Baystate Jeepers

I've started researching 35' M/T tires and wheels and looking to gather information from others that have 35's that are daily driver.

Questions:

- Wheel size?
- Tire size?
- Brand and model tire

What do you like or not like about the tire? Most of my 1 hour commute is highway, 95 / 93. I've had one vote on bfg km2 . looking for a variety of opinions so I don't pick something that everyone hates for road noise or ride.

I can say that while personally I do not have personal experience with these, but have a very good friend who loves toyo open country m/ts and he has gotten good wear out of them every time. While he has not run a set to complete wear he has estimated that he would get 40-50k or more out of each set he has had. They were properly maintained and rotated regularly, as well as checked for pressure regularly. These were on a dodge ram 1500 (3 trucks overall same tires each time) usually in a 20in range for rim size.

Sometimes for a daily driver, the answer to tires is All Terrain. If you drive 90% of the time on pavement, you probably want something that has better attributes on pavement then off road. With the right All Terrain tire, you can still get awesome off road traction. I do speak from experience.

I had General Grabber AT2's for about 40k miles (still had another 10-15k usable life in em when I upgraded) and it was a daily driver and wheeler. Tires did very well off road and on road, good road manners, quiet. Snow traction was awesome, I drove around in snow storms in 2wd because I could. Off road they grabbed all the rock you could ask for, they tended to pack in the sticky mud, but it was never really an issue. They were a decent price as well, not cheapest, but not near the top either. Definitely put them on your short list.

As far as tire size and wheel size, I need to defer to a JK owner with experience as I don't know the sizing.

Definitely use: link

When you input your current wheel and tire size, then put in the wheel and tire size of the new set, you'll be able to visualize and measure the actual differences in clearance between new and old. Extremely helpful tool.

As ISH said , ATs will be a good choice for a mostly street driven Jeep. They do have short falls off road , not only mud but usually weak side walls (tears). They will out do MTS in all categories except off road. I have 35s on 15" rims (old skool) . I think the JKs have 17" wheels. That would give me 2" more sidewall on the tire per say , therefore I wont have to air down as much as a 17" rim . The shorter sidewall is stiffer. All that pertains to off road. The same thing on the street (daily) would be the opposite . The shorter sidewall would handle much better. The only thing I would ask JK owners about would be the back spacing of the new rims. Will a stock BS rim rub with 35s. Again, usually the new rim with a larger tire gets LESS back space to push the bigger tire away from undercarriage components. It would only be a .5/.75 difference. My final offer would be to tell you to buy steel wheels and put MTs or more aggressive tires that wouldt hinder you off road and put them on the day before you go wheelin ! Keep your shiny ones for the street with street tires on them . Hope this helps. FjR68

Stock JK backspace is 6.25" and you can use the stock wheels if you run 1.25-1.5" spacers. If you run spacers get good ones, not the place to try to save a few bucks.

Take a look at the Nitto Ridge Runner tires, their newest line. They are a hybrid of a Mud Terrain and A/T, are relatively quite and are a great compromise for a daily driver. Very happy with mine. I'm also running stock 17" wheels with Spidertrax 1.5" spacers.

http://www.nittotire.com/light-truck-ti ... ruck-tire/

I'm running Toyo Country MTs on 17" rims (JK 2013), with 3" TeraFlex suspension lift. I really like them in the mud. Got 8K on them, and still looking good. This may be rumor mill, but someone said new England use MTs, out west, use ATs.

Lou @ Elias 4WD asked a good question. Does the wife want to turn the radio up? or turn it off? turning the radio up = the Toyos MT - good tradeoff for offroad grip and hwy noise.

Having run both, the Toyo OC MT is no where near as loud as the Goodyear MT/R Kevlar.

Wheel spacers are technically not legal for the street. They are not even a good idea , in my mind. If you buying new wheels , get the right back spacing. Again I say the best of both worlds would be to get plain steel wheels with the tire of your choice , and keep you daily tires on the shiny ones and enjoy the radio. I do drive on the street and have had Super Swampers. Off road they are probably the best gripping tire know to man. On the street there were to issues, most of the wheels were covered in balance weights , the radio was useless ! I now run Dick Cepeck Crusher and at first it was --- if I had my swampers I would have made that. It took nearly 3/4 season to break them in (wouldnt flex) now I can have side wall flex at 7/10 PSI. On road they are much quieter and run no balance weight at all. Mine , again is not my daily driver and I dont exceed 60/65 mph when I do drive it. Look at forums and try to see the advantages in having a second set of wheels and tires , yes its a PITA to always have to change over , but you have the best of both worlds. If you had to drive to work on the off road set , it would only be here and there and they will last a lot longer and you will have not compromised your off road experience . My opinion is worth nothing without having first, seen ,touched , learned, listened over the last 15 yrs. Having two sets of wheels is not for everybody , but it sure would be nice. FjR68

I have had 35" Toyo M/Ts on my rig for almost 7 years of hardcore wheeling. I used to tear sidewalls with other tires constantly but the Toyos just keep going. My heep was my DD the whole time. Can't recommend them enough. FYI 16" steel Allied Beadlocks. Heavy combo but awesome.

I run my 35s on 8" wide rims. I think some of the guys run 9" rims. I dont think Ive seen anyone on 10" rims. How many people changed to less back spacing , and by how much ? I personally think wheel spacers arent a good idea. FjR68

I upsized the wheels on my 35s, they are now on 15x10s with the same backspace as I had on my 15x8s. Cleared up a rub on the lower control arms too.

Modeler wrote:I upsized the wheels on my 35s, they are now on 15x10s with the same backspace as I had on my 15x8s. Cleared up a rub on the lower control arms too.

This is an area I don't quite understand. All the wheels I'm looking at on quadratec and Extreme Terrain are the 17x9 and the tires 35x12.5. After seeing Frank's post, the difference in 15" and 17" is sidewall, but what does that mean to me?

I drive 32 MTs now and have no issue with the noise, will it be worse on a 35MT? I did invest in a whole knew stereo, speakers and sub last year after I bought it, so turning up the stereo is good with me... ;o)

The steel vs alloy for wheels, pros and cons? A lot of the nicer wheels look to be alloy and I'm betting they are lighter to carry.


Marcy

Basically, if you have a 35" overall diameter tire, with a 15" wheel you have 10" of sidewall height, with the 17" wheel, that shrinks down to 9". When you are off road, the more sidewalk you have, the more rubber that can conform and squish around the rocks and cushion the ride. These add to performance.

Every MT will sound different on the road. What you hear when the tires are roaring down the road is each of the chunks of rubber on the tread slapping the ground as it comes full circle. If you got the same MT in a larger size, it shouldnt be any louder.

Alloy wheels are lighter and look nicer, but steel wheels are typically stronger and cheaper. For a daily driver it doesn't matter too much. If you go alloy, the more sidewall height you have, the less likely you'll be to scrape it on the trail. The wider and taller it is, the more susceptible it is to rocks jumping out at you.

Nicely said ISH ! It was a shocker to hear that stock JK wheels are 6.25" back space. So I would take a guess TJs were about 4.5/4.75 ? CJs are 3.75/4.00. There would be room to get a wheel in the 17x9 with5.5/5.75 back space for clearance. To explain all that is crazy but Tire/wheel MFGs. would like to see the combination between 3or4" of each other. I.E. A 12.5" tire is used on a 8/16" wide wheels, with 10" being the widest Ive seen used. We wheelers have been using the 8 and 9" rims to help hold the tire on better when aired down. With a wider rim it seams to be able to pop the bead easier. It can happen with just about any combination so dont even worry about it. Hope that helps. FjR68