3 inch needing to clear 32s delima...

So I have had my 1999 sport for a few years now and im ready to make some changes. The PO installed a 3 inch BDS lift with new leaf packs, fox shocks, SYE, Tom Woods DS, with fixed BDS lower control arms. I measured from the frame and I have around 3.5" lift up front and 4" in the back. The problem is it had brand new 28" duratrack tires on it when I got it. I told myself as soon as the tires wore out I was going with 31s. Well its been 2 years and the tires still look brand new!
Well I scored a set of 2014 rubicon takeoffs on craigslist and im itching to put them on. My spidertrack spacers should be here next week but until then I had a few questions.
I think the spacers will give he around 4.5" of BS and the tires measure 31.5" There a no rocks around here just mud so I will not be flexing like crazy. Can I kiss the stock flares goodbye with these tires? I expect a little trimming up front but any uptravel might wipe out my factory flares. I like the look of the factory flares and would like to avoid aftermarket ones if at all possible.
So.... should I look into something like ACOS up front and maybe a shackle relocation out back for a little more lift? Would I need to change out anything like my fixed control arms? I have no DW and would like to keep it that way!
Let me know what you think.

Bumpstops help..
Rears might rub the inner part of the flare a little.
Fronts, some people trim fenders and relocate the flares. Flexy flares are awesome, and super simple to install.

adding ACOS (or any other means of lift) isnt going to do anything for you. the susnsion is still going to compress until it hits something, intentional or not. you need to limit the suspension travel upward (bump stop) or cut the fenders. and you dont want to cut the fenders, soooo...

Fair enough, I think I will roll with it and see how bad it rubs. But I reckon I will end up going with some flares in the near future. Thanks for steering me in the right direction rather than blowing money on more lift.

More lift wouldn't have helped much at full compression of one of your springs anyway. Bumpstop and/or trim.

you'll be fine at 3" and 32s . Just bump stop and trim. Its cheap and easy. I ran 3" and 33 swampers for a long time. Bump stopping is important here.

don't plan on wheel spacers. Get rims with 3.75" BS , maybe even consider 3.5" BS.
I recently have been running 36s on around 4.5" of lift.

I think you want more backspacing to tuck the wheels in better. Factory wheels are 4.5" bs and would fit better for low lift and tucking.

The less bs you have, like 3.75", the more you'll have to cut. Most aftermarket wheels are 3.75" on an 8" wheel.

He bought rubicon takeoffs, so I'm assuming the rims are 5on5 and it's an adapter spacer? Those jk rubicon rims are beautiful and if I owned a more street friendly jeep I'd run them too.

zachandandy said:

He bought rubicon takeoffs, so I'm assuming the rims are 5on5 and it's an adapter spacer?

Click to expand...

The wheels I bought have 6.5" of backspace, without any adapters.

Nobody said 5x4.5" wheels with 6.5" of backspace weren't available, but if he bought JK take off WHEELS and tires he would be running an adapter spacer.

6.5" of backspacing!!! good lord. wow. ok thats a lot. those tires are going to suck in like crazy.

Honestly, you might end up having issues with the rear tires getting into the frame/body when flexing out with that much. I used to run 3.75" and never had an issue . If you are getting into a 12.5 wide tire and 6.5" of BS I see lots of issues in your future.


Since you love these rims, you will need spacers for sure to help and that wont really fix it- which I don't like to use. and you really should not go over 1" wide spacers, so thats like 5.5" of BS still . man.

6.5 inches of backspacing is asking for control arm rubbing issues, even after adding spacers

Tony_SS said:

I think you want more backspacing to tuck the wheels in better. Factory wheels are 4.5" bs and would fit better for low lift and tucking.

The less bs you have, like 3.75", the more you'll have to cut. Most aftermarket wheels are 3.75" on an 8" wheel.

Click to expand...

Stock wheels have 5.25 inch BS. He will need less BS to keep off the control arms.

Rod Knee said:

Stock wheels have 5.25 inch BS. He will need less BS to keep off the control arms.

Click to expand...

correct and correct.

it sounds like some people in here have backspacing and offset confused.

The tires are not in front of me but I have heard bs is 6 or 6.25. So with my 1.25" spacers I'm looking at 4.75 or 5 inches of bs. I think the rubicon km2s are 9.5 inches wide. You guys have me scared now!
There is a guy on another cherokee forum running jk takeoffs like mine with the same spacers and he says the tires stick out slightly past the stock flares. But then again his is an older body style, from the looks of it an early 90s. Do older body styles have more frame Clearance than my 99?

Here is the link kind of near the bottom

http://m.cherokeeforum.com/showthread.php?t=122765&styleid=16

Rod Knee said:

Stock wheels have 5.25 inch BS. He will need less BS to keep off the control arms.

Click to expand...

Yes, but not so much less that the wheels will stick out and rub when flexed. I don't have the chart in front of me but from Erics book, when you only have a 3" lift, you want about 4" of bs to tuck the wheels better during flex. I had the oem Gambler wheels for a short time and they have 5.5" bs which was way too much.

VAhasnoWAVES said:

correct and correct.

it sounds like some people in here have backspacing and offset confused.

Click to expand...

Yes alot of people get confused. Here's a great link to sort it out:

http://www.rimsntires.com/specspro.jsp

Tony_SS said:

Yes, but not so much less that the wheels will stick out and rub when flexed.

Click to expand...

Trim/bumpstop/WJ LCA's/steering stop mod...in some combination. Less backspace than the stock 5.25 inch is generally advantageous.

Backspacing on stock JK wheels is 6.25". The spidertrax adapters are 1.25", giving him 5" of BS. I think I had 32's with 4.75" of BS and they didn't rub my control arms. The tires did however tuck into the fenders when flexed. I think the OP's setup will work fine unless he gets into some fairly agressive wheeling.

sunburned said:

Backspacing on stock JK wheels is 6.25". The spidertrax adapters are 1.25", giving him 5" of BS. I think I had 32's with 4.75" of BS and they didn't rub my control arms. The tires did however tuck into the fenders when flexed. I think the OP's setup will work fine unless he gets into some fairly agressive wheeling.

Click to expand...

With 5" backspace at full flex and with the steering wheel cranked left or right, it will be very close. My estimate is that he will rub on the CA's. Better to start with a wheel of sufficiently low backspace to assure clearance of the control arms and then trim/bumpstop as needed. Having a contingency plan to swap in WJ LCA's if needed might mitigate concerns over rubbing if he indeed stays with his plans to use the wheels with the 6.25" backspace in combination with the adapters.