Gettin bored of my current setup; Need tires, go big now for later or wait?

Its been a couple years since installing a new lift that consist of:

01 XJ auto
8.25/D30
31x10.50 (I like 10.50)
4.5" springs
Serious Offroad longarms
Serious Offroad 1 ton UTK steering
IRO double shear track bar
SYE (w/ xj front driveshaft in rear)
Durango steering box and mount plate
RC 3" Leafs, drop shackles, drop shackle boxes
No lockers yet, factory gears
This is mostly a DD for now, weekend warrior...but will become trail pig one day.

Basically its time for new tires;
Buy 31's and be happy? (more than likely treadwright guard dogs)
Buy 33x10.5 now, deal with it and save up for gears/lockers? (BFG AT KO)
Skip the stepping stones and buy gearing/lockers now for 35s later? (Not wanting to go bigger than the 4.5" lift)
Or?

Main reason of all this is because to step up in tires sizes really isn't that much in price difference.
I have no issue with dropping the flares and trimming all fenders.

Any advice would be great! Money is an object here, so I have to be wise with how I go about spending it.

Thanks in advance :wave:

I'd do the tires first! 33's if it's going to be a while before you re-gear, 35's if you're going all in! Also tire size can affect your longevity of the axle shafts. Guess it all depends on how much DD vs wheeling you do. I'm at 31's now on 5.5" lift. getting ready to go Dana 44's and 35's too... just my .02

I don't know if you really want to run 35s on a Dana 30 / 8.25 combo. Maybe you do... depends on how you drive & where you drive it. Lockers + Dana 30 + 35s sounds sketchy to me, though.
That in mind, I think you may want to examine what you really want out of the rig. Reliability important? Money spent? Capability wanted? Etc.
Because money spent on a Dana 30 that you might blow up isn't money well spent. With gears & lockers, you're looking at $2500 to do both axles. Add 35s... I'm guessing $3500 all in. Now figure that your brakes will kinda suck & you might be breaking shafts. Fix both problems, you are at $4500 easy.
So...
Yeah.
I'd get 31's and think about it before you go bigger.

I'd go 33's in you plan to regear soon I not go with 32's

yossarian19 said:

I don't know if you really want to run 35s on a Dana 30 / 8.25 combo. Maybe you do... depends on how you drive & where you drive it. Lockers + Dana 30 + 35s sounds sketchy to me, though.
That in mind, I think you may want to examine what you really want out of the rig. Reliability important? Money spent? Capability wanted? Etc.
Because money spent on a Dana 30 that you might blow up isn't money well spent. With gears & lockers, you're looking at $2500 to do both axles. Add 35s... I'm guessing $3500 all in. Now figure that your brakes will kinda suck & you might be breaking shafts. Fix both problems, you are at $4500 easy.

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where are you getting your prices sir? I did my axles for about $1600 and found chromos for the front later. I think theres enough people successfully running 35's on a D30 for it to be interweb acceptable. for me, full circle snap rings have been what's helped me the most IMO. brakes do suck though. other than that the dana 30 has been surprisingly stout

DrivnXJ said:

Main reason of all this is because to step up in tires sizes really isn't that much in price difference.

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however, I dont feel that this is a good reason to buy 35's. when the terrain you wheel warrants a larger tire size (as in you're not getting over all the obstacles you want to), now it's time to step up. my locked 33's took me plenty of places and were much more street friendly than 35's. and 4.56/auto still isnt deep enough gearing

Upgrading to 33 X 10.50 will not be too difficult, after any additional trimming and increases in bump stops. My XJ has the same size tires, with 4.56s, and works fine both off-road and on the freeway.
If it is soon to be a trail only rig, consider deeper gears.(4.88). It's also time to do the lockers or LSDs.
Going to 35s is going to need more work to fit and is at or beyond the limit for the D30. Alloy shafts are suggested.
Know that the brake keep getting worse as the tire diameter increases. To keep mine stopping safely at freeway speeds, I upgraded to bigger fronts and rear brakes.

I recommend something not BFG, unless they are Baja T/A's. I personally hated 31's on stock gears, but as with most YMMV. I would save and do gears/tires.

FWIW... I'd go 33s... and truss the D30 if you can... I'm rockin 37s.. a buddy with a 33 set up goes 99% of all the places I can go... once you start going bigger than 33s, everything gets taxed pretty hard...

If you go 33s, and have local pick and pulls, worth carrying spare D30 shafts (they're $15 a piece here at the local yard).. I never broke a D30 shaft with 33 TSLs.. but I still carried spare shafts...

I drove around with 3.55s and 32s for a while... wasn't awesome, but also wasn't horrible either...