Good morning all,

Thinking about converting over to H1 style wheels, currently I am running 37s on my 44 front/60 rear combo. Now from what I'm reading the wheels tend to have 7in of back spacing. I'm currently on about 4.5in or so on backspacing. Would I need to get some wheel spacers to help compensate the difference? Anyone else running this kind of set up on their JKs? My biggest concern is just clearing all those silly little steering and brake parts.

 

What is behind the allure of those wheels for you? Just the looks? I've run a wheel spacer in the past for a short period of time. My comment would be anytime you're doing that it should be just to get through a transitional period of a build, not the final piece of the puzzle. IE....with so many wheels out there, you should find something appropriate to run your 37s on and not try to jam a square peg in a round hole. Are you running 12.5" or 13.5" tires?

 

37s made for 16.5 wheels are incredibly cheap which is my primary motivator to be honest here, lots of surplus left over from the HMMWV usage. My secondary motivator here is to get all four of my wheels on a matching lug pattern. I did a Dana 60 swap which came in a 8x6.5 bolt pattern but my front Currie 44 is the standard 5x5 bolt pattern. Currently I'm running 37x12.5xR17.

 

Sure, you can add 3” of spacers if you want. But you’ll be sorry in the end. The Dana 44 front is pushed to the limits with 37’s as it is. Now you’re adding 150lbs of wheels/tires to the mix with 3” of spacers. Your ball joints, unit bearings and c’s are going to be screaming for dear life.

Maybe the wheels are cheaper than fancy aluminum beadlocks but when you’re replacing parts on the axle, I think you’ll find that shelling out the cash for the right wheels will be cheaper in the end.

 

Ooh yeah, I forgot about the wear and tear items on there. Thanks for that reminder haha. Probably hold on off on this pipe dream then.

 

I thought my tire/wheel combo was heavy at 115 lbs, geesh. Can't even imagine that weight turning at the corners without some V8 powering things.

Curious, do you currently run mismatched wheels? I'm guessing you're not using an adapter up front to get 8-lug there since your goal was to get them all on the pattern and you were asking about spacers to begin with.

 

Im just imagining losing power steering on a trail with that weight combination or struggling in the mountain passes. Currently I just run steelies for my wheels from and rears. I had planned to get a more permanent solution awhile back but life took a few exciting turns.

 

I get up to your area occasionally as my dad lives up the mountain in Florissant. Sounds like you have a similar build as me. I'll have to ping you next time I'm up there. Usually I end up running trails solo up there just to get out and do something.

 

Florissant is a beautiful area, lovely country up there. I've built mine up with the idea of being able to go just about anywhere I have the nerves for. I like to meander around Old Stage rd and see where I end up.