Jeep Wrangler Ulmtd Wheel/Tire combo

I bought my wife a new Wrangler Unlimited last week and it's our first Jeep. Nice vehicle. Surprisingly nice ride.

In my quest to "keep mamma happy", she wants some lift, and aftermarket wheels and tires. I've dropped it off w/the dealer to have a 2.5" "basic boost" lift installed.

But holy hell, there are so many friggin' configurations for wheels and tires available it can make a man go insane.

i "think" 35's would fit under there w/just the 2.5" lift. However, i think she'd just be asking for trouble in the long run. lower mpg's, increased wear and tear on steering components etc.

so 35's are out... that only leaves a gazillion more choices.

285/70r17's? I think this may be the cheapest most widely available option, but I had these on my Ram 1500 and they "looked too small" almost immediately. They're barely any taller than the stockers (255/70r18's) but i have considerably more clearance than a jeep.
285/75's maybe? that's just shy of a 34" tire. would that also be too heavy?
Neither of us are fans of the 20+" wheels on 4x4 vehicles. seems to completely defeat the purpose. I think the only way i'd go w/a 20" wheel is on a 37" or larger tire. and um, yeah, that ain't happenin.
The stock Sahara wheels are nice looking and they're 18", but A. they're skinny and B. have like zero offset so they are tucked way inside the fenders and C. she wants blacked out wheels (or at least mostly black w/maybe some accents).

so here are my q's. for any of you jeepers out there...
will i regret going w/a 285/70r17? of if i step up to a 285/75, 295/70, or something along those lines, will i even be able to notice visually the diff from a 285/70? and is the additional cost for these rarer size combos also worth it?

Seems silly, i know. 1st world probs for sure. but you kinda don't get to do this but once every 40-60k miles or so. ;-)

Is this for wheelin or will it be a pavement queen? If pavement queen with some occasional off-roading I'd go with the 35s, the rarer combos could bite you if you got a non-repairable flat out away from home.

Whether a tire/wheel combo is too heavy mainly depends on the gear ratio in your differentials. I'm guessing it's not a Rubicon, so you likely have stock axles and gears. Changing to a lower gear ratio (numerically higher) would be your best bang for buck with the anemic v6 at a sacrifice of mpgs....but then again, no one buys jeeps for their gas mileage.

A negative offset wheel will give you the "untucked" look but be sure to test fit your frontend under full wheel lock and suspension compression or you could end up finding that you rub going up driveways/obstacles while turning.

it's not a rubicon, but does have 3.73 gears. stock is 3.21 and rubicon is 4.11 or so i believe. I think 3.73 should do fine w/up to 35's huh?

I would highly recommend spending time on the Wrangler sites as they have a wealth of knowledge so you don't waste money and have a build that isn't right for what you want to do. You go bigger tires like 35s your gas mileage will drop from 18 down to 12 mpg, acceleration drags, tire noise increases, cornering decreases. If you plan to offroad the smaller the wheel the better to get larger sidewalls (15" worked on mine). Replace the fall-off fenders as the first time you bottom out as you will with 35s and a 2.5" lift the fenders fall off. A tuning chip will give you more performance and correct your speedo.

The picture has my old wheels, tires and fenders. I have a 4" lift and I replaced the tires and wheels with a set of Rubicon OEMs. Got the gas mileage back and does everything the wide tires did in a narrower track. Aftermarket fenders will give you another 1" of clearance. I've gone three times to Moab and my present configuration works well.



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Thanks for the feedback. I've spent way too many hours on the various jeep forums ;-)

I finally cornered my wife into looking at some wheels/tires online w/me. She likes the XD Rockstar 2's, and she says she prefers more sidewall and more aggressive tread over A/T's. I tend to agree.

so here's what i'm looking for. 295/70R17s (or maybe 305/65's) in an M/T tread, on 17x9 XD Rockstar 2's (w/-12 offset). It should fit well w/no rubbing after the 2.5" lift. and should JUST BARELY fit on the stock spare carrier. It may rub on the 3rd brake light and the bumper, but that'll be okay for now until i upgrade that. I'll post before/after pics when we're done.

I put a few upgrades on my daughter's Jeep about 2 wks ago (HUGE THANKS for flee from this forum)

LED w/ halo highlights & LED taillights
new grill
stubby antennae
fuel filler door
leather seats
bluetooth/navi head unit
new bumpers (stock but now no dents!)
2.5" lift
wheel spacers
Nitto tires (really like these tires. Big & aggressive but quiet on the road.)

http://i530.photobucket.com/albums/d...G_0834%201.jpg

http://i530.photobucket.com/albums/d...1/IMG_0835.jpg

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Originally Posted by Pound

Thanks for the feedback. I've spent way too many hours on the various jeep forums ;-)

I finally cornered my wife into looking at some wheels/tires online w/me. She likes the XD Rockstar 2's, and she says she prefers more sidewall and more aggressive tread over A/T's. I tend to agree.

so here's what i'm looking for. 295/70R17s (or maybe 305/65's) in an M/T tread, on 17x9 XD Rockstar 2's (w/-12 offset). It should fit well w/no rubbing after the 2.5" lift. and should JUST BARELY fit on the stock spare carrier. It may rub on the 3rd brake light and the bumper, but that'll be okay for now until i upgrade that. I'll post before/after pics when we're done.

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Looks like you did your homework. Excellent matches. I had Toyo MTs and were excellent off road but they were heavy and the gas mileage was bad. The tire holder should be able to accommodate for wheel and tire. It's the off road bouncing and the heavier wheel and tire is what causes the problems. If you add anything electrical like lights etc. wire a separate electrical system directly off the battery as the CAN Buss system is sensitive to add ons. Chrysler is a stickler with modifications and the warranty so be careful how extreme you go with your mods. Your lift is minor and doesn't require changes to the driveline or suspension so that is OK. Have fun

That looks super nice Wolfeman.

ok, so i went to 4wheel parts to price out tires/wheels. and the mgr there told sold me on 315/70/17's BFG KO2's. (which is one of my favorite tires!). they were running a sale @$199 each! that's just a hair shy of a 35" tire. He also gave me a bit of a discount on the XD Rockstar 2's as well as a little bit off of an oversized spare carrier.
So here she is.

Before
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Wheel/tire
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After
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I like those wheels a lot. Tire sizes never match up as advertised as you will find out when recalibrating the speedo.

Nice!!


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That looks great Pound! I too just bought my wife the Jeep she's been wanting for 20 years! But I am finding I want to make it "mine"! I have spent so much $$ just browsing its not even funny! Lift kits, wheels, tires, fast back soft tops, Sliders, bumpers..........

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2924/3...823f568e_z.jpgJeep by CFD3Capt, on Flickr

I like the red! Looks great. You almost HAVE to personalize them; they make it too easy. ha ha. Quadratec has some cool stuff. I was just on there looking at fender flares. ha ha.

I painted the star on her wheels for her this weekend. It was a PITA on a few because there was a little overspray from wheel dressing that i didn't notice so when i sprayed the primer it was beading up. So i had to clean them off w/lacquer thinner and start over. but in the end they came out great. pics don't really do it justice. the white accent really draws your eye to the wheels that kinda go unnoticed otherwise. Unfortunately, the smittybuilt spare carrier that i bought has a t-handle to hold the spare on, so i can't put the center cap on the spare :-( I'm going to buy her a better carrier in the future tho. One that either attaches to the bumper or at least the hinges on the tailgate for better stability and strength.
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A good rear bumper with the tire mount. Higher towing capacity with an integrated hitch and added LED backup lights.

A few more upgrades....
Quadratec J5 light bar w/amber clearance lights, Rugged Ridge fast track mount, 2 q-tec LED cubes, and an apollointech switch pod/controller to run the lights. oh, and we added hood mounted Hi-Lift jack.
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