The cheapest way to clear 35s on a lifted Power Wagon while keeping the factory wheels: a 1.25" or 1.5" hub-centric spacer per corner, $280-$560 for a set of four, about an hour to install. Hub-centric is not a preference on a 7,000-pound truck — lug-centric spacers work loose and crack. Everything below assumes hub-centric.
The Power Wagon's factory wheel is a 17x8 on the 8x165.1 (8x6.5) bolt pattern, with a hub bore of about 121.3 mm and a deep positive offset in the neighborhood of +45 mm. That high positive offset is why spacers come up at all: it tucks the wheel well inboard toward the suspension, which is fine around the factory 285/70R17 but gets tight fast as the tire gets wider. Go to a 35 and the inner sidewall starts finding the front sway bar end link and the inner fender liner at full lock.
Two ways to fix it:
For most owners running 35s on a 3"-class lift, spacers are the right answer. You keep the factory look, you save over $1,000, and the install is inside a beginner's skill range.
A spacer does not change your wheel. It changes the effective offset by exactly its thickness, and understanding that makes the sizing decision obvious rather than a guess.
Effective offset = factory offset − spacer thickness. A 1.25-inch spacer is 31.75 mm, so a factory wheel near +45 mm behaves like roughly +13 mm once spaced. A 1.5-inch spacer is 38.1 mm, taking the same wheel to roughly +7 mm. In practical terms each corner moves outboard by the spacer thickness, so a 1.25-inch spacer at all four corners widens overall track by about 2.5 inches.
That extra track is doing two useful things. It moves the inner sidewall away from the sway bar link and inner liner, which is what buys the tire clearance. And it slightly widens the stance, which marginally improves lateral stability on a tall truck. It also does two less-useful things: it pushes the tire closer to (or past) the fender flare, which means spray, and it increases the scrub radius, which puts a little more effort into the steering and a little more load into the wheel bearing.
Match the spacer to the tire and lift rather than buying the biggest number:
Check the tire fitment guide for which tire size you are actually solving for before ordering a thickness.
Lug-centric spacers — where the lug studs locate the spacer — are common and cheap, often under $100 a set. On a 7,000-pound truck they are a bad bet. They permit micro-movement under load, the movement works the lug threads, and the failure mode is a cracked spacer or a spacer backing off at highway speed.
A hub-centric spacer has a precision-machined center bore that seats on the hub itself; the lugs only clamp. BORA and Spidertrax are the two reference brands here, both machining the bore to the Ram 2500's 121.3 mm hub register and pressing in their own studs. Verify the bore spec on the listing before buying — a spacer advertised for "Dodge 8-lug" with a generic oversized bore is lug-centric in practice no matter what the title says.
Budget about an hour for all four corners with hand tools.
Spacers get a bad reputation that is 90% attributable to cheap lug-centric parts and skipped re-torques. The remaining real considerations:
Thread engagement. The factory studs now carry only the spacer, and the wheel rides on the spacer's studs. That is correct and safe with a quality part, but it means stud quality is now a purchased item rather than a factory one. Confirm the spacer uses forged studs at the correct thread pitch for your truck.
Bearing load. Moving the tire outboard lengthens the moment arm on the wheel bearing. At 1.25-1.5 inches on a bearing sized for a 3/4-ton truck, this is a small effect, not a scary one — but it is not zero, and it argues against going thicker than you need.
Fender coverage and law. Several states and most Canadian provinces require the tire to be covered by the fender or a flare. Pushing a 35 out 1.5 inches on a truck without flares can put you outside that, and it will throw road spray onto the door glass regardless.
Inspection habit. Add a quick check of the spacer nuts to whatever you already do before a trip. It takes two minutes and closes the only realistic failure path.
| Part | Vendor | Est. price |
|---|---|---|
| BORA 1.25" Hub-Centric Spacer 8x6.5 (set of 4) | BORA Wheel Spacers | ~$360 |
| Spidertrax 1.5" Hub-Centric 8x6.5 (set of 4) | Spidertrax | ~$480 |
| Motorsport-Tech 1.25" Hub-Centric (set of 4) | Motorsport-Tech | ~$320 |
Written and maintained by an AZ wheeler and driveway wrencher. Always cross-reference your factory service manual — modifications affect vehicle safety and warranty. Work at your own risk.
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