Move to 30" tires?

[grogiefrog]

Would anyone see a problem with taking off the 16 x 7 wheels (235/70/16 tires) and putting on 15 x 8 wheels with 30" tires (on my KJ)?

Going by what it says on Tirerack.com, it looks like the 30" tires would give me a .5 inch extra width, and .4 inch extra height? That wouldn't cause any rubbing would it?

This may sound crazy, but I'm thinking of switching wheels between my KJ and TJ.

Thanks!

 

[Mutt]

I'm running 15"x8" wheels with 31"x10.50" tires. The only problem is that some 15" wheels will not fit over the brake caliper. How much lift do you have?

My setup runs more backspacing than stock but I have virtually no rubbing in the front and only at full, and I do mean full stuff in the rear.

 

[grogiefrog]

No lift.

Ah... the brakes...

 

[grogiefrog]

Okay, so thinking out loud... it seems that I could just try and switch tires and see if the 15 x 8's clear the breaks on the KJ???

I think I've heard guys running 30" tires (15" wheels) on KJ's... I think... :-k

 

[Mutt]

I know for a fact that the Rock Crawlers fit in 15". They are sold by a few different companies under different names. When I was purchasing mine it was hard getting a straight answer from anyone on what fit and what didn't.

If you have the luxury, take it to a shop and try on some different 15" wheels for fitment.

 

[grogiefrog]

Well... today I switched a tire between both my KJ and TJ.

The 15x8 30" from the TJ fit fine on the KJ. They cleared the breaks, and looked really good!!! But, the backspacing on these tires is 5.5", and the 16x7's from the KJ had a backspacing of 6". So that just meant that I had a .5" offset on the KJ, which wasn't a problem, and wow did the REVOS look good on the KJ!!!

But, the 16x7's on the TJ gave it a negative .5 backspace. That would probably cause a rub at full turn I'm guessing??? The wheels were .5" closer to the springs.

Well... it was a good experiment... and I tell you what... REVOS are going on the KJ soon! The stock tires are wearing really bad.

 

[jfortier777]

Someone correct me if DC changed this but my 05 Ren has a 5.5 BS and I was under the impression that all the libs had a 5.5 BS.

 

[Mutt]

Yeah, I was under the impression that all KJs had 5.5" of backspacing. Read somewhere that the Moab rims a lot of people are running are 5" of backspacing.

Call me unconventional but I'm running 3.750" of backspacing.

 

[grogiefrog]

I've read that to about KJ's having 5.5", same as a TJ Sport... but really... 6" on the 16x7's. When I put the 16x7 tires on the TJ, they were 1/2" closer to the shocks, plus I even tried the spare tire carrier, and the treads were 1/2" short.

I also was told by an old Jeeper that Jeep 16x7's are 5.5". Not all of them anyway... #-o

 

[waldn]

not to nit pick or split hairs but the back spacing is actually 5.6 inches not 5.5
:-s

 

[Eddo]

Look at the back of the rim. It should say the backspacing, at least Jeep puts it on most of their wheels. My 2003 limited aluminum wheels are 5.5"

Also remember backspacing is the distance from the back edge of a wheel rim to the back of the center section. Therefore offset is effected by both width and backspacing.

For example stock wheels on the KJ are 5.5" and Rubicon Rims are 5" However, since the Rubicon Rims are 8" wide vs stock 7" the center line of the wheel will actually be 1" further out.

Therefore the 8" TJ wheels will have a positive offset of .5" vs the 7" KJ wheels eventhough the both have the same 5.5" backspacing.

If you really want to know more than check this site out
http://www.rsracing.com/tech-wheel.html

 

[jfortier777]

not to nit pick or split hairs but the back spacing is actually 5.6 inches not 5.5
:-s

ROFL! As he splits the hairs! rofl2.gif rofl2.gif rofl2.gif

 

[MoladoGuy]

The difference of a 1/10th of an inch!!

pics2.gif

 

[grogiefrog]

http://www.rsracing.com/tech-wheel.html

I did see this link yesterday. Sure, I could have measured wrong (although I believe I did it correctly), but... I've had people tell me that TJ (Sport) and KJ wheels are both 5.5". Whatever the case is, there as a half inch difference between the two.

I did look on the back of the wheels and I didn't see that either said the bs (at least easy to see... LOL).