RRC wheels on Defender.

[Greg S]

I know RRC aluminum wheels won't fit a Series hub due to the size of the drive flange, but I thought (wrongly it seems) that early Defender (okay-90) hubs were the same as RRC hubs. My RRC wheels won't go on the 90 hubs. Seems I'll have to take a die grinder to the wheels because of the drive flange bolt heads. Anybody have any insight on this?

[DaveB]

Hi Greg,

Although the bolt pattern is the same, I too was surprised when I tried fitting Discovery 1 aluminum wheels on my Range Rover. Same thing. Interference with the hub bolts. It was a fair bit of grinding to get them to fit, but they now do and I think the make the truck look quite nice in the summer. I just used a round headed burr and took off as little as possible. Took quite awhile though for 4 wheels. Another way around it I thought of afterwards, that might alleviate all grinding is a set of wheel spacers.

Dave

[red90]

Yes, they use narrower drive flanges. You can modify the wheels or add thin spacers that go between the hub and the wheel.

[discojonny]

any idea how thick the shim has to be? and do I need longer studs? Just failed to put disco wheels on a 110 last night. so dissapointed.

[red90]

I've seen in the past places that sell the shims... Can't seem to find the right search term today. They are not very thick and you can use the stock wheel studs.

[rayhyland]

I used to run a set of RRC Aluminum alloys on my 110. They looked nice, and were set up for my "street tires".

The offset was wrong, so I ran them with 1 inch spacers and that looked good and eliminated any fitting problems.

Not all hubs are the same though. When I traded them to another member, he had to machine the spacers for the rear hub of his 90.

Ray