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Tire size question

3K views 46 replies 16 participants last post by  ThisIsM@tt 
#1 ·
I'm no tire expert, so hoping anyone can answer a basic question.

I picked up a 3 inch lift from IRO, and as soon as it arrives I will start the install.
I'm also going to invest in new tires.
What is best tires I can use for off-roading, without them rubbing on the walls.

Current rim size is 17 inches.

For example, current daily street tires are p235/65R17

I'm looking for off-road tires, so increase in size obviously & without them rubbing the walls.

Thank you guys for any input.
 
#4 ·
Hi, I have the IRO 3" lift too. I went with 245/70/17 BFGoodrich KO2 tyres, for an all terrain these a fairly aggresive and fit with no rubbing. I recently got a good deal on some 17" wheels and went with a set of Marshal/Kumho MT51 tyres, these are a mud tyre but not overly aggressive, again these fit with no rubbing. I had a good look at my car and decided that there was a good chance that a 265 wide tyre has a very good chance of rubbing on both the rear shocks and also the front bumper and probably rear fender/bumper when flexing - hence my choice on size. A 255 width tyre will probably work - but I know the 245's do. The 245/70/17 also fits in the spare wheel space.

There is a greater selection of tyres here (England) for 16" rims, but finding secondhand WJ wheels in 16" here proved difficult, and I was a little impatient! Ideally I think I would have gone with 245/75/16 if i could have got hold of some 16" wheels as I like a higher profile for offroading. Tyre rubbing any chassis parts/shocks/body part here is an inspection failure.
 
#12 ·
Thanks for the info. Truthfully, I didn't even consider the potential loss of performance when going up on tire size. Now I'm definitely going to have to consider 16 inch rims, especially since my WJ is a V6 4.0.

I can second Hampshire's comments about the rarity of decent condition 16" rims...

Might be worth considering the other impact of changing tyre size - the effect on gearing.
Most people go to 245/70R17 or 265/65R17 with a modest lift - Is that a reasonable limit before you lose too much performance and need to consider a re-gear?
I agree on your comment about losing performance. For now I'll have to stick with looking at 16 inch rims.

Thank you everyone for the comments. They're appreciated
 
#9 ·
... - Is that a reasonable limit before you lose too much performance and need to consider a re-gear?
I think it would depend on whether you have the 4.7 or the 4.0.

I have the 4.7 HO with 3.73 gears and noticed barely any performance difference between stock and 265/70/17s.

While I am sure there is a difference, it is imperceptible to me from the driver seat.

You can fix the speedometer error with the 3874 FlashPaq.
 
#7 ·
I currently am running a 265/70R16 on a 7.5 JK Wrangler steel rim, which is almost identical in size to a 265/65R17 on my 04 that has the stock 3.73 gears with a 4.7. I really don't notice any performance changes, though I have done things to the engine to help with power so maybe the difference is greater had I not done anything. I would say staying within those sizes a gearing change is not needed, that may not be the case however with a 4.0 powered rig.
 
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#8 ·
Yes FZZ good point - it was one of the reasons that I kept relatively small on the tire front, as I did not want to mess with gearing and not have a speedometer that was too inaccurate. I don't notice any performance changes either with the 4.7HO as cDee63 says you might well do with the 4.0.

Never simple is it guys?
 
#10 ·
Just gonna dip in on 16" steelies even though the OP wasn't really going there because I am thrilled with my set-up. I LOVE the look of black steelies on almost anything. I bought and run these on my WJ: https://www.discounttiredirect.com/buy-wheels/vision-soft-8/p/62261 $80ea, free shipping. Buy tires from them too and they will mount and balance no charge and ship them free. I have bought tires and rims from them at least a dozen times. My 04 Laredo w/o TPMS, no lift, runs those steelies with 245/70-16 Firestone Winterforce 2UV. I run winter tires all year round. They obviously wear fast, but I love the sticky grip on dry pavement, wet performance, and they do GREAT in mud and sand, provided you aren't full on muddin' in a "sippi" hole. Obviously great on snow and ice too. Can't speak for rock climbing, but then again if you are wheelin' you probably also aren't running 245/70-16 on factory suspension like me. Mine is a daily driver that definitely sees some bomb time on dirt, gravel, sand, and mud roads in northern WI. Never had a complaint with winter tires on any surface. The only time I got stuck and needed the recovery bag, it was lift that would have saved me (high sided), not tires....
 
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#11 ·
It's good to hear no-one's noticing any differences on 30.5" tyres as I'm leaning towards 265/65R17s on the JK Moabs recently acquired.

Probably just going M+S (Mallcrawling Stance) rated Coopers as this WJ is a daily driver in S.E. England, where off road is muddy fields and winter just means more rain.
 
#17 ·
It's good to hear no-one's noticing any differences on 30.5" tyres as I'm leaning towards 265/65R17s on the JK Moabs recently acquired.
FWIW ... I have a 4.7L, when I switched from 245/70R16 (29.5" factory size) to 265/70R16 (30.6"), I noticed a clear difference in performance. Reduced torque, on most hills I have to disengage O/D to maintain speed. On the plus side, my speedo used to read a little low, but now it matches my GPS.

This got longer than I intended ...

I have an occasional minor rub on the left front lower control arm and fender well, not sure when it happens. Your target of 265/65R17 will be the same size as my 265/70R16 so you might run into this issue as well, but if you are switching to wheels with a smaller offset/backspacing then you will probably clear the LCA with no problem.

But you must also consider that the more you reduce the backspace, the more you push your tires outboard. Then you run the risk of hitting the outer fender lip when the wheels try to stuff up into the well. You only have maybe 2" (I think it's more like 1.5") of clearance there at factory size and the 265's have already eaten up 0.5" of that.

Quadratec has at least some JK Moab wheels listed at 5.0" backspace for '99-'18 WJ. Theoretically those would eat up the remaining 1" of outboard margin you have, so a 245 might be better (or flare the fenders). Google says some JK Moab wheels have 6.0" or 6.25" backspace ... 6.0" would fit like factory, 6.25" would reduce the already minimal LCA clearance but you could add wheel spacers to get that back.

No real easy answers. Seems many people just add spacers, let the tires stick out from under the fenders, and worry more about tearing out the forward fender well liner than rubbing on the outer fender lip.
 
#22 ·
#18 ·
Good points Gman, when looking for tyres the other week I took a good look under the car and thought that the existing clearances precluded the use of 265 width. There were a great many more tyres avaialble at 265, but the clearance issues put me off. The IRO site warns that a 265 tyre will likely rub, but suggests most people just ignore this. Here it is an inspection (MOT) failure if tyres rub on anything. At 245 width it's all good.

Fzz, have you considered Kumho AT51 - https://tirereviewsandmore.com/kumho-road-venture-at51-reviews/ or Yokohama G015 as alternatives to the Coopers, both are three peak winter rated too, I thnk you'll find these less cost than Coopers. Take a look a Camskill.co.uk, should give you some ideas.
 
#20 ·
Oh yeah ... forgot to mention something rather important. At the rear, the minimal inboard tire clearance is with the shock absorber. There is REALLY not much room there ... depends on your shocks. With my old Rancho RS5000 shocks, there was maybe 1" clearance with factory 245's; 265's reduce that to 0.5" ... that is not much room, we are talking half the length of the last knuckle on my pinky finger. Replacing the Ranchos with the narrower Bilstein 5100's gave a little of that back, so maybe 3/4" total. Backspacing starts to get more critical here, but a smaller (5") backspace would improve the situation.

I had one tire shop flat refuse to install the 265 Falken Wildpeaks that I have now because there was not enough clearance with the shock.

Just make sure you think about all of this and be prepared to make the needed changes if you really want to change your wheels and tires.
 
#23 ·
Thanks for sharing your experience - The JK Moabs have just under 45mm offset and wheel-size.com (that's the site I use!) says that a 265/65r17 would be 9mm closer to suspension on the Moabs, than the current spec 235/65r17s are on Silverblade3#s. I might just get away with it.

I'm more interested in the difference in performance though - Do you put that down to the new diameter or aggressiveness of the tread on the Wildpeaks? (or both)
 
#27 ·
I'm running the Falken Wildpeak A/T3W on my Ranger and am very happy with them.

I have a friend who owns a tire shop and he recommended these for the price/performance.

They are much better than the Hankooks that came on the truck.
 
#24 ·
Here ya go - https://www.pirelli.com/global/en-w...ase inertia,and also lower cornering accuracy.

A larger tyre will make acceleration slower, in theory top speed can increase, but it's pretty unlikely that will be found out in reality, however going uphill may make you need to change down more. Bigger wheels and tyres also add weight, the more weight you add the more power is needed to compensate, again affecting acceleration.

This site has loads of information - https://tiresize.com/ - and when you look at a specific tyre it gives a wealth of detail, generally including weight. A road type tyre will often be 5/6lb lighter than an all terrain, and a mud tyre will be 5/6lb heavier than an all terrain, this tells you a bit about the tyre construction. Bigger diameter, and more weight will give you a slower get up and go - now whether this is noticeable will depend on how you drive and the topograpy of your surroundings. I have found that once you modify one thing it has an effect on other stuff - whether Newton had Jeeps in mind when he came up with 'for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction' is up for debate, but I reckon he was onto something.
 
#25 ·
PERK, I run 245/70/17 BFG KO2's and am very pleased with them. At 75 road/25 off I think they will be more than adequate for you, but this depends on your off roading. Here, England, off roading usually involves water and mud at some point often both together. I have used both BFG and General Grabber AT offroad and both work well - deep mud is the achilles heel for these and is the reason I got some dedicated mud tyres. If you don't play in the mud that often then BFG's will give you good performance off road and last a long time. Going off road it makes sense to go in a small group of vehicles for the times you do get stuck and need to be towed. I have read good reviews of both Toyo and Kumho AT51's, these should both be cheaper than BFG, but must say I can't fault the KO2's.
 
#26 · (Edited)
I have Hankock Dynapro A/TM 245/75/16's on my 03 Limited, which did originally come with 17's. They are a much taller tyre than the standard 17's and rubbed the inner plastic lining badly until I put in a Dobinson coil 40mm lift. They still rub a wee bit on full lock but that part of the plastic is almost worn away now LOL.

Sent from my Nokia 7.2 using Tapatalk
 
#28 ·
Just ordered a set of Goodyear Duratrac's in 255/75-17. Went with those seeing the entire fleet of 30 plow trucks the company I work for equipped with them. The plow drivers say they are the best non dedicated winter tire they have run with a pretty good tread life. My Nokian winter tires are on their last winter, and they are 16", I am changing to a 17" rim in spring.
 
#30 ·
Just put a 3" IRO premium kit on with the Bilsteins on our 04 overland. Went with 255/70R17 Toyo Open Country AT 3s mounted on some Rubicon wheels. Forget the back spacing difference. The wheels stick out about 1/4 over the stock WJ wheels that were on it. Haven't done any hard core wheeling but so far so good with no rubbing or trimming. I picked the 255/70 because it would fit in the tire well. That's with some 2lb hammer beating, then a big ball peen, then some hammering with an air hammer with a rounded bit in it. Sticks up some but I didn't care. I took the cover out, put an after market carpet in then I just have my gear bags on top of that. You don't even notice.
 
#37 ·
Yeah sorry, I tend to think about these things too much, comes with the territory :nerd:.

Suffice to say that if you put in a 3" lift, it should include an adjustable track bar which should allow you to fit a 265/65R17 (30.6") without rubbing or trimming. Any larger and you will have issues. You do not need to worry about the small performance loss.

Thanks for sharing your experience - The JK Moabs have just under 45mm offset and wheel-size.com (that's the site I use!) says that a 265/65r17 would be 9mm closer to suspension on the Moabs, than the current spec 235/65r17s are on Silverblade3#s. I might just get away with it.
Yeah, on a 3" lift you should be golden. That extra ~6 mm from the smaller offset is good insurance.
 
#32 ·
No, it's still fairly simple! From the comments, there are quite a few tyre options with people suggesting tyres they are happy with - quite a few different brands. The advice regarding performance changes on sizing is always worth keeping in mind.

So you could kinda sum it up like the 'what do I want, 75%/25% road to offroad, so this points towards an All Terrain. Do I want to mess with gear ratios and other stuff? No, then stick with only stock size or only slightly bigger. Do I want to empty my wallet? Usually no!' So don't buy new wheels, get a set of all terrains that suit your price range maybe a little bigger than stock, go out and enjoy yourself - there easy wasn't it?
 
#34 ·
As per Hamphire's email -

Guess if you're starting from 29.5" diameter 245/70r16 or 235/65r17 at 29"

Next step is 30" dia. so 255/70r16 / 255/65r17

Then 30.5" dia. so 245/75r16 / 265/70r16/ 245/70r17 / 265/65r17

Compromise on gearing/performance and/or rubbing(!) might be to go to 255/70r16 or 255/65r17 ?

GmanWJ's input might push me towards 255/65r17 Hankook AT2 RF11's on my mostly street driven WJ: https://www.camskill.co.uk/m56b0s2546p167457/Hankook_Tyres_SUV_4x4_Hankook_Dynapro_ATM_RF11_-_255_65_R17_110T_FR_OWL_TL_Fuel_Eff_%3A_E_Wet_Grip%3A_E_NoiseClass%3A_2_Noise%3A_73dB
 
#35 · (Edited)
'kin 'ell Fzz, that one confused a simple fella like me!:wink2:

As eduran currently has 17" wheels, and we are trying to save his dollars, I think we should sway him towards 17" tyres. Monclair, CA (Is that near Pomona or Oakland?)has pretty temperate weather so winter tyres would not be needed unless visits to the mountains are planned. In his position, I'd go for a reputable make affordable All Terrain in a 17" - personally I'd go 245/70 as it will not cause any rubbing issues.

Let us all know what you end up doing, please.
 
#36 ·
Eduran, when you fit the lift, may I suggest that you renew all the tie rod ends on the steering and also the spring isolators/seats. I guess you have opted for the adjustable front track bar, make sure you read the instructions, as they tell you what length to set it at. Those two steps may save you from 'death wobble'. I went with the Addco upgraded rear sway bar and extended links, I also think this helps the on road ride.

Have fun fitting it, if you need any advice, please post - I will try not to confuse you, and there's a bunch of others on here far more clued up than me.
 
#40 ·
Make sure you check your track bar mount bolt holes on the frame side. Mine were egged out some. Spray your bolts ahead of time with some penetrant.

So far I like my Toyo AT3s I mentioned. They weigh less than the Falcons in same size and got them even cheaper. I'm in Western NC with some very curvy roads. Switchback curvy as in look out the side windows to see ahead on the road. I drive aggressive also. The Jeep is like on rails. So far so good off road.
 
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