking this, the wheel is kept straight on the hub by the lugnuts. The plastic centering ring is just that, a centering ring. You'll be just fine without it, just like the 1000s of cars and big ass lifted trucks I've seen without them.

No... the wheel is kept straight on the hub by the hubcentric ring. The wheel is kept from falling off the hub by the lugnuts. Anyone that reccomends aftermarket wheels that aren't machined to fit the vehicle they're going on without hubcenteic rings doesn't know what they're talking about. It's like putting a 17" tire on an 18" wheel and saying it'll work because all tires are meant to go on wheels; if it's not made specifically for that application you'll need an adaptor to make it fit right.

I'm all for having the rings installed, but as I said in my update post yesterday on page 1, the new rings that just arrived are the wrong size. They fit nicely on the hub but are too large to go into the wheel. So I have no rings on the front now. I've driven the car for the last month without rings and will need to continue doing so until I can get the correct size. But the wheel certainly doesn't feel like it is too large for the hub. My seat-of-the-pants assessment is that the fit is near perfect. Without adding the lug nuts the wheels is not wobbling about on the hub.

My son-in-law has a 3D printer. Maybe I can him to make some rings for me. I guess I need to break down and get a set of calipers and measure the diameter of the wheel hole.