Tire Liars, Pants on Fire: A Rant Then a Review of Some Tires and Wheels

This thread is dedicated to the ridiculousness of "nominal" tire sizes that end up being stamped onto tires by manufacturers who otherwise want to be able to claim some kind of credibility in the marketplace. It's also going to serve as a review of the Super Swamper LTB in 35x12.5-16LT on Interco Birddog 16x9 wheels with the standard 5 on 4.5 bolt pattern and 3.5 inch backspacing. I am a bit of a storyteller, so please bear with me.

To put this discussion in context, I have been looking for the perfect tire for my 90% offroad-only '98 XJ for months. I'm currently running a set of BFG KM2's in the 33x10.5-15 flavor on stock XJ alloy wheels. For most of the wheeling that I do, they are a pretty good option, but they kind of suck in thick, sticky mud. I use 1.25" wheel spacers and am happy with the fitment with my ~5.5 inches of lift and some trimming. The tires are nearly new and on a skinny rim which should maximize their actual installed height. The KM2s measure about 31.5 inches rather than even being close to 33 inches as they sit on the Jeep.

I decided to search for a much more aggressive 35" tire due to having unsettled business with a particularly tricky mud hole that is nearby. Years ago, I first encountered the hole completely unaware of its history or reputation and sunk my then-girlfriend's '01 XJ with an 8" Rusty's long arm lift and 33x12.5x15" Dunlop Mud Rovers hopelessly into the mire. What looked like a little bit of standing water on a little bit more mud actually turned out to be a bottomless clay hole fed by an underground spring. I entered the hole a bit to the left, and the left tire was nearly submerged and the right tire was nowhere to be seen. There was no driving anywhere once we were in that pit. She also had open differentials and that didn't help. After an hour and a half with a come-along, we were back out. We've been in that area many times since, but we never attempted to cross the hole again since nothing new had changed on her Jeep or mine to make us think we had any chance of making it. But there was occasionally evidence that other people had tried and failed to make it through as well. The hole is just about a Jeep long, and about a third of a Jeep deep, so I think it swallows up vehicles and the bottomless mud then gives no traction for the uphill exit and that's it--stuck.

Back on topic. I've been interested in conquering this mud hole for years. Now I live 15 minutes rather than 4 hours away from it. I have other sets of tires if the Jeep needs to assume DD duty plus a nice onroad car, so I've come to the point where I'm ready to get a set of dedicated offroad tires. Anyway, the 33x10.5's fit fine. Additionally, the 33x12.5 Mud Rovers on Cragar 15x10 and 4" backspace fit fine. So I started thinking about getting some 35x12.5's with a super-aggressive tread to help me pull it off. I don't want Super Swamer Boggers. I know that's one of the best choices for this type of scenario, but I want more sidehill traction and honestly, although I'm obsessed with this mud hole, I'd rather do other stuff that is less icky most of the time. Where I live, in the Appalachian hills, there isn't much mud anyway. Most of the mud is 4-6" thick with a hard rock bottom and some water sitting on it. So Boggers are out, mostly because I can't justify the cost of them simply based on the vanity of traversing the only real mud hole within many miles. Because I'm not going to have to DD this, my second best choice as I see it would be the Super Swamper LTB. I liked the 34x10.5 size tire, but based on prior experience at the infamous "Turtle Hole," as the locals have dubbed it, I was sure that I needed more width than that for greater flotation given how deep the hole is, and more height also for good measure. I was elated when I discovered that the tire was manufactured in a 35x12.5-15 size also, although I could scarely find any references to it on any forums or the internet at large. I had been leaning toward the 36x13.5-15 IROKs until that point, but I was scared that they were going to be too large for the Jeep and I wanted to be able to get the tires mounted and wheel it right away, and Interco's website claimed an actual height of 36.8 inches. I actually preferred the TSL-SX, but they were also too large also, with sizes like 33x15.5 or 35x15.5 just seeming incredibly too wide for my setup. I had been reading a lot of stories about axle shaft breakage with these sizes also, so I wasn't 100% comfortable with those choices for several reasons. So when I discovered the 35 inch LTB, with it's more aggressive tread, and a claimed actual height of 35 inches, I was elated! I quickly discovered that these are not easy tires to find for sale, even though the 34x10.5-15s seem to be easily had from multiple sources. Finally I found a place that claimed to have them in stock. I ordered 5 of them. A friend had gotten me a set of super cheap used 15x10 rims that seemed like they would be a pretty good match for these tires, so I was stoked about only having to buy a single spare steel wheel. I placed my order, only to find out the next week that not only did they not have them in stock, but they claimed Interco was also discontinuing the tire and that they (meaning the company I placed the order through) were dropping the Interco line entirely.

I had one other option in 35 inch LTBs, but that option was the not-quite-the-same 35x12.5-16. I think the 15" version was a load range C and the 16" was a load range E. Since these are going on a Cherokee, I was a little wary, since I wanted to be able to get some tire flex without resorting to running beadlocks at 0-2 psi. In the end, my lust for that particular tire led me to place the order anyway, and my plan was to run them on the not particularly popular Interco Birddog 16x9" wheel with 3.5" backspace, which according to my calculations would put the actual tire in just about the same exact spot as the 33x12.5's on the 10" wide wheel with the 4" backspace. As far as I could tell, the Birddog should allow me to air down to high single digits, do some reasonably fun stuff, and have less chance of losing a bead on the tire vs. running a regular non-beadlock wheel. I read a review of these wheels and the reviewer had pushed them down to 5 psi without losing a bead. This, and the utter difficulty of finding wheels with a workable offset and backspacing funneled me to the Birddogs, which seem to be almost universally hated for their ugliness. Frankly, my whole Jeep is ugly as hell. These wheels aren't going to make things any worse.

If you're still with me, good--let us proceed further! The tires showed up this past Friday. I'm a huge fan of the tread pattern, and am happy with my choice in that regard. However, the tires, not mounted on wheels yet, measure 33 inches tall. Interco claims this is an actual 35 inch tire. Moreover, the tire looks no wider than my 10.5 inch wide KM2s, and definitely less wide than the Mud Rovers. I have a mounted brand new full size spare Rover, and it is 32 inches high when not installed on the vehicle. Perhaps this undersizing is a good thing, while I'm still running the Dana 30 up front, but I feel pretty let down by the claimed size of these tires. I knew that most tires are not the size that are stamped on them, but I figured that if a manufacturer specifically listed the height as a separate piece of data that there might be some correlation with reality, and in this case it's off by 2 inches. The worst part of this is that I specifically wanted a wider tire, and I'm just not seeing it. In general I like skinny tires, but that's not what I was going for here.

Hopefully the wheels come this week and I can get out and put them to task. I'll post up some pictures of the tires in the meantime, and also discuss the minor upgrades to the front axle that will hopefully be up to the task of pushing these hunks of rubber around.

In the meantime, if you have any experience with these tires or wheels, feel free to throw out your impressions on them or anything else vaguely related to the subjects at hand! If you think I've made a terrible choice with E rated tires, I'd like to know that also. The wheeling will reveal all in the end, but for right now I'm not wheeling, I'm just working on my front axle and waiting for the wheels to show up. I think I'm going to balance them with 10 ounces of beads and not even bother with lead weights. These are said to be some of the worst road tires on the planet in terms of roundness and balance, and I knew that going into this.

Some pictures.

As received:


35x12.5-15 LTB next to a couple of 33x10.5-15 KM2s:


I'll get a shot with the tape measure tomorrow.

Are you eye balling it from tread width or sidewall bulge width? Because the sidewall is where you measure width

I measure 10 5/16" as the section width on the (unmounted) LTB which is advertised as a 12.5". This will probably expand a bit on the 9" wide wheel. But I still doubt it will come close to the advertised size. For reference, the KM2 on the stock teardrop alloy has a section width of 10.5", and the Rover has a section width of 12" on the 10" wide wheel. I will remeasure the section width of the LTB on the 9" wide wheel once they get here and the tire is mounted. I had read elsewhere that the LTBs are "thinner than advertised" so I will personally attest that I'm also seeing this trend.

I've owned 2 sets of them and love them. 31x11.50r15 and now 35x12.50r15. The 31's actually ran a little bigger than 31" but the 35's measured 33.5". Tread widths were the same. Wasn't very happy about that, but they do hook up pretty well. I have to air them down pretty low to get them to flex. Usually 5-7 psi. I have beadlocks now, but never blew a bead with the 31s and no beadlocks. I did, however break the stock dana 30 shafts twice running the 31s and an aussie locker before I upgraded. Looking at the 40" version next.

jake3240 said:

I've owned 2 sets of them and love them. 31x11.50r15 and now 35x12.50r15. The 31's actually ran a little bigger than 31" but the 35's measured 33.5". Tread widths were the same. Wasn't very happy about that, but they do hook up pretty well. I have to air them down pretty low to get them to flex. Usually 5-7 psi. I have beadlocks now, but never blew a bead with the 31s and no beadlocks. I did, however break the stock dana 30 shafts twice running the 31s and an aussie locker before I upgraded. Looking at the 40" version next.

Click to expand...

I'm certain that I'm going to really like these as well. I've never run a tire this aggressive before and I'm expecting increased capability from the XJ but I do wish they had been a little truer to advertised size. I love the picture--you're getting great flex there. I'm only at about five and a half inches so I couldn't stuff 40's but these "35's" shouldn't be too bad since they are only an inch taller than the 33 Mud Rovers but thinner at the same time. I'll be doing a little (more) cutting on the front fenders to help with that. I'll try to get before and after pics of my trim job.

I'm running a 30 spline Ox locker up front in the Dana 30 with alloy shafts and stock sized 27 spline outers. I just put in brand new Alloy USA greasable u-joints and some Moog unit bearings and upper ball joints to freshen up the axle. Part of my strategy for keeping the axle alive with the LTBs will be to only lock the axle when I really have to. For the rear I'm currently running an open 29 spline 8.25. It was locked up with an Aussie for years but the locker finally became dysfunctional at the end of this past winter. I almost bought an Ox for the current rear but decided it would be foolish to do so. So I bought an 8.8 with an open case and 4.10 gears to match my current setup. I had an Aussie locker for that already because I had bought one for my girlfriend's rig but it turned out to have the LS case and the locker wouldn't fit. So the current plan is to leave the 8.25 open to avoid breakage with the LTBs then install the 8.8 and lock that. I do miss the locker in the rear, but I'm getting by. If the 8.8 shafts go I do have a spare 8.8 and then I also have a Superior Super 88 kit that I bought a few years back. But before I get into that I'd like to see how the stock 8.8 fares with the LTBs.

I'm a little torn about whether to wait until I lift this a couple more inches to install the 8.8, however, because I only want to have the spring perches welded on once, and I want the angle to be correct for that lift height, not my current one. What I'd like to do is make boxes to lift the front attachment point of the rear leafs to bump it up just a little bit in the back, then I'll lift the front with the JKS ACOS spacers to match the rear. Just another inch or two would be enough.

What gear ratio and lift height did you go with, and are you running long arms in the flex pic? One of my reservations with buying the 16" wheel version is their really high load rating. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that I can get some decent sidewall flex anyway. The Birddog wheels will be fully vetted as far as hype or useful goes soon after I'm up and running again.

I'm having the tires mounted on Monday and am really anxious to see how the dynabeads work or don't to balance these beasts, but my alternator went bad the other day, and to my dismay, after I pulled the alternator out of my '99 to get me back on the road without waiting for parts, I realized the '98 is wired differently. Oops. So I'm probably going to have the old one rebuilt, which will set me back a few days. But I should be able to install the newly mounted tires, do my cutting, and be ready to rip as soon as I get my rebuilt alternator back.

The pic was at Big dogs on insanity trail. I'm running a 8.8 rear with the super 88 kit & Detroit locker and haven't treated it nicely. Lots of heavy throttle hill climbs and playing in the rocks. No problems yet. The rear has a 4.5" RE lift with some homemade shackle relocation boxes. Front has 4.5" RE coils with a 2" spacer and homemade long arms (I copied Clayton's radius arm kit) Also used Daystar bumpstops in the front. Front axle is a dynatrac 44/60 w/ARB. Gears are 4.88's. 40's are gonna take some serious trimming/fab and a bit of stretching, it's looking like. Especially since I still want to keep it full bodied and streetable for when I drive it back home to TX. I'll probably sell the 8.8 and build a 14 bolt if I decide to go that route though.

Updating on the tire situation, I got the mounted tires back today and remeasured. I'm still working on the front end so I only installed them on the rear. With the 30psi the shop put in them, they measure 34.75 inches tall and 12 inches wide. On the rear of the Jeep at this pressure (adjusted after install) they sit right about 34 inches tall. I guess that demonstrates how much of a tire expert I am not, so I'm done bitching about the tire measurements vs. advertised size! I'm pretty happy with how the actual tire end of this has worked out. Here are some fitment pics with the tires mounted on 16x9 wheels and 3.5" backspacing:





Looks like I could have gone with the 4.5" backspace but I'm not unhappy with the stance as it is. I have tons of clearance for chains should I decide to keep these on in the winter. The one thing I'm concerned about is how close the leading edge of the tire sits to the body. I know the tire center will move backwards as the spring flexes so it may or may not be a problem. If it is a problem, I believe I have some minor recourse available because ( if I remember correctly!) I can move the spring packs back one notch on the spring perches.

You can see the nice rust hole in area right behind the tire. I'm planning on cutting those pockets out on both sides. It may look a little funny with the bumper hanging down but I'm not worried about it. I like nice lines but functionality trumps that aesthetic for me, and I'm imagining it's going to be easier to stuff the tires once I move the springs back and cut the extra sheet metal out. I should have the front tires on by the weekend, possibly after some fender trimming front and rear.

We can either call it a low COG project or we can say that there is officially no money left for this project. Both are currently true. . . . . . .......

Nothing earth-shaking or novel, but the cutting is almost done. I need to weld the rear pockets so I don't take on water at too great of a rate. I cut and folded the metal that was still good and will cover the entire area with new sheet metal and weld in place.

Initial thoughts on the LTBs after driving to and on some very local mild trails:

First off, the dynabeads are not doing a very good job of balancing these tires. I start getting some heavy oscillation in the front end around 40mph. I think I should have had the tires balanced for lateral imbalance then used the beads as an additional measure. Unfortunately, since there are 10 oz. of beads in the tires that can move anywhere they want, it's too late to do that now. These tires will only be used for trails anyway, but it would be nice to be able to drive to the trails at more conventional speeds. I know the bias ply tires are subject to flat spotting, but I had the same issue when returning from the trails when the tires were plenty warm.

For hard packed dirt roads with some loose gravel on the surface, running the front and rear tires at 15psi, I find these tires to be not especially grippy, most likely due to the small amount of tire tread actually in contact with the ground. I found my rig being pulled to the side and drifting a bit on the gravel since the forest roads are peaked in the middle.

On an off camber hill climb with a loose surface, with the open rear diff and in 2wd, I could spin The unloaded tire easily. The tire smoked quickly, a testament to the soft rubber compound, I believe. I needed 4wd to climb the hill. Seems about average for any tire in a similar situation. I was worried that these tires would be a little too much for the 4.10 gears, but it doesn't seem to be an issue. They are pushing the limits of my braking system, though, on steep hills.

I haven't sealed the rear pockets that I cut out yet so I've been avoiding the mud and any wet trails. That being said, I did run into some really soft wet ground on a trail I expected to be dry while running in 2wd. It seemed like I was going to get stuck digging straight down in 2wd, so I put it in 4 and backed out as gently as I could. I'm certain that I could have pushed forward without issue, but I just cleaned off all the old mud and I'm really trying to keep the rear pockets clean so I can finish that job. Time to clean some more.



I've been running with the sway bar attached to keep the front tires from making contact with the body. I could pin the previous 33x10.5 KM2 tires to the top of the fender wells in the front pretty easily, and at this lift height, it seems like keeping the tires alive is going to require bump stops, which I've gotten away with not running previously. The sway bar is doing an impressive job of keeping me from flexing up front, but clearly that's not what I'm looking for in the long run. The wheel offset brings the tires dangerously close to the edges of that sheet metal. The 4.5 inch backspace wheels would have been a better choice in retrospect. Here are a few pics of the tire fitment with the fenders fully trimmed, wheels turned to show how turning affects the fit.




Running on flat surfaces, there are no issues with turning. I don't think I could flex the axles much without problems, though. In the front, the rear edge of the tire is in jeapordy, and in the rear, the front edge of the tire looks like it will hit the body. I'm thinking about adding a leaf to the rear and just raising the ACOS spacers which are set at minimum lift right now. I'm hoping about 2 more inches would be sufficient, but I could be very wrong. Given how the leaf springs sit, they will move rearward slightly as the spring is compressed, but I'm not sure if that will be enough. I know, bump stops. . .

If anyone has any suggestions on how to get a few more inches in the rear on the cheap, I'm open to suggestions!

Briefly, what I would have done differently knowing what I do now.

1) 4.5" rather than 3.5" backspace on the 16x9 wheels.
2) Used conventional weights for lateral imbalance prior to installing the dynabeads.
3) Set Jeep up with 2-3" more lift ahead of time.
4) Bought sheet metal to cover the rear pocket area that was cut out ahead of time!

Temporary fix on the rear to keep me from dying of carbon monoxide poisoning and also to allow for some light mud action. Yep, it's Gorilla tape. Super lowbrow modified tech, but it's going to allow me to actually get some use out of this thing while I organize my time and materials to seal the rear body cutouts correctly.



Properly taped up I hit the mud again that I had accidentally run into the other day. It's a sloped area and the mud isn't very deep, but it is thick slimy clay. On the downhill, I could do it in 2wd and the uphill required 4wd. Not surprisingly, these tires really do seem to shine in the mud.

I've been trying to track down the issue with the tires. I swapped out the larger LTBs for the old KM2s on the front earlier today and took it for a quick spin down the road. It looks funny but the diagnostic usefulness is priceless. Also, the photo angle makes the front tires look larger, but both the wheels and tires are larger on the rear. No 4wd for me today.



I had very little vibration up to 50mph, which was the fastest I attempted to go. With the LTBs installed front and rear, at 35mph they start to vibrate and at 40 it is ridiculous, but it does seem to be isolated to the front axle. Because I had no appreciable vibration with half the LTB set still installed, I now suspect death wobble rather than a balance issue with the tires themselves. I could be wrong, though, so here's my plan of attack to figure out what's going on. First, I will swap out the rear LTBs for the set I just took off the front. The rears rode very smoothly despite the unstreetable reputation the LTB seems to have online. So, either I have a bad tire or the former front tires are also going to ride very smoothly on the rear axle. I'd prefer that they do ride smoothly, so I don't have to send any of the tires back. Assuming that they do ride fine in the rear, I will pull off the KM2s and put the former rear tires on the front. I know the rear tires were running very nicely just a couple of hours ago, so if my death wobble returns, I'll start looking at the toe-in on the front axle, as well as check for any loose connections. I just changed out the upper ball joints and unit bearings, and I hadn't noticed anything loose at that time. Also, the 33s are running fine up front, so my first best guess is that I am looking at a toe issue should the former front tires check out fine on the rear. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

I have to replace the inner axle seals so I'll do that before I try putting the rear LTBs on the front, just because it is easier to pull off the 33s when I deconstruct the axle. I'll check for pinion bearing looseness or obvious wear while the carrier is out (I'm getting a clicking and a metal on metal rubbing noise in the front axle when the front is actively driven--whether the OX is locked or unlocked--that tracks vehicle speed and goes away when I put it back in 2wd).

Anyway, I was talking to a friend of mine who just put 38.5x14x17 Boggers on his lifted Rubicon. He says he runs an 1/8 inch toe OUT. He claims that they will track the road better with the toe out. I was going to go for a slight toe IN. Does anyone have any suggestions on this? I've always gone IN on the toe with my previous tires.

Just a quick update. The front tires that were involved in the death wobble ride fine up to 65mph when placed in the rear. The problem is definitely related to the front end setup. I'll be replacing the front inner axle seals tonight so after that I'll look into tuning the toe in better.

Things have been lagging a bit on the inner axle seals. I was noticing a clicking coming from the front axle whenever I drove in full- or part-time 4wd since a few weeks before my last post. I suspected bad pinion bearings, and further research made me think I was right about that. Things have gotten more complicated since then as I've torn the differential apart to investigate. The inner pinion bearing cup had serious brinneling on one quadrant and I'm certain that was the issue. I also noticed that there was no measurable preload on the pinion bearings. I used a dial type in-lb torque wrench and it wouldn't even register any torque whatsoever. After further research, I determined that one of the previous owners of this axle had likely replaced the pinion bearings but used too thick of a shim stack to set the preload. The bearings were NTN and looked very nice except for the obvious damage. But the inner oil baffle had a big dent in it, which must have occurred when the last guy installed it. I kind of doubt that the factory dented it when they put it in. One thing I noticed after I installed these axles under my Jeep maybe 5 years back was that in full- or part-time 4wd there was always a light grinding noise coming from the front end. I'm kind of wondering if that is why the axles were sold to me in the first place. Who knows. . .

I had installed an OX locker with the 30 spline upgrade in the Dana 30 front end after I bought the axle set, and I only had to adjust the carrier shims to get a good pattern on the gears. The backlash was also fine. I didn't have to mess with the pinion at all because I was reusing the ring gear.

At the time, I couldn't trace where that grinding noise was coming from. After extensive research on the pinion bearings, I discovered that the grinding noise that comes when you hit the gas and stops immediately afterwards is a sign of insufficient pinion bearing preload. So after 5 years, that led to the further symptom of "click click click" when the axle was actively driven, and that's what finally tipped me off.

I'm in the middle of replacing the pinion bearings now but where I've run into problems is with the carrier bearing shims. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to deal with them at all but I can't get a good pattern with the gears now just by adjusting the pinion depth alone, and the backlash is at 8 thousandths at the current depth--the outer edge of acceptable--even though the pattern looks like the pinion is too close on the drive side of the ring gear now. So I need to adjust the carrier shims. I sucked it up and bought the super nice bearing puller that Yukon, G2, East Coast Gear Supply and other places sell so the bearings came off damage free, happily.

But now I come to the issue that has stopped me in my tracks for now. I was having a very hard time finding my extra carrier shims after 5 years and a huge move from the Philadelphia suburbs to nowheresville where I live now. It's not obvious what shims are supposed to be used. I called OX up yesterday and they said the Ratech 1116 shim kit, which is for a D44, works. I ordered them and a set of Yukon D44 "Super Shims" to see if they are actually correct. I should have those by Wednesday so hopefully soon I will be able to get back to the business of reviewing the tires!

In the meantime, I went out to this crazy spring/clay mudhole with a friend who drives a pretty beefed up Rubicon with 38.5x13.5 Swamper Boggers. Here's a link on youtube of that nonsense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEw2CzJOzh8

I will get a video of this from the outside next time we go. Hopefully my 35 inch LTBs will be able to pull through it as well. That is, after all, why I bought them.

I've now replaced the pinion bearings and set up the gears again but I believe the pinion is a bit on the deep side. I had obtained a set of setup bearings for the carrier (which are for the stock Dana 30 carrier and don't work with my OX carrier) that also included an inner pinion bearing setup race. The Timken race was very convenient to use as I went through numerous iterations of shim adjustment on these worn out old gears, but when I switched to the Koyo race for the final install the pinion was clearly pushed pretty far forward, and backlash closed down to 2 thousandths. I tend to order the Miller factory tools for tricky jobs and my inner race remover had not arrived yet, so I adjusted the backlash out to 5 thousandths by reshimming the carrier and called it a day. I'll deal more with this later. For now, the grinding noise I had the last 5 years is now gone. The gears aren't whining. If they do explode before I readjust the pinion, I'll suck it up and buy new 4.88's, which the rest of the powertrain will thank me for. At 223k miles, this thing is still treating me quite well.

Next I adjusted the toe-in outwards by a full turn of the adjusting collar. Death wobble was almost gone. Today I took it another 3/4 turn and it drove well up to 55 mph. I had no reason to take it any faster. Just a hint of vibration from the passenger side at that speed.

After I finished the gear setup and drove it, it was still clicking from up front, now worse than ever. I swapped out the almost new front drive shaft for a very used Ford Explorer (front, I think) shaft that I had bought years ago and the clicking went away.

Excited about all that excess noise having gone away, I took it out on the forest roads and ended up at this hill I used to call Impossible Climb. In 4-low with the front axle locked, I was finally able to make this climb on my first attempt with just a bit of wheel spin as the rear tires hit the final ledge at the top of the climb. I know you are supposed to baby gears after they are set up. These are old and very used and I'm not worried about it. I'm not trying to tempt fate, but I would like a reason to have to buy deeper gears. New gears are so much easier to pattern also. It took me a while to accept that the drive side pattern was never going to look nice.

At this point, I have gotten some good wheeling in with this new tire/wheel combo, and except for the obvious fact that I could have gone with the 4.5 inch backspaced wheels vs. the 3.5 inch backspace that I did go with, I am very happy with this tire wheel combo. The brakes are still working quite well with this tire size. They are stock except the EBC slotted/dimpled front rotors. I put new pads on yesterday--the other ones were almost worn out and I was having low brake pedal issues that worried me until I saw why.

The climb I did today was loose dirt and rock at the bottom, with an intervening ledge of crumbly slate rock that increased the climb angle, then another section of looser dirt and crumbled rock, followed by a ledge of solid sandstone looking rock. I'd been eyeing it up for years, and now I can finally climb it without any drama or desperate charging techniques using excessive momentum and prayer (like my friend did while I watched from a safe distance).

Once I weld the rear pockets I cut out for tire clearance shut, I will try that mud hole that had humbled my former girlfriend's (and now wife!) XJ on 33 inch Mud Rovers. Maybe another couple of weeks before I have the free time to seal those pockets up. Right now Gorilla Tape is preventing me from asphyxiating on exhaust fumes, and that will do for now.

Here is an illustrative picture showing a number of the front end modifications that I've done that will hopefully increase the survivability of the Dana 30 running the 35 inch LTB tires.



While the axle was out for the pinion bearing replacement, I mentioned that I added the bump stops. They are visible in the picture near the JKS logo on the sway bar disconnect. The bump stops are about 4 inches tall right now, but the nice thing about the arrangement is that they are modular and adjustable in approxmately one inch increments. I haven't flexed the axle out yet to see if the height is currently optimal, so it's probably not, but it's on the to-do list.

I'm using a solid tie rod from a V8 ZJ, which also has larger tie rod ends than the stock XJ rod. Also to augment the steering is a combination of the reinforcement plate for the JCR bumper, a JCR steering box reinforcement plate to replace the stock aluminum bracket and the front hitch receiver, which also makes a very convenient centered attachment point for the winch when doubling the line back with a snatch block. With the 35 inch LTBs, I think that the minor steering upgrades are still insufficient. I occasionally get a nasty cracking noise when driving in 4 low on turns. It's fine for everyday use on the road--no scary noises then--but who really wants to walk home from the trail? One ton steering is probably the next upgrade that I will invest in. Hopefully the current steering survives for a little while, anyway.

The OX locker is also part of the strategy, insofar as the heavy front cover helps strengthen the housing, and I try to only engage the locker when I am moving in a straight line and it is really needed. I think an Aussie locker like I usually run in the rear would help hasten the demise of this axle much more quickly. I do run alloy shafts with 30 spline inners and stock 27 spline outers.

Right now I'm running an open diff in the rear 8.25 axle since my Aussie died at the end of a fun winter wheeling season. I will be moving to a Ford 8.8 in the semi-near future. I have one that is factory geared the same 4.10 as my other rear and I also have an Aussie locker for it. I'm having a small dilemma with the 8.8 though because I would like to install it sooner rather than later but I also want to lift the Jeep a couple more inches and don't want to have to redo the weld-on spring perches and shock mounts. I run a Riddler diff cover on the 8.25 and I have one for the 8.8 also for rock protection and housing stiffening. I've thought about tack welding degree shims onto the perches to correct the angle and just setting the angle of the hardware beforehand for the eventual target height, but I find it doubtful that I will be able to accurately predict the final spring height, whether I was adding a leaf or getting new spring packs entirely. I have the JKS ACOS system on the front coils which I will use to level the Jeep once the rear is lifted more. The additional height I'm looking for is mainly a measure to increase my available up-travel with the 35's.

Another way I have tried to preserve my axles in the past has been through the general use of the full-time 4wd feature of the NP242 transfer case. It made the Aussie locker that I had in the rear way more transparent and I like the idea of available torque being split between two axles rather than just pushing on the rear, especially as tire size and weight has steadily increased over the past couple of years. I did a hack and tap on the 242 that I think was based on Gojeep's writeup that uses a stock looking yoke but I've been tending to think more about reinstalling the NP231 case I have in the garage. I just pulled it apart to put a new chain in it the other night, only to find the plastic pads were broken to pieces and no longer where they belonged. With the SYE installed, I'm pretty sure that it's a way stronger option, and I also have the Tera 2 Low kit installed to let me run it in. . . 2 low. I pulled it a couple of years ago because it was leaking. I now believe that it was leaking directly out the yoke because I hadn't used any sealant on the splined area when I put it all together. It was good for a couple hundred miles then started leaking furiously, and a new seal didn't stop the leak. I didn't worry about it for a long time because I really liked having the full-time 4wd. I'm bummed that I can't have the best of all worlds, but at this point, I think the stronger case is warranted, particularly since this is now a 90% offroad machine now. I have a stock '99 Sport that I think I will put the 242 case in, once I figure out its overheating problems. If you've never had the pleasure of having a vehicle overheat in -10 F weather, consider yourself lucky.

Future plans also include regearing to 4.88. I have a low pinion D30 that came from an '01 XJ in the garage that is in excellent low mileage condition. My plan is to swap that into the '99 and use the '99 high pinion D30 for the regear. I also have an extra 8.8 with 3.55 gearing so I can basically regear the axles at my leisure while still having two fully functional vehicles, assuming I've worked out the overheating issues in the '99 by then. The nice thing about this approach is that I could just weld the spring perches and shock mounts onto the axle with the 4.10 gears for the current lift height and then lift and regear simultaneously once the other 8.8 had been regeared from 3.55 to 4.88. Around the time the Aussie locker gives out in the 8.8, I will look to upgrade to an OX locker for the 8.8. Of course, by then the engine will probably have 300k miles on it and the whole thing will fall apart like the cop car at the end of the Blues Brothers movie. . .

:gee:

I don't have any experience with OX lockers, but it seems strange that running the cable in that arrangement is the best option. Don't they make a cover that engages from the other side? Is there a driver or passenger side diff option?