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35x12.50 tire fitment on xj

a_hiatt

NAXJA Forum User
Location
effingham, IL
its time to get some new tires after ive ran the 33x10.50 swampers for a few months. swampers dont balance that well and the balance doesnt last long if you get any as you all know. this is my DD but it doesnt leave town much. im looking to go with something at least a 33x12.50 but ive found a set of 35x12.50 BFG AT's cheap. im wondering if running a 35" AT will effect my xj any more than a 33" m/t. im running 33" worn down swampers right now so an AT will be like nothing compared to those. i fit 33's fine with a 4.5" kit and shackles in the rear. this summer i plan on trimming up the fenders and sticking a set of tj flares on too. plus if i buy them now the swampers are still plenty good for using on the trail; so i'de just sipe them out big time and keep them for trail tires. jeep has 8.25 rear and D30 front with stock gears but that will probably change soon. I'm also leaving for college next fall so it wont get hardly any driving if all so i can even swap D44's into it before it gets driven every day again. So if you've done this or have any opinions on how it will hold up with basically nothing but street driving. until upgraded.
 
dont do it without addressing gears first or a huge tranny cooler. 35s and stock gears do not mix well at all
 
tranny cooler would be an immediate upgrade, as soon as i have time. then gears later on. probably 4.10's. i also only drive about 5 miles at a time before it sits. to school, park. home, park. work, park. home, park. thats about it all week. weekend its about the same. so pretty much nothing gets warmed up much
 
NO! dont do 4.10. dont even do 4.10s if your gonna stick with 33s. do 4.56s as that is as low as you can go with the 8.25. or if you wait and get the 44 then do 4.88s
 
Unless you're planning on getting really, really carried away with the sawzall.....you might want to re-think 35"s.

If you're already running lift shackles in the rear....that would put your only options down to lifting it with blocks(I wouldn't) or AAL's....or bigger leafs which is what I'd prefer to do. I'm not sure what your 4.5" kit consists of in the front....but if it's already using spacers...you're going to have to get some bigger coils too. If your front-end has 4.5" coils, you might get away with just adding an ACOS adjustable spacer. I've heard of guys getting up to 3" out of those before.

I'm presently sitting at 8" in the rear and 6.5" inches in the front and I'm running 35"s. I've done quite a bit of trimming and added TJ flares...and I still hit in the front sometimes. So...I'm going to an 8" coil in the front now. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
Aron
 
in the back i have AAL and lift shackle but its only out of an MJ so its only about .75". for the back i'll build i'll build more leafs in and go with a 1 inch or 1.5 inch shackle. front is currently just coils w/ new steering. ill get adj spacers on that and i do plan on tj flares. ive also got a new stinger bumper on the front so that additional plastic up there is gone and the only place i would rub driving is the back of the flare which can be trimmed up. ill run the sway bar too. and.... it is an all terrain tire so i wont have the giant lugs on the side and huge tread to rip off the sheetmetal.

this thing will pretty much be a street only machine for the summer until i leave next fall. so i wont be doing much flexing and only drive short distances in town. if i do hit the trails hard,it will be w/ 33x10.50 swampers

btw-thanks guys for being responsive
 
yea id stay with 33's on the road. they will help your gas mileage especially if you dont plan on regearing. and with gas prices like they are, mpg's are your friend. get an a/t. mount your swampers on some other wheels for when you hit the trails. buy a good floor jack and an electric impact gun so you can change tires quick and easy.
 
buy them for what you would consider cheap and resell them. a 35" all terrain tire is borderline useless in my opinion.
 
its a bfg at, useful in my experience, but i know what your saying. if the price is right ill get them if not i need to keep looking for 33's. anyone got any???

UNC DOESNT DESERVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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i have 4.5 inches of lift and i am running 33 12.5 r 15s wildcountry i still rub even with some major cutting under the head lights. i should have gone with a 11.5 because they tuck better and dont rub as much. everything else on my xj is stock and i can wheel with the best of them out on the trails (no rock crawling or major articulation here) and if it gets too sloppy i chain up then i am real unstoppable. if u wanna put 35s on ur gonna need lots of cutting and lots of lift and with lots lift you'll need lots of money a sye, brake lines, tranny cooler, more money, bigger brakes bigger axles (ones that the shafts change out easily) more money, spare axle shafts, and a full sized spare. oh and did i mention lots and lots of money.
if all this sound good for a daily driver then all the power to ya

ps dont go with 35s ya dont need them
 
a_hiatt said:
4.88 for DD? i'de do 4.56's but i dont know about 4.88

According to the gear ratio calculator, 4.60 gears (if made) with 35" tires would get you right back to your stock ratio of 3.55. So, 4.56's would basically make it geared right like it was when you still had stock-sized tires on it. 4.88's would be just a little lower geared than stock. These numbers seem big until you factor in how tall those tires are.
 
BigDawgz said:
Unless you're planning on getting really, really carried away with the sawzall.....you might want to re-think 35"s.

If you're already running lift shackles in the rear....that would put your only options down to lifting it with blocks(I wouldn't) or AAL's....or bigger leafs which is what I'd prefer to do. I'm not sure what your 4.5" kit consists of in the front....but if it's already using spacers...you're going to have to get some bigger coils too. If your front-end has 4.5" coils, you might get away with just adding an ACOS adjustable spacer. I've heard of guys getting up to 3" out of those before.

I'm presently sitting at 8" in the rear and 6.5" inches in the front and I'm running 35"s. I've done quite a bit of trimming and added TJ flares...and I still hit in the front sometimes. So...I'm going to an 8" coil in the front now. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
Aron

they just came out with this great thing called lowered bumpstops. now you can fit 35's with 4.5 inches of lift. its awesome.
 
WOW Bumpstops! BRILLIANCE!
No, but seriously.....
if you like to offroad 35 BFG ATs are the worst tire in the world.
If you live in phoenix or San Diego, you might be ok on rocks only.
but if you see any soft dirt or mud, you'll hate BFG ATs so bad unless you love iceskating around, it's almost scarey. No traction, NONE!
Especially used ones :(

Going from Swamers with 2" shoulder lugs to ATs with about .25" lugs. Poop.
Anyway, with a 3" lift you should opt for 32s max.
I wouldn't run 35" ATs if they were $75 for a set of 4 half worn.
 
M4Madness said:
According to the gear ratio calculator, 4.60 gears (if made) with 35" tires would get you right back to your stock ratio of 3.55. So, 4.56's would basically make it geared right like it was when you still had stock-sized tires on it. 4.88's would be just a little lower geared than stock. These numbers seem big until you factor in how tall those tires are.


Your not taking into consideration the rotational mass of the tires. :) My xj with 35's and 4.88's has less power than it did with 215's and 3.55's. If I could have put 5.13 gears into my dana 30, I'd have gone that way for 35's in a heartbeat.
 
So, I guess I should go with 34" LTBs rather than 35s with my new 4.10s, simply for tranny reasons?? I have 6.5" RockKrawler long arms. I won't be driving on the road, just off road in low ranga about 90% of the time.
 
Even with 34"'s, you want to have 4.56 gears. 4.10 is good up to about 31" tires, by 32" you wanna be at 4.56 or deeper. The 4.0 wants to be in the range of 2400-3000 RPM's on the highway, or its going to overwork and get poor gas mileage. I realize you think your doing yourself a favor by going 4.10's and keeping the RPM's down, but it doesn't really work that way with a jeep. On a trail only rig, you want to gear even deeper than that - as low as your axles will take (4.56 with an 8.25, 4.88 with a dana 44).

-C
 
i had 4.88s in my last XJ with d30/d44 combo and was running 33s. it was great off road, but i hated it on the road. i drove my xj about 10-15miles a day on the hwy and at 75 it felt like the jeep was coming apart on the high with the rpms around 3K. 75 was about your top speed. everyone on here will tell you 4.88s with 33s but i would seriously consider 4.56s unless you never plan on driving on the hwy or you are in the mountains. for me i don't have a tow rig and trailer either so i have to drive everywhere i go to wheel and the ability to go 75 without the jeep rattling itself to death is nice.

im currently building a 99 xj 5spd with 33s and i plan on running 4.10s because of it having a 5spd if it were auto i would run 4.56s. if i need it lower off road ill throw in a 4.1 in the t-case and still cruise home at 75+.

just my .02.
 
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