Just my two cents. I've been running 1.5 inch spacers for a while now. I
have a YJ with a Dana 44 out of a Wagoneer in the front and a Dana 44 out of
a Scout in the rear. Due to the conversion to make it all 5 on 5.5 I put
1.5 inch spacers on the rear to get my axle width close(Still around 1/2 per
side off). They work fine. I'm in the same situation as JimG, around 2k
miles a year. And by the way, most of my time has been spent off-road this
year. So they have been tried and retried.

Daren

"Roy J" <spamless@microsoft.net> wrote in message
news:i7syb.18$Vf2.45355@news.uswest.net...
Probably more due to frame flex than anything else.

L.W.(ßill) ------ III wrote:
> I used to believe that, until I moved the engine mounts forward
> from the middle to what I believed a stronger position in my old Ford,
> like the old Vettes used at the time. The engine stayed in the same
> position, but now my car pushed rather than drifted on high speed turns.
> Oh well, my old Thunderbird was never considered a sports car:
> http://www.----------.com/thunderb.htm
> God Bless America, ßill O|||||||O
> mailto:--------------------
>
> Roy J wrote:
>
>>Exactly my point. There is NO difference to what the bearing sees
>>for laoding between a wheel with a large offset and a
>>spacer/small offset combo.
>>
>>As I said above, a large off set is bad for bearings (and rear
>>axle shafts!) but how you get there makes no difference.