Wheel offset and backspacing

6314 Views 2 Replies 2 Participants Last post by drdiaboloco, Sep 12, 2013

drdiaboloco

Discussion Starter · Sep 12, 2013

Question for the experts...

I have a set of wheels that I am considering using for a winter wheel/tire setup. I am confused about one thing about the specs of the wheels compared to the recommended wheels from The Tire Rack... the wheels I have are 17X7.5 with a 42 offset and 5.94" backspacing. However, when looking at 17X17.5 wheels for the Accord, most of the wheels with the same 5.94" backspacing are shown as having a 45 offset. This is not consistently so, and some of the other wheels with the 45 offset show a different backspacing.

Shouldn't wheels in the same width and with the same backspacing have the same offset (and vice versa)? Since the offset is measured from the midpoint of the wheel across its width, the backspacing should be the same with the same width wheel and the same offset. It seems to me that the only way you can have differing values is if the wheel is slightly wider or narrower than the spec. Or, of course, measurement error.

Any thoughts?

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flatlander

· #2 · Sep 12, 2013

Yes, they should be the same. Here's a fairly decent pictorial reference:

https://www.rsracing.com/tech-wheel.html

Note the "backspace" to offset reference chart.

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drdiaboloco

Discussion Starter · #3 · Sep 12, 2013

flatlander said:
Yes, they should be the same.

Yes, exactly, they SHOULD be. But if you skim the results for various wheels you will find that not all 7.5" wheels with the same offset have the same backspacing and vice versa. I found far more examples after I posted this question originally. Odd. Also odd is that they are recommending wheels with such widely varying offsets, with differences as much as 10mm from one extreme to the other... and possibly more if I skimmed all the results. I guess half an inch isn't a HUGE difference, but I certainly wouldn't want a wheel with an offset that pushed everything IN any further... in the rear, especially, it's already further into the bodywork than I like from an aesthetic standpoint.

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