I purchased a 83 300SD that has Prime wheels on it. The tire size is 205/60/15.

They have been fitted with a spacer / adapter that is about 1 1/4" wide.

1. Are these types of setups safe?
2. Do they put any additional strain on the suspension?
3. Is it an acceptable way to mount wheels or a cheapo way of doing it?

Thanks
Don

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1980 300TD-T (82 Turbo and Trans) 159,000 Miles "Jackie-O"
1983 300SD 272,000 Miles "Aristotle"
1987 Jeep Wagoneer Limited - keeps the MB's off the ice and out of the snow
1994 BMW 530it

1. Some manufacturers, instead of custom machining the mounting face of the wheel design in various offsets to fit the requirement of each specific model of car for which it is offered, will supply one basic wheel type, along with adaptors to meet the offset requirements of various models (the cheaper way?). These can be safe, but (a.) the adaptors must be there to bring the overall offset (ET# on German cars) back within the acceptable range (probably 18-30 mm for your model) rather than to set the wheel farther out from the hub just for a hot roddy look. Setting the wheel too far outward strains the wheel bearings and may produce odd steering behavior, especially a tendency to follow ruts and give a lot of kickback on bumps, because of the changed relative positions of the centerline of the tire and the centerline of the steering axis. (b.) That thick of a spacer must be "hubcentric" to function properly -- i.e. the hub side of the spacer must be machined precisely to be a very tight fit on the hub of the car and the wheel side must be machined so that the wheel hole is a very tight fit on it -- otherwise you're going to put a lot of stress on the bolts as they have to resist the wheel creeping around against the mounting face (granted, some cars, like the early Porsche 911s on which I have a lot of experience, have been designed by the engineers to center the wheels by the wheel nuts only, but those were cars with very large studs for the weight of the car and the engineers assumed a Porsche mechanic would be very carefully torqueing the bolts in the proper pattern, not some kid at Pep Boys with an air wrench).

2. If you have the kind of spacers which are spacers only, those where the bolts go through the spacers all the way from the wheel into the hub, then you have to make sure that the bolts are the correct length: they should engage the threads in the hub for 16-20mm for most cars. Anything less and you may strip out the threads in ordinary tightening, too much more on a Mercedes W123 and you're risking having the tip of the bolt protrude into the parking brake area on the rear hub and tear up your parking brake mechanism as soon as you put the car in motion -- there are interference risks at the front end too, but the room for error is a bit greater. Some adaptors popular for American cars being modified bolt to the hub first and then the wheel is attached by separate studs and nuts or bolts -- I would prefer this system except for the likely problem that an aluminum adaptor will be much more at risk for overtorquing than the steel hub.

3. Which brings up my worst objection to any spacer wider than 6 or 7 mm: They add weight to the suspension in the form of unsprung weight, which has to be controlled by springs and shocks intended for lighter systems. If you have the best quality stuff in respect to all the above issues, though, I wouldn't be afraid of them, just cautious. I don't have any more specific experience with the brand you mention.