33" or 35" tires

I'm going to put a 5.5" rubacon express lift on my XJ and was wondering what tires will work best, the 33" or the 35". The jeep has stock and gearing. Will the 35's be too hard on my gearing?


Also, how tall(around) will my XJ be with the 5.5" lifts and the 35" tires?

both sizes are too much for stock gearing, but 33s will be lesser of two evils. are you comfortable with hacking the fenders? do you have a good rear axle, 29spline 8.25, D44, 8.8, etc? how hard do you wheel? where? I wouldn't consider a D30 to be reliable on 35s, even with the large 760x joints.

personally, I would say get a 3" lift with 31s and a locker and skids, wheel that and be surprised how far it gets you. wait until you have the time/money to do a larger lift/axles/gears/tires the right way.

I am running 33x12.5's with stock gearing. It is kindda sluggish but bearable for road driving. I had to cut the front alot and the back needs it but I am to lazy to weld it up so I am gonna let it rub. This is with only 5" of lift. I wouldn't run anything any bigger than 31's unless you wanna be slow all over the place. I only bought the 33's cause they were $96 each new. HTH

Read my writeup for fitting 35's on the 5.5" kit. Maybe it will help.

http://www.rocklizardfabrications.com/fender_trimming.htm

GottaBeJeep said:

Read my writeup for fitting 35's on the 5.5" kit. Maybe it will help.

http://www.rocklizardfabrications.com/fender_trimming.htm

Click to expand...

So what does it look like after cycling the suspension? Looks fine for the road, but those 3.25 BS wheels got to still be hitting something?

turdles said:

I'm going to put a 5.5" rubacon express lift on my XJ and was wondering what tires will work best, the 33" or the 35". The jeep has stock and gearing. Will the 35's be too hard on my gearing?


Also, how tall(around) will my XJ be with the 5.5" lifts and the 35" tires?

Click to expand...

You'll be about 8" over stock.

I hope you are planning to regear...I'd take a smaller lift and tires over a seriously undergeared rig any day, and I'd do it for probably a quarter of the cost. The only way to overcome a lack of gearing is throttle, and excessive use of throttle may be the most expensive modifcation you'll ever do.

I'd put 33's on that lift, but I don't like huge hacking. Find a Ford 8.8 with 4.10 gears and an XJ D30 with 4.10 gears. This is ok for 33's. Then spend some coin on a 4:1 case at some point.

Nay

i have the re 5.5 extreme kit with 33s and stock 307 gears( for now the gears are in the garage with a dana 44 ) the front will rub you will need to cut from just under the marker light and git rid of that. the back rubs a whole bunch but i dont have any bump stops yet ( no flames thank you) so a just smacked the snot out of the rear half of the fender with a BFH and cut the plastic flare at the body line. good luck with the lift i love mine. the rear srings arent that great but that might be the bumpstop thing