Wheel spacers for Rally

[HotDuck]

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone tried spacers with the factory wheels and if so, what width did you go with.

Thanks!

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[pghguins]

I was curious about this as well. I wanted to know if anyone had fit a wider tire. I was thinking of running a summer set wider tire and switch to the stock for fall/winter since we do get some snow where I am.

 

[markboris]

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone tried spacers with the factory wheels and if so, what width did you go with.

Thanks!

It all depends on how thick of a spacer you want and which factory wheel you have. Ford has made over 15 different factory wheels for the Mach-E and they are all different in the rear of the wheel. Some accept the studs to protrude into them and others do not. The only way you would be able to tell is if you remove the wheel and look at the rear of it. If you go with a 25mm or thicker spacer, all of the factory wheels should fit. If you go with spacers that are 20mm or less in thickness, you may be able to drill out some shallow holes in the rear of the wheel to accept the studs that will come through the thiner spacer.

 

[markboris]

I was curious about this as well. I wanted to know if anyone had fit a wider tire. I was thinking of running a summer set wider tire and switch to the stock for fall/winter since we do get some snow where I am.

There are a ton of us, me included, that have wider wheels/tires on our cars. Not sure what your question is about spacers.

 

[pghguins]

There are a ton of us, me included, that have wider wheels/tires on our cars. Not sure what your question is about spacers.

Maybe I didn't word that right. Admittedly new to the concept of non-factory tire sizes.
I guess a spacer isn't needed to fit a wider tire. I need to explore a little more on the wheel and tire section.

 

[markboris]

Maybe I didn't word that right. Admittedly new to the concept of non-factory tire sizes.
I guess a spacer isn't needed to fit a wider tire. I need to explore a little more on the wheel and tire section.

James, there are several of us here that can answer any questions you may have. Always here to help!

 

[HotDuck]

Thanks for the replies guys. I have the Rally model with the 19" rally inspired wheels. I've decided to get a set of HRE wheels instead of spacers.

 

[markboris]

Markboris nailed the important part: it really depends on which factory wheel you have. Ford changed the backside of the Mach-E wheels more than people realize — some have pockets deep enough for the studs, some don’t. I’ve got the factory 18s on my Premium and had to pull a wheel off and flip it over before I even ordered anything.

For most factory setups, 25mm is the safe starting point for the reason markboris said: the spacer is thick enough that the studs don’t poke through into the wheel cavity. If you want to go thinner than that, you’re basically signing up to either check for stud clearance or do a little careful spot-facing on the back of the wheel. I started at 20mm, got annoyed, and ended up at 25mm.

Before I picked a thickness I read this article on [what wheel spacers do to Mach-E offset] — it walks through how each millimeter pushes the wheel outward and what it does to your scrub radius. Helped me stop guessing and actually measure.

A couple of real-world notes from a few hundred miles:

• Stick to hub-centric spacers, not the generic slip-ons. The Mach-E is heavy and torquey enough that you’ll feel any vibration.

• Look for forged wheel spacers in 6061-T6 or 7075-T6, and ignore anything that just says "aircraft aluminum" without real numbers.

• A best quality set with proper studs and grade 10.9 hardware is cheaper than one ruined wheel bearing.

• Torque to spec, drive 50 miles, re-torque, then check again at 500. Ask me how I learned that one.

What wheel setup are you running now? And is this for looks, handling, or trying to clear a wider tire for rally?

Great post Jason! When I need wheel spacers which is rare, I do go with Bonoss. I have a couple of posts about them here if you had not seen them. There is some duplicate info in each post but one was before I went back to my staggered setup the other was after.

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/anyone-install-wheel-spacers.39347/page-3#post-1048145

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...mation-and-pictures.7258/page-68#post-1059918

 

[markboris]

Mark, went through both threads — yeah, there's some overlap between them, but the spacer write-up in the first one is worth wading through. Going 7075-T6 with 12.9 lugs on a 15mm spacer is exactly the "thin spacer, don't cut corners" logic I was hinting at. I said 6061/10.9 is the floor — you went straight to the ceiling. Respect.

The flare + spacer combo is the clever part though. I kept assuming you had to fix poke with wheels alone, but extending the trim 20mm in the rear and pairing 15mm spacers with the 15mm front flares is a clean way to get flush without running a 25mm+ brick up front. That's going in my notes.

One thing I'm curious about: with the 21x11s and 315s out back, how's the ride over expansion joints? I've never run staggered on an AWD and I always wonder if the rear ends up feeling planted but heavy, or if that's just in my head.

And the Vredestein claim has me tempted. Quieter AND smoother than Michelin in a winter tire? That's usually a unicorn.

Thing is Jason, I prefer not to use spacers if I can help it. I always order custom wheels for all my vehicles with the proper offsets to give me a flush fit depending on the tire sizes I want to go with. Since I had a full set of wheels that would work for the front using spacers, I thought that would be the better way to go instead of buying a whole new set with the proper offset. Like I mentioned, I didn't need to do that if I left the flares off the front of the car but I wanted the front and rear fenders to match perfectly.

You asked about the 315's ride over expansion joints. They are very smooth and honestly didn't notice much of a difference between them and the 275's I had in the rear for a few months. On this car, I never ran the OEM tires since I had the dealer swap my custom setup from my '21 to my '24 when I traded it in. Last time I ran a Mach-E with OEM wheels/tires was February 2021 when I picked up my first one. That only lasted a couple of months before changing to my first staggered setup. With 315's in the rear, many assume I had to go with a lower profile tire which would give a worse ride but I wanted to keep the same sidewall profile/height as the OEM GT tires which is just about 4.5". I don't consider that a low profile sidewall at all.

The rear is definitely planted and as far as feeling heavy, it depends on the air pressure I run. Since the 315's have a 111 load rating, I can run them safely at 30 psi to handle the weight of the car and while I get a very nice ride, they do feel a bit heavy. I run them at 35 psi which is what I have to keep the fronts with the 107 lead rating at so I just keep them all the same pressure and the back feels a bit lighter.

The two threads of mine you read, were posted before I had run the Vredestein performance summer tires since it was still winter. In April of this year, I switched to the summer's and they feel a little more harsh and slightly noisier compared to the Vredestein performance winters I was running. So far, I've been really happy with the Vredestein performance summer's but they don't have the grip the Michelin's had and didn't really expect them to. They do ride more comfortable though because they have a more cushioned sidewall that is actually designed for comfort which is something manufacturers of performance summers don't normally do. Over the last 5+ years of running quite a few different tires on this car, most of them Michelin's and always high performance summer variants, I am a bit more interested in comfort now and will be sticking with Vredestein's in the future. They have an overall good balance of performance and ride quality. As you know, no tire does everything well.

As far as noise, some tires come with acoustic foam inside to make them a bit quieter. Any tires I purchase that don't have it, I install it myself. None of the Vredestein's have this foam so I've added it to both my summer and winter setups. Some say it doesn't make any difference but for me it does especially over rough road surfaces which we have a lot of around here.

Only have a couple of photos with the Vredestein summer tires.

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