wheel fitment

workin on a boys truck and he wants to put 18" titan wheels on it, now my question is those things that stick out on the hubs are hitting the wheels and not letting them sit flush, we dont want to run spacers because the offset of the wheel, it will hit the fenders, so can i grind those tab things off or are they important, i know these wheels will go on the truck i have seen them on other mazdas before, thanks for any help...peace

2 options

1) grind them off. its cheap and done rather quickly.
2) bore out the wheels. a little more pricey, but a touch safer.

in the end, its a light truck on wheels designed to carry a 5000lb truck. youll be fine, unless you decide to put a big ass piano or some shit in the bed of a maz, in which case, the 85 hp the engine puts out will get you no where...

either get the wheels bored out to the correct inner diameter, or get the hubs machined down to the correct diameter.....don't just grind them with a grinder.

im in the same boat, i just paid a lot to get my navi 18's drilled to fit the mazda pattern. on a scale of 1-10 how bad is it to grind off the tabs? is it a serious problem? has anyone had problems/success with grinding them off?

anyone else got any info, the truck will not be a daily driver, once i get it all done..

I ground mine years ago on my Mazda for z71's. No vibration or anything. I wouldn't do it again. When you grind the tabs off all of the load is on the studs, allot of people have problems keeping the lugs tight and centering the wheel when they first put it on. I personally never had a problem.

the load is not on the studs....the load is on the mating fae between the wheels and the hub....the studs create the force that creates friction between those 2 faces.....