The spacer is a thinner version of the lockring. It is meant to make the bead channel on you bead locks a little wider so uour bolts and lock ring are not stressed out. As we go bigger in tires there are going to be more manufacturers that have some thick tire beads that will not fit into, say Method beadlocks with out a lot of pressure. You should be able to start a lockring bolt without pushing on the lockring much if at all. Most people will say use longer bolts, WRONG! Use an 8mm to 15mm lockring spacer and then use bolts that are 8mm to 15mm longer then original bolts. Its all fun in games until you start popping bolt heads off and then your lock ring comes flying off along with your tire going around a corner at 35mph. This is a new issue to the SXS community but an old one for us rock crawlers, jeepers, and prerunners. The added speed, weight, and tire size of our rides is going to start to show issues that some UTV users have never seen before.