Hub centric rings in Canada?
 

I'm looking for a set of aluminum hub centric rings from 73mm to 56.1mm,
i can't find anything on amazon that isn't 50+$, eBay only ships from china or is 20+$ shipping from USA. anyone know where I might be able to order a set?

Why aluminum?

Plastic should do the trick and will generally be cheaper. I found them via Amazon from gorilla for $20.

number of reasons all based on speculation, basically it boils down to me tracking my car and needing beefier rings.

1. aluminum expands with heat and seals the wheel and hub better, makes the clearance basically 0mm so there will be no load transferred to the studs.

2. plastic will deform too easily, even if the tolerances are tight, I can't see it taking several hundred pounds of load without deforming to the point where the studs are carrying the load anyways.

3. Constant thermal cycles might crack the plastic and I'd be worried about high temps from braking possible melting the rings.

IMO aluminum is better for track duty.

Huh?

If you install your wheels correctly, you do not need hubcentric rings.

Yes you do, the studs are not designed to take 100% of the load, if you use aftermarket wheels and don't have a hubcentric ring you're putting a massive amount of stress on the studs. It's why every OEM wheel in existence is hub centric, the hub is designed to take the load. I don't know who told you otherwise but they're wrong.

Any reputable wheel shop should have them in stock. Whereabouts in Ontario are you located? If you're out near north Toronto visit Wheelsco. They helped me out when I was looking for a hard to find center cap for my GTF1 wheels. I'm sure they can hook you up.

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The face of the hub distributes the load of the vehicle, not the wheel stud.
The hub ring is simply an alignment tool to make sure everything is centered prior to torquing everything down. Assuming you follow the proper torque procedure the wheel will center it self and you don't NEED centering rings. Conical lug nuts will center the wheel when you tighten. Following proper torque specs is important as well as tightening in the correct sequence.

That said, I do like having centric rings if the wheel bore is larger than the factory hub bore. They're cheap and makes mounting wheels easier.


I have used the same plastic rings for two winters now on my winter wheels, not a crack or issue with them. I always tighten wheels with least amount of load on the wheel as possible before final torque procedure.

Your comment about melting plastic rings is understandable. In a tracking situation I've heard of plastic melting, but on the street I can't see that ever being an issue.

You should learn a bit about the physics of how the wheel attaches to the hub before you say stuff like that. Here is some suggested reading:

https://www.maximummotorsports.com/t...s_spacers.aspx

Basically, the lugs and studs are only responsible for applying clamping force between the hub face and the seat of the wheel. All up and down, side to side, and rotational forces are transmitted directly between the hub face and wheel seat via friction applied by that clamping force. Forces applied to the studs while a vehicle is in motion don't change in any appreciable way.

Consider the shape and size of the stud which is the part that would take those forces. If the stud was bearing vertical or rotational loads, the smart thing to do would be to design it wider than it is long, or have them install into the wheel sideways, in the same direction as the spokes, but they aren't designed like that, are they?

OEMs use hub centering mostly because it makes wheels easier to install and provides fewer opportunities for mistakes when mounting the wheels, because mounting mistakes are what lead to broken studs.

Basically, once all lugs are properly torqued, the load on the wheels is entirely a function of the friction between the hub face and the seat of the wheel and has nothing to do with the hub or studs/lugs.

I should note that I'm not advocating for not running a centering ring, they are still useful and make mounting wheels way easier but the only real reason to use aluminum over plastic is if you are going to track the car because the heat generated will melt plastic.

Why would you want aluminum rings then? Aluminum is a know soft metal. In addition to that, why would you think a small little ring would be as strong as the entire centre bore of a OEM or aftermarket wheel?

Some small ring isn't going to carry the entire weight of a car, let alone a fraction, so I don't know who told you that, but they're wrong.

I haven’t used rings in 3 years lol. Still fine, switching wheels twice a year myself

I like to use them, just makes install that much easier.

Honestly this is the first time I hear about the install. I just put them on and torque them. They center themselves lol

yeah to be honest i was just parroting what I've heard from many many many people, it kinda made sense. But i just ran the math, the holding force of the wheel on the hub with the nuts torqued to 90ft/lbs is somewhere around 11,000lbs. you'd need to hit a pretty big pot hole for it to slip at all and at that point your wheel is probably d1ckered. Even worst case scenario, where your threads are really dirty and your wheel hub is soaked in grease/anti-sieze, you still get around 5000lbs of friction force between the hub and wheel.

http://i.imgur.com/jH9kUyr.png

You should be able to walk into any retail outlet that sells/installs aftermarket wheels and pick up a set. They install 1000s and usually have most common sizes in stock.