I'm looking to run 33's on my 98' 2 dr with 4.88 gears. This is my daily driver and my bro is going from 30/9" locked with 4.88 gears to HP44/9" like my 91' so I can buy his axles. I don't like the stock 3.07 gears and 235 tires on my 98' dd, so I want the locked and loaded 30/9" and I want to keep the price down because this is mostly my dd, I have a 91' with HP44/9" full width with 37" MTRs for my wheeler. In the 98' I currently have HP30/29 spline 8.25 with 3.07 gears, the 8.25 has a stock track lock. I'm thinking about going with my bro's TJ low pinion 30 locked and loaded (4.88s and a lockrite and heavy duty steering) and Early Bronco 9" with 31 spline alloy Moser 5 on 4.5 shafts with 4.88 gears and a spool. One more question to add, how is a spool on a manual dd, I know it's in there, but I drove my bro's 91' XJ with 35's that it is currently in and I don't hear it barking the tires that much. I don't know why because it's a matter of physics with locking 2 axle shafts together and then having 1 axle shaft/tire needing to go farther in a arc in a turn (outer tire) than the inner tire? Maybe by not getting on the gas it lessens the forces enough to not audibally being able to hear it much? I don't know, I just remember Filthy Phil's old MJ (dana 44 rear axle with the spool ) barking those tires after we swapped some parts in a parking lot and my wife and I just loved it. Bark those puppies Phil!
How much trimming did you need to do to fit 33's with a 3" lift? I currently have a bb with blocks in the back and I think I might just add my full length aal to the rear and get some V8 ZJ coils to add to my 1.75" spacers up front. Then I plan to cut like crazy and run 4 rear TJ flares. I have a 2 door XJ so that should help a lot in the cutting dept since I don't have a rear door to worry about. I was just trying to get feedback on the 33's and 3". I really want 33x12.50's because I like the height and width. I think just the fact that I have a 2 dr, I could get away with 12.50 wide tires because I should be able to trim a bit more than a 4 dr model. Also with the 4.88 gears, I think the wider tire would eat up the low 4.88 gears better.
Are RPMs mostly controlled (kept to a reasonable level if you are shooting for power and gas mileage by mainly just the tire height, or does the width also have a decent amount of play here)? I'd think the wider tire would suck up some of the gearing. I have a little dilema becuase I want the 4.88 geared axles, but I want to keep on a budget so I'd want up to a 33" tire with 3-4" so I don't need SYE (I don't mind doing a drop t-case and yoke extender if needed and bump stops).
I've run a 3" lift on my 1st XJ my 89' 2 door with 30x9.50 tires and liked the look and also I didn't open up a can of worms and need to regear, do after market CAs, SYE, etc etc.
With 4.88 gears, I think I need 33's to keep the RPMs down. I did a calc and I figure around 2,500 RPMs with a 33" tire at 65 MPH with my AX15 5 speed. I think this is decent for MPG and power. Right now with the 3.07 gears and 235 metric tires I do about 65 just under 2K RPMS. Would my MPG get really bad with my planned 33's and 4.88 gears and keeping LCG at 3" lift?
I know Crash has an excellect gear thread, as well as axle threads, but my part is 2 fold. How do 4.88s play with 33's in regards to power and MPG and how much trimming to fit 33's with 2-3" lift? With this small of a lift would you run 33x10.50 tires on the stock rims? That's another slight niche being able to run those nice looking Ecco rims with a 10.50 tire over needing to get 3-4" back spaced rims to space out the 33x12.50s. Keeping to a budget I'm also looking seriously into retread tires or someone selling 33x10.50 tires because they don't like the thin look and want the fatter 33x12.50.
Decision Decisions. :laugh3:
I knew I couldn't contain myself after selling my dd Grand Cherokees. XJs are just too fun to leave alone, stock is so boring!!!
Troy