I have a 2008 JK Sahara Unlimited with stock 18 inch wheels? I was speaking to an advisor from one of the well known Jeep outfitters today. He indicated that I couldn't go down from my 18 inch wheels to 15 inch wheels because of "larger calipers".

I'm confused because I've seen a lot of discussion and photos of JKs with 15 inch wheels. Can anyone provide some insight?

 

You're totally fine with 15" wheels. (Well...most 15" wheels.) Discount Tire Direct has a thread around here somewhere with a list of 15" wheels that fit the JK with little to no rubbing.

 

I recently went down to 15" wheels on my 2011 Sahara. I did a lot of research on the forum and came to the conclusion that some 15" wheels will work and some will not. I went with the MB72 wheels from Discount Tire and could not be happier. They look great and have plenty of clearance over the calipers.

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong , but I belive unread somewhere that the issue lies with steel wheels ? ? .... I may be confused ...

 

you are correct. There are some steelies that fit but rule of thumb is that alloys work better.

 

All 15" wheels will fit. It's the backspacing that is a concern. Because of the brake calipers on the JK, the only 15" wheels that can fit are those with 3.75" backspacing. Your tires will stick out a solid inch past the fender flare with that backspacing.

 

Thanks. I figured as long as you took the backspacing into account that some 15" wheels would work. Was surprised when he tried to convince me that NO 15" wheels would work on a JK.

 

jegs has some nice 8 hole steelies for $45 a wheel!

 

Most parts suppliers and tire shops will tell you that 15s will not work, since that's what the computer says. I took the plunge based on info from here and am very happy with my 15s.

 

15's will totally fit - although some may require some minor grinding of the calipers. Here are the 15's I recently got... MB TKO with MB Chaos center caps... I love the look of small wheels and lots of rubber on a Jeep - classic!