Why are wheel spacers so expensive?

[Billy Bee]

I can't understand why spacers need to cost so much. I want to put chains on the rear of my TC 33, and not enough clearance, hence the spacers. I worked in a machine shop 40 years ago and it looks like any well equipped shop could make them easily. They look like glorified washers, not gold coins. I realize there would be many different thicknesses and bolt patterns, so maybe not a high volume item, but seems like an awful lot of money for what they are. There, I had to vent on somebody, and nobody is home so you're elected. Thanks, I feel better now.
Bill

 

[George2615]

That's what I did several years ago on another tractor. I made up front and side view drawings with width and bolt spacing dimensions and gave it to a friend at a local machine shop. Mine were 2" wide with a 6 bolt on 6" spacing. His boss let him make me up a set in his spare time off hours for $100.

 

[Deere Dude]

That's what I did several years ago on another tractor. I made up front and side view drawings with width and bolt spacing dimensions and gave it to a friend at a local machine shop. Mine were 2" wide with a 6 bolt on 6" spacing. His boss let him make me up a set in his spare time off hours for $100.

X2 That is a good idea.

 

[Leejohn]

I checked into a 8" X 2 1/4" bar stock and that was $80.00 retail last year.

 

[Looking4new]

Bill, now you know why I don't have them.

 

[CCWKen]

There's a lot of force applied to spacers. You can't just make them out of anything and use Ching-Chang hardware. Good costs. Cheap is dangerous.

 

[mad_planter]

I can't understand why spacers need to cost so much. I want to put chains on the rear of my TC 33, and not enough clearance, hence the spacers. I worked in a machine shop 40 years ago and it looks like any well equipped shop could make them easily. They look like glorified washers, not gold coins. I realize there would be many different thicknesses and bolt patterns, so maybe not a high volume item, but seems like an awful lot of money for what they are. There, I had to vent on somebody, and nobody is home so you're elected. Thanks, I feel better now.
Bill

I would imagine there cost as much as they do because the people making them would like to actually make a little money for themselves after they get through paying all their overhead, such as machinery payments, building rent or mortgage, insurance, wages, etc, etc.

Its never the cost of the material and the couple of hours to machine it, its all the overhead that goes into having a business and making a living.

 

[MORRISONSTEEL]

The machine shops in our area have so much work to do and too many customers that are willing to pay a premium that there is no such thing as a cheap fab project anymore.

 

[NoTrespassing]

How much do they cost retail?

Kevin

 

[crazyal]

Don't forget about the insurance. You bring it to your local guy and say make this he has no way of knowing if it's the right design for the job so suing him would be hard. You buy a product designed for a task and it fails then you can go back to the company that made it and sue. While it may not be likely but imagine if you were doing work with your tractor and your son was near the tire when it broke. A loaded wheel falling over sideways could hurt pretty badly.

 

[Billy Bee]

I asked, and now I know. It makes sense, as some have extensive machining, flanges and hubs. Much more than a "glorified washer". Thank you all for your responses.
Bill

 

[dieselcrawler]

I made my own, out of materials I had on hand, left over from other projects. In my case, I was able to leave the center 'dish' or 'pan' bolted to the axle, and put my spacer between that and the outter ring/actual rim that the tire mounts to. This kept the wheel more 'true', as the further out has less effects on run-out. I will try to post a picture later.

 

[dieselcrawler]

Here's my spacers, installed.

Photobucket

 

[Deere Dude]

I checked into a 8" X 2 1/4" bar stock and that was $80.00 retail last year.

An embarrassing story; At work I needed a couple 20' pieces of 3/8" ? steel tubing for a job. I grabbed the steel book from the purchaser and thumbed through it and found the 3/8 tube I needed and told her to order a couple. A couple days later I got a call on my radio to get a forklift and come and get my pipe. My first thought was, Oh Oh.

I got by the truck and he had a 2-20' long 8-3/8" pieces of steel. He said, here ya go. Then I thought Oh S*** again.

What happened was in the book the whole inch sizes were on the top left top corner of the page, and fractions down the center of the page and I never caught that part. Of course I got my butt handed to me for screwing that up, but they took them back because we bought a lot of stuff from them.

In hindsight I should have bought them and went into the wheel spacer business.

 

[Leejohn]

Wow two 20' for 8+" bar stock !! Did you ask how much it was. That would break the bank real quick. I would of like to been there and seen you face when you found out the 2 was your order. I would just have to P*** my pants laughing.

 

[Texasmark]

I looked at wheel spacers online and ebay had some for sale but not to fit my tractor. I emailed the supplier and we had a chat. After the conversation I decided to make my own. He stated in the conversation that people think he charges a lot but after doing mine myself and considering a guy in business, they're not overpriced.

Mine are 4" which makes my tires even with my 5' mower. Steel plate and 8" steel pipe. Made the pattern and had a machine shop cut out the plate, 4 ea, for 25 bucks apiece. I did the rest....work great.

Also: I tried all sorts of things on my 2400 to get a soft ride. Finally installed a set of weights I found at a used tractor/implement dealer. Seems they used the sales notion that they fit something, specially made, hard to find, bla bla. Wound up paying a ridiculous price for them and had to modify to fit my tractor but they are paid for, modified, painted to match, installed, and in use. Done deal, not sorry.

 

[Texasmark]

I looked at wheel spacers online and ebay had some for sale but not to fit my tractor. I emailed the supplier and we had a chat. After the conversation I decided to make my own. He stated in the conversation that people think he charges a lot but after doing mine myself and considering a guy in business, they're not overpriced.

Mine are 4" which makes my tires even with my 5' mower. Steel plate and 8" steel pipe. Made the pattern and had a machine shop cut out the plate, 4 ea, for 25 bucks apiece. I did the rest....work great.

Also: I tried all sorts of things on my 2400 to get a soft ride. Finally installed a set of weights I found at a used tractor/implement dealer. Seems they used the sales notion that they fit something, specially made, hard to find, bla bla. Wound up paying a ridiculous price for them and had to modify to fit my tractor but they are paid for, modified, painted to match, installed, and in use. Done deal, not sorry.

Pictures of home made:

 

[mcfarmall]

Wheel spacers are pretty cheap if you work at a machine shop! You can pretty much make them for the cost of the materials.

 

[bjr]

I can't understand why spacers need to cost so much. I want to put chains on the rear of my TC 33, and not enough clearance, hence the spacers. I worked in a machine shop 40 years ago and it looks like any well equipped shop could make them easily. They look like glorified washers, not gold coins. I realize there would be many different thicknesses and bolt patterns, so maybe not a high volume item, but seems like an awful lot of money for what they are. There, I had to vent on somebody, and nobody is home so you're elected. Thanks, I feel better now.
Bill

A couple of years ago I went thru the same thing. I needed 1" on all wheels. Mine were only 1" plate maybe 9" in diameter. I had the roundies flame cut by a friend for free. I couldn't get any of the four local shops to even put them in a lathe chuck for less than $500. After a month's worth of searching I got some one just to cut some shallow pilot bores for free and then I drill my own stud holes. I had to buy some new aftermarket studs and nuts. i also had drill some tapers for the new wheel nuts. It got done and I only needed them for couple of years. Too much money in my area from the big corporate farms, so the machine shop get what ever they ask. I'm gonna try to get my own lathe and mill just for hobby stuff. bjr

 

[City Farmer]

Pictures of home made:

Looks good and I'm sure it works well but I would've went with a thicker hubs so you could tap them. With 1" flanges you could've added the female recess for positive location and support on the axle side. Knock out the studs and thread the bolts into the flange from the back side. Then, you could put the male boss on the outer flange for wheel. Reuse the axle studs or you could tap the outer flange and bolt the wheel right to it.
Clear as mud right?