It is very often that I read posts that the writer makes reference to hub centric wheels or adapter rings.

I have a '77 F-150 with 5 lug wheels, each lug is a 1/2-20 stud. This truck has been mine since 1986. I've pulled with it, hauled 1 ton and even over 3,000 pounds on it at times, drug trailers to Georgia, and it has Not had a hub centric wheel on it since well before 1986. When I bought it, it had 8 spoke "wagon wheels", 15x8s and 31/10.50-15 heavy tires. Then after some years with those, I was given a set of 15X8 5-turbo like spoke wheels which I just recently removed and replaced with 15x8 D-spoke steel wheels, still wearing 31/10.50-15 truck tires.

In the early '70s I had a '69 340 Dodge Dart Swinger, 4 speed, 3.91 gears. It had the smaller Mopar lug pattern, with five 7/16" studs. I ran Superior chrome slotted wheels with 60 series tires ofr several makes, I ran some 13s with it at the drag strip on recapped strret tires, recaps had softer rubber. Those wheels were NOT hub centric.

In the mid '70s I had a '65 GTO, transplanted 400 RA-IV built with some goodies, Hays 40 pound steel flywheel, 4 speed, Chevelle 12 bolt with 4.10s, and it always had Cragar SS mags. They were unilug wheels bolted on with 5five 7/16-20 nuts on the 4.75" circe. Unilug wheels were not hub centric.

In 1985 we bought a 1985 Thunderbird with the 5.0 throttle body injection, I put the spoilers on it, bought some alloy wheels that used unilugs and shouldered nuts, 1/2-20 again, but like all Fox bdy cars then, 4 lugs. I ran 235/60 tires on them, Firestones. We only kept that car up to 2009, but I eventually did swap to 15x7 Ford GT 10 holers just because I liked them. Ran those unilug Appliance Dia-mag wheels for 10 years, still got them in a shed.

My last trailer was made from a wrecked '79 F-150, I removed the 3.25 ratio guts, flipped the empty axle, bolted on 15x10 widened jeep wheels that were no where near hub centric, hauled a lot of heavy loads behind the '77, never lost one. My current trailer has the 4.5"x5 lug circle, no wheels I have are hub centric. It has 3500 pound drop type axle under it and I've taxed it a few times.

Just saying …. no issues non hub centric.


Never an issue.

Agree for the most part. Done much of the same with unilug crager SS's and others.

But just a comment. In all cases, it was just a wheel on a true running hub with 'relatively' tall side walls and even soft rubber.

Running a non hub centric spacer/adapter and then a non hub centric wheel and you see tolerances start to double. And then with big diameter wheels and tiny stiff handling sidewalls, it 'might' pose an issue, for some.

I'm just not a fan of random vibrations, and keeping the wheels hubcentric just seems like a good idea. I know the lug nuts' taper will center the wheel (lug-centric) and the studs are strong enough to hold the weight of the car, but that's not their job. A hubcentric ring transfers the weight to the hub, where it belongs, then the studs can do their job of clamping the wheel on.

While I know that polycarbonate has a pressure rating of 16,000 PSI, and a 4,000 pound car with 4 contact points isn't much of a load for them, I don't think really take that much load if the wheels and lugs are tapered.

I did use hub rings on my 97 Cougar and 97 MarkVIII, but they really only help initial installation of the wheel. I also ran without them, and other than being a little harder to get the first couple of lug nuts to get it centered (they had small lug holes, I had to use a 13/16 thin wall spark plug socket) after than it was easy, and never really what I would consider a wheel induced shimmy, shake, bounce, anything.

Having the hub bore and wheel bore the same size with tapered lugs is best, tapered lugs and hub rings is good, tapered lugs and larger hub bore on the wheel isn't ideal but fine.

I also had Lincoln LS wheels for it, and they used mag seat and washer type, and those are hub centric. They have the same center bore size as my vehicle so they were fine.

Oh, I wasn't saying that hub centric is bad, just relaying my experiences. Hub centric will help if one is sliding a wheel up a hub to engage studs (or to align with holes in the case of wheel bolts), but once those bolts or nuts are torqued, they are carrying the weight, they are keeping the wheel from moving on that hub.

My Mercury's wheels, the Mustang's wheels, the Forester's wheels, the '95 Bird's wheels, and my '07 F150's wheels are all hub centric, and no issues there either.

My Wheel Horse started out hub centric using wheel bolts, not studs. I needed to space out some deeper back side wider wheels, so I built 7/8" spacers from ten 7/16 nuts welded on two 6" OD 3/8" thick steel disc, the nuts are welded over holes drilled on a 5x4.5" circle, then threaded sections of "all thread 7/16-20 stock" into tractor's threaded hubs, locked them with nuts on inner side, then just used old Chevrolet wheel nuts to mount wheels which are weighted ... The 5 welded nuts space the disc out to miss the hub so those wheels just sit on flat smooth disc.

I ran the aftermarket wheels and tires (285/70R17 LT-rated) on my Sierra sans hub-centric rings for a few hundred miles before the rings came in on order. It shimmied like a b*****d. Rings in and it was gliding along like a Cadillac.

Tighten the lugs good.