What offset is
Offset is one number that decides whether a wheel looks right and whether it fits at all. It takes about two minutes to understand, and it saves the returns.
A wheel bolts to the hub at its mounting pad — the flat face with the lug holes. Offset is how far that pad sits from the wheel's centreline, in millimetres. That's all it is.
- Zero — the pad is exactly halfway through the wheel.
- Positive — the pad moves toward the street side, pulling the wheel in under the vehicle.
- Negative — the pad moves toward the brake side, pushing the wheel out.
Written on the wheel it looks like ET35 or -44. Same number, two conventions.
Poke, flush, and tuck
The scale under every wheel on this site shows where that wheel lands. Here's how to read it.
Poke · -44mm
Negative offset puts the mounting pad toward the back of the wheel, so the face sits proud of the fender. This is the aggressive look, and the one most likely to rub a flare or throw rocks down the side of the truck.
Flush · 0mm
Near-zero offset puts the pad halfway through the wheel, and the face roughly level with the fender. This is where most factory trucks land and where most builds still look right.
Tuck · +35mm
Positive offset pulls the wheel under the vehicle. Common on street builds and anything that has to clear big brakes, but too much of it will find a strut or a control arm.
Offset and backspacing
Backspacing measures the same thing from a different place: the distance from the mounting pad to the back lip of the wheel, in inches. Shops that have been doing this since before metric offsets often still think in it.
The two convert cleanly, but only if you know the wheel's width — which is why a converter that asks for one number can't be right.
Backspacing
5.5"
Backspacing is measured across the whole wheel, so the width above is the stated width plus one inch of flange. That's the assumption every number here rests on.
Don't want to work it out?
Pick your vehicle and we'll filter the catalog to the offsets that fit it. The range comes from a verified fitment record, not a guess.