[focusspelledbackwards]

Well, I did a search and found nothing on this in this forum. I was wondering what these hubcentric rings were and how beneficial they are to wheels.

 

[CYatTireRack]

Hubcentric rings match the center bore of your wheel to your hub to snsure the wheel rolls smoothly. If the center bore of your wheel doesn't match your 63.3mm hub, you should have received centering rings with your wheel.

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[oldmanfocus]

I had some hubcentric rings on my ASA wheels. They wer plastic. They melted to the hubs after an all day ontrack event. scraped em off an ran without them. Didn't seem to make any difference.

 

[Roger Eastman]

The only purpose of the rings is to hold the wheels in proper position until you tighten the lug nuts. The wheels are held in position by the lug nuts ; the hubcentric rings are not really needed.

 

[Penguini66]

I had some hubcentric rings on my ASA wheels. They wer plastic. They melted to the hubs after an all day ontrack event. scraped em off an ran without them. Didn't seem to make any difference.

I've also seen the plastc rings melt on the small carlisle road course(if you can call it a road course).

 

[P-51]

I do think the rings play a much bigger role than just positioning the wheel. My understanding is that the hub is designed to support the vertical and fore-aft forces on the wheel. The lugs are designed to support the side forces on the wheel.

Bolted joints should only be placed in tension. They should never be asked to support a structure from translation (ie: sliding of the surfaces).

Even if you installed your wheel perfectly centered on the hub, without rings, the wheel will "walk" off-center with vibration and repeated heat cycling. The hub rings act as a mechanical "lock", positively holding the wheel in place.

The lugs were never intended to support the wheel without the hub. Yes, it works, and lots of people do it, but it doesn't make it right.

I made myself hubcentric rings out of aluminum to prevent the melting. If anybody else needs some, I can manufacturer more.

 

[Roger Eastman]

I talked to American Racing on this subject and they confirmed that the rings sole purpose is to initially hold the wheel in position while the lug nuts are tightened down.

The wheel's position is precisely located and held by the torquing of the lug nuts. It is the taper of the lug nut seat and the mating tapered surface on the wheel that does this.

Most after market wheels are designed to fit a variety of vehicles having different size hubs. If the hubcentric rings were an important part of the mounting, they would not be made of plastic. After I found out that the rings actually serve no purpose, I quit using them, as they are somewhat of a nuisance to use, and I found that the wheels locate fine without them, so long as you are careful as the lug nuts are screwed into their seats.