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Lift Kit ordered Wheels and Tires next...

HawkZero

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Oak Harbor, WA
Ok folks...the lift kit is on the way. Doing 4.5"

I've got stock wheels and road tires on now and need to talk options with regards to what road to take.

Plusses and minuses of using the 15x7 OEM rims vers buying 15x8s.

Tire selection...I'm not ready to trim or regear due to current budget restraints so that leaves me at 31s for the time being.

Jeep is primarily a recreational vehicle and will get most of its highway time getting to the trails and then face the sand/rocks/hills of the high CA desert.

Based on that info, what wheels and tires do ya'll recomend?
 
What is your tire/wheel budget?

You could go with Cragar soft 8's (about $35-$40/ea) or american racing aluminum wheels (about $105/ea) up to higher levels. Tires are gonna be hard to recommend as everyone has their preference (I prefer BFG).
 
also what kind of tire do you want? a mud terrain or an all terrain? If you want a A/T my vote is the BFG. I had a set and loved them.
 
silverslk said:
What is your tire/wheel budget?

You could go with Cragar soft 8's (about $35-$40/ea) or american racing aluminum wheels (about $105/ea) up to higher levels. Tires are gonna be hard to recommend as everyone has their preference (I prefer BFG).

Budget is not constrained by a dollar amount...(IE Under 600) but more of the need the best value or biggest bang for the buck type of deal. Best value does not necessarily mean cheapest.

Tread wear life isn't super critical because I will most likely go with larger tires and regear in 12-18mos.

I originally told the wife that 5 wheels and tires would be under 1000. I'd like to be WELL under that figure.

Keep in mind, I have no clue as to what kind of terrain is really up here in the Indian Wells Valley, Death Valley and Panamints which is primarily where I will be spending most of the time in this rig.
 
another vote for the BFG ATs if it's your daily.
 
xtimmax said:
also what kind of tire do you want? a mud terrain or an all terrain? If you want a A/T my vote is the BFG. I had a set and loved them.

Good question...I would rather go with what I need rather than what I want.

I was under the impression tire should be picked based on the terrain driven and I will be 90% up here in the high desert. Very few highway miles other than what I need to drive to get to the trail.
 
corbinafly said:
another vote for the BFG ATs if it's your daily.

Okay...gettting lots of hits on BFG

However...its definitely NOT a DD...got another car for that.
 
Hey Hawk, take a look in the for sale sections, typically you can find a good set of wheels and tires in there....you should be looking for a 32 or 33 with a 4.5 inch lift.

the rest is really up to preference...do you want an A/T, or a M/T and wheels, well........wheels are also a preference thing.
 
if you want to keep your stock rims i wouldnt get a tire wider than 9.50, or its going to rub the control arms in the front at full turn.
 
You will hear others argue but I am running on 3.55 gearing and running 33's. Its not great but not horrible. You might want to consider buying 32's or 33's and regear sooner than waste money buying another set of tires on the next year.

Either way, sounds like for what you are wanting to do.....BFG all terrains would be best. They run sand great, roads great and do well in rocks and stuff.
 
I'm gonna have a set of 33 inch tires and wheels up for sale in maybe 2.5 weeks. Practically new.
 
If you do any decent wheeling, and you run 33's, you will NEED to re-gear.

It's not a matter of performance...the rig will drive fine on the street. But I realized first-hand how much harder the engine has to work with the under-driven gear ratio of 33's and 3.55's when off roading this winter.

I was going to the top of a snow-covered mountain in ~30 deg. weather. There was 2-3 feet of snow on the trail, and on one short section, I found myself spinning all 4's for a short time to get through this obstacle (about 60-90 seconds of stop and go). In that time, my Jeep's water temp (and trans temp) started creeping toward "overheated". It didn't actually overheat, but it got hotter than it ever has before. And this was in freezing weather, in the snow.

I'm fairly certain that if it were geared correctly, that wouldn't have happened.

Not to mention, the size of every rock, boulder and incline is effectively "magnified" if you're under-geared. Engine works harder, uses more fuel, produces more heat trying to spint the wheels over obstacles.

Don't short-cut...get the gears. Trust me!
 
HawkZero said:
Good question...I would rather go with what I need rather than what I want.

I was under the impression tire should be picked based on the terrain driven and I will be 90% up here in the high desert. Very few highway miles other than what I need to drive to get to the trail.

Since it's not going to be your daily, I say get 33 BFG Mud Terrains, then regear as soon as you can. If you don't want to trim, then I say 32's.

As far as stock gears with 33's, I drove for about a 100 miles and hated it. You loose a ton of power and your straining the motor. Can you run 33's on stock gears?? Yes. Is it going to break anything? Maybe not. If you wheel, probably. Is it the smartest thing to do?? No.


E

EDIT: I just re-read your first post. If you don't want to regear soon, then I vote for 31's.

*Let's see how long it takes for this to get moved... tick tock*
 
Last edited:
Go with 15x8 rims if you try to slap some 32's on a stock rim your gonna have almost no clearance in the rear between the leafs and the tire and when you flex your gonna rub on the body.
 
xL8 APEKSx said:
If you do any decent wheeling, and you run 33's, you will NEED to re-gear.

It's not a matter of performance...the rig will drive fine on the street. But I realized first-hand how much harder the engine has to work with the under-driven gear ratio of 33's and 3.55's when off roading this winter.

I was going to the top of a snow-covered mountain in ~30 deg. weather. There was 2-3 feet of snow on the trail, and on one short section, I found myself spinning all 4's for a short time to get through this obstacle (about 60-90 seconds of stop and go). In that time, my Jeep's water temp (and trans temp) started creeping toward "overheated". It didn't actually overheat, but it got hotter than it ever has before. And this was in freezing weather, in the snow.

I'm fairly certain that if it were geared correctly, that wouldn't have happened.

Not to mention, the size of every rock, boulder and incline is effectively "magnified" if you're under-geared. Engine works harder, uses more fuel, produces more heat trying to spint the wheels over obstacles.

Don't short-cut...get the gears. Trust me!



Lets try not to get this into another "regear or not" thread. I was telling him to buy the size tire he wants and regear sooner rather than buy smaller tires, then buy larger tires in a year and then regear for the larger tires. Thats all.
 
silverslk said:
I was telling him to buy the size tire he wants and regear sooner rather than buy smaller tires, then buy larger tires in a year and then regear for the larger tires. Thats all.
Sounds to me I was telling him the exact same thing as YOU, my friend. :loveu:

I was just explaing the reasons why he should do so, so that he may make a well informed decision. :)

Get the larger tire, and get the gears ASAP. :guitar:

PS...HawkZero...are you gonna be attending SoCal Fest this weekend? You should come if you can! It will be cool to compare before/after your mods !
 
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