hello all! so i have owned my stock jk for about a year now and it is finally time to start the upgrades so i did TONS of research about lift kits and related parts, seems things have changed since i lifted my tj but anyways i ended up buying a 3.5 inch AEV premium lift with the highsteer kit ... yay! that said next is to look at my tires and wheels. I am definatly not one to post a question before researching about it first i have researched and researched trying to find an answer to my problem but i cant seem to find anything so here i am, here is my question:

so not only do i like the look of the 15 inch wheels but the tire prices are much cheaper for 15 then 17 inch wheels so i would like to go with 15 inch wheels. i reseached and i know it can be done and i would like to purchase a set of cragar soft 8 15" wheels but i read somewhere that the AEV highsteer kit drag link changes and prevents the 15" wheels from being used, so if there is anyone with experiance with this specific kit and 15 inch wheels your input/advice would be greatly appreciated!

thanks in advance !

Mike

 

Had the same plan, make sure you get wheels with the proper backspace I had to buy spacers because the brake rotors don't fit in my 16" wheels so 15" defiantly won't fit with out the proper backspace. Not with the backspace be careful you don't do what I did and buy spacers that now made my jeep as wide as a one ton truck, this puts loads of pressure on the cv joints and axle. I do a fair bit of wheeling an literally yesterday I bent my front axle and had to replace my cv joint and wheel bearings in the front. So I would also recommend upgrading your axles to an at least a standard 1310 axle like I am buying today. But for the lift itself iv had no problems, I like it a lot. I'm building an expedition jeep so I don't do extreme wheeling but the aev lift has some brackets, I believe it's the control arm Bracket that is mounted low on the vehicle that's prone to being hit by rocks. Just and FYI

 

I'm a kid and was new to wheeling. I broke a lot of things finding out what I needed to do to properly wheel and spent lots of money fixing the things I broke. If you are lifting your jeep and I would say save up get the proper tyres, wheels, cv joints, drive shafts, the whole lot. Find out what you need for the wheeling your doing cuz I spent to much on things I didn't know. And you said you research and have experience with your TJ so I have no doubts u will be successful. Good luck and here is my now working JK with my AEV lift and I love it!

 

thanks for the quick reply!! your jeep looks awesome and im glad to hear you like the kit ! i actually mostly will be doing on road driving as this is my daily driver but i do like to go offroading on the weekends and we go on an offroad trip every year. which is why i choose this kit because of its on road preformance as well as offroad.

about the backspaceing i was looking at ordering the cragar soft 8's with 3.75 or 4" backspacing does that sound correct?

 

15" wheels can be tricky to fit. All the 15" steel wheels that we have test fit (Cragar Steel, Unique Steel, Pro-comp Steel, Black Rock Steel) have hit the brake calipers. You'd need to run a spacer or grind the calipers in order to run them. (we don't recommend either of these options). If you are considering 15" wheels I'd recommend looking at a 15" alloy like the MB72, MB Chaos 5, Black Rock D-Window Alloy, MB TKO or MB Razor. These are all available in 15" sizes that will clear your JK's brakes without needing wheel spacers. I'm not sure if these will fit with the AEV lift you are installing, AEV may be the one to tell you if their kit requires a min. wheel diameter.

Here's a thread you might want to check out (prices were from 2010): https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/spon...-steel-120933/