Getting started
There are three ways to begin. Popular trucks fills in the common ones in a single tap. Find my vehicle walks make, model and year range. I know my specs skips straight to entering numbers.
Changed your mind? Start over (the yellow button under the form) clears everything back to a fresh design after asking you to confirm.
Whichever you use, the measurements stay visible and editable. The lookup is a starting point, not a guarantee — trim, drivetrain and dually axles all change hub specs. Check the numbers against your actual hub before you submit.
The eight measurements
- Hub bolt pattern
- Number of studs on the vehicle hub and the circle they sit on, like 6x5.5. Count the studs, then measure the circle.
- Hub bore
- Outside diameter of the centre hub the wheel slides over, in millimetres.
- Vehicle stud thread
- Thread on the studs already on your truck. This is what the adapter threads onto.
- Wheel bolt pattern
- Pattern of the wheel you are fitting. Usually in the wheel listing.
- Wheel centre bore
- Diameter of the hole in the back of the wheel, in millimetres.
- Thickness
- How far the adapter pushes the wheel out, measured face to face. Studs add height on top of this.
- Pressed stud thread
- Thread on the new studs your wheel mounts to. It does not have to match the vehicle side.
- Quantity
- Two per axle. Most orders are 2 or 4.
2D, stack and 3D views
The drawing panel has three views of the same part, switched with the buttons at its top right. It opens in 3D CAM; a device that cannot run 3D opens in 2D. All three are rebuilt from your eight numbers every time you change one — there is no stored picture to go stale.
- 2D
- The face of the adapter, to scale. Blue rings are the holes your vehicle studs pass through; red dots are the new studs your wheel mounts to. The side profile shows the thickness.
- Stack
- The whole setup in 3D: vehicle hub, then your adapter, then the wheel, with the lug nuts where they sit. It is cut in half so you can see the studs, nuts and the centring lip inside — untick Cutaway to see it whole. Press Bolt it together to slide the parts into place. SIDE, HUB SIDE and WHEEL SIDE jump to those angles. Only the adapter is drawn from your numbers; the hub and wheel are generic. 2D section switches to a flat, to-scale cut-through drawing that shows how far the wheel moves out.
- 3D CAM
- The finished part as a solid, the way a machinist sees it in CAM software: the bar stock it is cut from, the machining operations in order, and the path each tool takes. Drag to turn it, scroll or pinch to zoom, or use ISO, TOP, FRONT and G55 (the hub side, as the part sits for its second setup). A two-piece adapter opens with its two halves pulled apart so you can see both; JOIN puts them together and SEPARATE pulls them apart again. The 3D view needs a reasonably recent phone or computer; if yours cannot run it, the button is greyed out and the 2D drawing is exact.
- Full-size 3D
- Click the 3D view, or the ⤢ button, to open it large. Click and drag to turn it, the same as in the panel. Press Hover spin (or Space) and the part follows your mouse with no button held — a full 360° across the view; click the model or press Space again to stop. On a phone, drag. Close with the button, Esc, or a tap outside.
- Backplot
- Press Play, or drag the slider, to watch the tool run through the program. The readout gives the tool position in X, Y and Z, the move, the tool and the operation. Untick an operation in the list to hide it.
The toolpaths, tools, feeds and cycle time are an illustration generated from your numbers, not the program we run. Our machinists program the real job in Mastercam or SolidWorks after review.
The wheel studs are automatically turned to whatever angle leaves the most metal between them and your vehicle's lug-nut holes.
One piece or two. When your truck's bolt circle and your wheel's bolt circle are far enough apart, the adapter is one solid piece. When they are too close, a lug-nut hole and a wheel stud would run into each other, so we build it in two halves: the hub half holds your vehicle's lug nuts, the wheel half holds the new studs, and the two never meet. The designer works this out for you — the title block says which, and the 3D views show the two halves in slightly different shades.
Flags and blocks
Every change you make runs against our rule set, written by the people who machine these parts. Two outcomes matter:
Block means we will not build it. Usually the geometry does not leave enough material between the through-bolts and the pressed studs. Changing the thickness will not fix a block — the specs have to change.
Flag means it is probably fine but a person needs to look first. Flagged designs go through instead of getting a price on the spot, and our team quotes them by email.
Each check shows its rule number, like R-201. Quote that number if you
call us about it.
Pricing
Standard combinations price instantly, per pair, with free shipping in the USA. Anything carrying a flag shows Quote required instead — we price those by hand because they need a set of eyes on them first.
Price depends on lug count, thickness, and whether the adapter changes bolt pattern or just spaces the wheel out.
After you submit
- Draft — the drawing built from your numbers. Nothing sent yet.
- Submitted — it reaches our office for review.
- Under review — checked for safety, design, production cost and time.
- Quoted — we create an invoice and email it to you.
- Paid — payment creates your order number.
- Production — a production order goes to the floor.
- Quality control — checked at the QC station.
- Shipped — tracking number and photographs of your parts.
You get an email at every change.
Before you can submit, the Review step asks you to tick two boxes: that you have checked the specs against your vehicle, and that you have looked over the 3D model. The small i beside the second box opens the model full size.
Changing a design
You have 12 hours from submitting to change a design yourself. Open My designs and the countdown is on the row. Inside that window, Edit loads it back into the designer.
After 12 hours, or once we have quoted it, changes need re-approval and may add cost — the longer a job sits, the longer it takes to fulfil. Use Request a change and our team will pick it up.
An unsent draft has no time limit. It stays in your list until you submit or delete it.
For our team
The Admin tab holds the rule set and the pricing formula. Rules can be switched off, retuned, or moved between Block and Flag without a developer.
Changes stack up as unsaved edits and go live the moment you press Publish, which increments the version and writes to the change log. The catalogue check beside the pricing form shows live whether the formula still reproduces our published prices — if a number turns red, stop.
Two people should review any rule change before it is published. These parts hold wheels onto trucks.
Terms
- Bolt circle diameter
- The circle the studs sit on. The 5.5 in 6x5.5 is this, in inches.
- Hub centric
- The wheel is carried by the centre bore rather than the studs. Preferred, and quieter at speed.
- Lug centric
- The wheel is centred by the lug nuts alone. Works, but needs careful torquing.
- Spacer vs adapter
- A spacer keeps the same bolt pattern and only pushes the wheel out. An adapter changes the pattern as well.
- Two-piece adapter
- An adapter made as two halves, used when the two bolt patterns are too close to fit in one piece. The hub half takes the vehicle's lug nuts; the wheel half carries the new studs.
- Clocking
- The angle the wheel stud pattern is turned relative to the vehicle pattern. Chosen to keep the two sets of holes as far apart as possible.
- Section view
- A drawing of the part as if sliced through its centre, so you can see inside it. Cut material is shown hatched.
- Toolpath
- The route a cutting tool follows. Solid lines are cutting moves; dashed lines are rapid moves through the air between cuts.
- G54 / G55
- Work offsets — where the machine measures zero from. G54 is the first setup, wheel side up; G55 is the second, flipped over with the hub side up.
- 6061-T6 billet
- The aluminium we cut these from. Solid extruded stock, not cast.