What does offset / backspace mean when considering aftermarket wheels?

And wheel width makes zero difference in how much your tires poke out. A 10” wide wheel and an 8” wide wheel with the same offset and tire width, will poke out exactly the same. Only the tire width and offset determine the poke. I repeat... A wider wheel WILL NOT make your stance more aggressive nor will it make you rub more. Been reading a lot of misinformation about it lately. Only exception is if your wheels and tires look like this....

 

I’m not 100% sure but I’ll try to give you an example. When I changed the wheels on my truck, my previous wheels had a backspacing of -12. The new wheels had a backspacing of -60. In order for me to change them I needed a 2” spacer which put the backspace to about 10 which made the wheels stick out further towards another car or an “aggressive stance”. If I hadn’t used the 2” spacers, the new wheels would have been too close to all the equipment like the coilover or control arms.

Edit: oh this post is about what it means lmao oops

 

Um.....I'm about 98% sure that it does make a difference since the offset is measured from the middle of the wheel. So a 12" wide wheel and a 10" wide wheel have a 1" difference in their starting point making it about 25mm offset difference.....right? Not trying to be argumentative, just thinking logically (or as close to it as I can). Its kinda hard to put into words without drawing it lol.
Edit: this is assuming the tire is the same width on both wheels(let's say a 12.5" wide tire on both 10" and 12" wide wheels)

 

Ok imagine your 10” and 12” wide wheels. We’ll start with a 0 offset to make the math easier. It will mount to your hub exactly in the center of the wheel. Now put a 13” wide tire on either wheel. The tire will be centered on both wheels and 6.5” of the tire will poke out from where the hub is. They’re exactly the same. Now if you add positive offset to either wheel, say +60 like our stock wheels, both wheels will be moved inward 60mm’s. Same with negative offset. It’ll move both wheels outward by the same amount.

 

Your wheels, from 12 to 10" still have the same center, 1" in and 1" out difference. The wheel got wider but the tire didn't so it's still in the same place it started.

 

Wrong. You are taking 1" from the outside and 1" from the inside, the centerline doesn't move sot the tire will be in the same place. The only way to change the tire poke is with a change to the offset.
Joon knows three things and one of them is wheel offset.

 

I don't wanna know what the other 2 things are.

 

He'll gladly tell you about about them, but maybe not here.

 

As for rim width and poke....all of the "will it" calculators are wrong then.

According to most, wheel width DOES affect rim poke. Overall stance and poke of the tires stays the same but the rim pokes out more.

 

Yea I started rethinking it after I said about being the same tire. Lol. There's the 2% I left available haha

 

Yes the rim will poke out more but the question is about the tire. Unless the rim is wider than the tire, the rim poke doesn't mean much.

 

So its safe to say side wall poke then?

 

Yes

 

Nice good ole glory hole

 

Ok so I need a negative offset that's fer sure..... Got a massive steal on a set of 33/12.5 R18s, mounted them, they are too close to the ball joint/control arm area and do touch the rock guard underneath at full turn. Going to get rims..... how much offset do I need? Only need about a half inch outwards to clear everythig!

 

Soooo, will a +20 offset stick out further than a +18 offset???

 

No

 

the other way around the closer to 0 or negative the more poke there will be. Also +15 <> +25 is the sweet spot for our 2.5 gen tundras possibly the 2.0 also.