Should I get wide or narrow tires for my Wrangler? Axle upgrade?
das.frettchen asked:
I plan to get a 4.5″ lift and new wheels and tires for my ‘98 TJ sometime in the future. I’ve taken it mudding before and, while it was fun, I think I would enjoy rock crawling more. I’ve been looking over the many different types of tires out there and gotten myself hung up on the question of wide vs. narrow tires. Personally I love the look of a lifted Wrangler with tall, narrow tires. I would probably go with 33×10.5r15’s as I would like to allow for quite a bit of suspension movement and not go with 35’s. I am a bit concerned however about the difference in risk of a rollover when cornering on a narrow tire. Is there a significant difference made by 2 inches of tire width? I’ll admit that I’m a bit of a lead foot and probably push my luck with cornering speed as it is.. a lift and narrow tires would require me to re-train myself! Also, how well do narrow tires work for rock crawling vs. wide tires? I’ve read all about airing down your tires for added traction and all, would narrow tires run a risk of breaking the bead with low air pressure more than wide tires?
I plan to get a 4.5″ lift and new wheels and tires for my ‘98 TJ sometime in the future. I’ve taken it mudding before and, while it was fun, I think I would enjoy rock crawling more. I’ve been looking over the many different types of tires out there and gotten myself hung up on the question of wide vs. narrow tires. Personally I love the look of a lifted Wrangler with tall, narrow tires. I would probably go with 33×10.5r15’s as I would like to allow for quite a bit of suspension movement and not go with 35’s. I am a bit concerned however about the difference in risk of a rollover when cornering on a narrow tire. Is there a significant difference made by 2 inches of tire width? I’ll admit that I’m a bit of a lead foot and probably push my luck with cornering speed as it is.. a lift and narrow tires would require me to re-train myself! Also, how well do narrow tires work for rock crawling vs. wide tires? I’ve read all about airing down your tires for added traction and all, would narrow tires run a risk of breaking the bead with low air pressure more than wide tires?
My other main concern is that I’ve got a Dana 30 up front and 35 in back. If I spend the $3,000 or so on a lift, wheels and tires then I won’t have very much left over at all.. and axle assemblies aren’t cheap. I’m very well aware of how easy it would be to snap an axle with 33″ tires on a Dana 30/35 and lockers are out of the question. How cheap could I pick up a set of Dana 44’s with lockers from a salvage yard? I’d love to have the extra assurance of Dana 60’s but I’m sure that is far beyond my price range!
Thank you so much for your help!
Get discount suspension parts.
April 29th, 2010 by admin
Posted in Jeep
May 3rd, 2010 at 12:47 am
Get discount suspension parts.
Well your lift is ok but a good lift kit that will address all your extra problems you will run into will cost you $3000 or possibly a little more.
Airing down is good for wheeling and to prevent the tire beads from rolling of the rims you should go with a bead locker type rim or a weld on kit. A lot of bead lock rims are not DOT approved. Tires I would look a Mickey thompson MT’s, BFG MT’s, Yokohama MT’s, these can be found and more on
And yes you do have a very good chance of snapping the axles and bending the tubes. Me personally I would go for either dana 60’s or a custom built Currie 9″ front and rear with a detroit locker in the rear and air locker in the front. But for other than diamond level 4×4ing a used set of 44’s would work, but don’t for get you will need to rebuild them. And as far as price it varies on where you live. Keep a close eye on the prices on E-bay and you will get an idea how varied the prices can be
As far as rollover just slow down