Will Des-Sol 32mm Wheel Spacers Impact Jimny Bearing Wear?

There are many opinions on social media platforms about whether it is better to fit deep dish rims or wheel spacers to your Jimny. The fact is that it does not matter, as whether you fit deep dish rims or wheel spacers the end result is the same. The load on your wheel bearings is no different as the distance “X” on the sketch’s remains the same for both options.

As far as bearing wear is concerned one needs to consider the weight of the vehicle when evaluating the impact of bearing wear when fitting wheel spacers. The tare weight of the Gen4 Jimny is 1075kg, with payload of 360kg maximum weight, so the GVM (Gross Vehicle Mass), is 1435kg. Note that you will not be able to legally exceed this GVM number on your Jimny.

For comparison purposes the ISUZU D-MAX GVM is 2950kg and its payload is 1010kg. More than double the tare weight and GVM of the Jimny. These “heavy load” vehicles have the engine capacity and capability of towing caravans and heavily laden trailers over long distances. Fitting wheel spacers on these vehicles when towing these additional loads on the rear tow bar will definitely increase bearing wear and reduce the life of the wheel bearings.

We have run our 32mm wheel spacers on our test Gen3 Jimny and have logged over 250,000 kilometres while doing river crossings and sand dune tracks before having to replace only the rear wheel bearings. Please note that the Jimny rear wheel bearings are not sealed bearings but the front wheel bearings are sealed.

This tells us that the rear wheel bearings actually failed due to water and sand ingress as opposed to simple bearing wear.