How To: Grinding Tabs for GM Wheels

i have a set of 17" rims from an 02 tahoe that im putting on my 87 B2200, its looking like im going to grind down the tabs. to me it seems whether your grinding the tabs or having the wheels machined, your taking a risk either way. the amount i would have to have machined for the wheels to fit the back make me nervous. but i also never would of thought about the fact that the Wheels are hub centric. i special ordered my lug nuts from Brandsport.com. there Gorilla 12mmx1.50, 13/16 acorn buldge set nuts. got that advise from another member, great site. annyways, thanks for the tech for this project. and twisted minis, for the risks

yeah, anyone that tries to convince you to take wheels to a machine shop and have them bored out needs to be dragged out back and shot. Boring out wheels is quite possibly one of the dumbest ideas. What they don't realize when they do this is that they cause micro fractures in the structure of the wheel, and these fractures can expand and become a giant mess. I've worked in a tire shop for some time and I've seen bored out wheels with cracks going towards the lug holes. We liked seeing these because state law required us to sell them new wheels before we could let the car/truck go back onto the road.

Grinding down the tabs is a lot safer to do of the two. Just don't let the hubs overheat while doing this. Take your time and it'll be perfectly fine. These trucks are not hub centric, they were only put there to help with the ease of wheel installation.

For those whom are concerned about the lugs bearing too much weight, then you can always take your hubs to the machine shop and have them bored out a little larger so they can fit the larger diameter stud. This is the best route to go, and the route that I will take when I am running 30 inch tires.

Oh, and if you think that your insurance will cover any of the expenses when a bored out wheel shears and causes an accident, you really need to wake up and smell the burning gasoline. You'd have more coverage as an uninsured driver.

I just ground my tabs last week and used an angle grinder, took my time and made sure they were under the "ridge-line" using a flat piece of steel.Took it out for a spin and no issues so far. The advise from this site has already helped me out a lot so far so thank you to everyone!!

been running ground tabs for close to 2 years now... never had any problems... still rockin stock nuts too! z71s... and ive been triple digits on several occasions... altho with the 205/40s my days of that fast are pretty much gone unless i plan to foot a larger gas bill... 75 on my speedo now is about 65 actual speed...

and thinking about it, as i was swapping my motor yesterday, i took off the wheels that are on my truck now, which are no the stock ones, there some aftermarket ones that fit right on my truck with the stock lugnuts. i took them off the take out the ugly ass center cap of the rim, when i put them back on and could see the tabs through the hole, the tabs werent even close to the wheels. i know the kid that owned the truck before me, he was young and drove the shit outta the truck, and never had any problems. so i know it wont be an issue to grind down the tabs for my GM wheels.

the fact that right there, i have aftermarket wheels (dont remember the brand off hand and truck is in buddies shop) that are for my truck, and the tabs arent close should end any doubts to grinding tabs. if your wheel falls off, it sounds like your not doing your routine maintanece with checking your lug nuts to make sure there all tight

I know I'm new but I'm more familiar with fullsize chevy trucks than mazda by far. The stock wheels are lug and hub centric. Just thought I'd through that into this argument. I've run aftermarket wheels on my fullsize chevy's before and they were just lug centric. I don't see the difference between boring out the hub or grinding down the tabs.

great point

this is why i dont buy into the hub centris wheels bit. here is a pic of the wheels that are on my truck right now, that were put on by the previous owner who drove the truck daily, there after market, fit my truck like there spose to, and as you can see the tabs are no where near the center of the wheels. so the tabs on my truck have come off for my gm wheels

I couldnt tell you if grinding or boring is safer. Im not a mechanical engineer.

some aftermarket wheels are hubcentric. you can also order spacer rings to make them hubcentric.

had a car come in repeat complaints when i worked at toyota. lug centric rims, stock nuts. so the wheel looks centered, but its not, and rides like shit... come back, reinstall wheels, comeback... 3 or 4 times til the shit didnt vibrate enough to annoy them. looks on there right, but out of round over and over, though visually impossible to tell...

I will say this though, if you are using lug centric wheels, you need to find lug centric nuts that match those wheels.(or as physically close as possible)

I know the issue we may run into with our trucks, some of our rims choices, dont share lug stud diameter/pitch. so you cant get Titan lug nuts in a mazda friendly 12mm x 1.5.

just ground down my tabs today, easy as pie
quick question, should i paint or cover in some way the exposed metal that is there to prevent rust?