Will 1" spacers provide added stability with a 3" lift?
This has always been a source of debate especially among die-hard physics fans, but IMHO, yes, widening the track of a vehicle in any way shape or form will ALWAYS add to vehicular stability. Now, the reason it's up for debate would be that if you take two bricks with the same weight, but one is wider than the other (given same exact height and weight) the center of gravity is the same. So therefore, theoretically, widening a vehicle should have the same exact (lack of) effect that widening a brick would, as far as center of gravity goes. By the laws of physics, certainly, this is, in fact, the case.
However, what throws this one for a loop is that we're not dealing with a brick here. For all intents and purposes we're dealing with a brick mounted on a chassis, with springs and shocks and links and such. That being said, when you widen just the chassis, and leave the brick as-is, you change the fulcrum points as the body of the truck (the brick) leans over top of the tires. In other words, if your tires are in line with the outer edge of the body, the outside of the tires would be the fulcrum, and the moment of force about the object would be applied at that point, the edge of the tire. Additionally, at some point, the springs/shocks/links will max out and want to lift the opposing side tires.
But if you move that edge, say, two inches outside of the body of the truck, the moment of force will still be applied to the fulcrum, but now that point isn't quite at the edge of the tire, it's inside the edge, and, in fact, will help keep the tire's edge firmly planted on the ground. Eventually, of course, the forces will overcome this and begin to try to pivot on the outside edge... But until then, it should at least *feel* more stable. The rotational forces will push harder and harder downward on the tire as the body leans, and will make it very difficult to get that tire to rollover to the edge/shoulder. The further out you move the tires, the more you will feel this -- that being said, I noticed a DISTINCT difference between stability on +38mm offset rims vs. neutral offset, a difference of only 1.5 inches when you do the math.
By the way, this debate has basically gone on for years, so I'm sure someone will chime in with their take on why I'm wrong. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> But if I could draw it up and post the drawing, you'd see exactly what I'm saying and you'd totally understand. (as would the naysayers....)
HTH,
Chris
