Just picked up my custom ordered Silver JK Rubicon yesterday! Less than 4 week from time I ordered!

Ok, looking at now wanting to put lift kit, 3" - 4" approximately. Researching teraflex, Rock Krawler, and OME complete kits.

Probably go with Bridgestone, Procomp, or Firestone A/T 35" tires. (use to have 33" AT tires on my FJC and like the way they ride and look).

Question, forgive my ignorance. Always hear about backspacing issues. Can someone please explain to me what exactly backspacing is?

Would like to keep the 17" OEM Alloy wheels if possible. (though would like to get some black classic MT or AEV 5 holes later, but funds are rather limited so first is the lift kit, new drive shaft if needed? and the 35" tires)

Thanks.

 

If you are going to wheel it, you'll need a new front DS on a jku and front and rear for a 2dr. The three lift companies I'd look into are RK, TD, and EVO. The EVO Enforcer kit is pretty nice and probably the best you can get in that price range. That being said, Teraflex makes good stuff too and I have no complaints about my Rock Krawler setup. As for backspacing... It is the measurement of the distance from where the center of your rim mounts to you hub to the inside diameter of your wheel. So, if you took your wheel off and laid it down on its outward facing side (the pretty side), then stuck a ruler down vertically on the center of the wheels backside, it is the depth of the wheel to the top of the rim. Make sense? Much easier to explain with pictures... So in that example, of the lying-down wheel, your stock wheels are something like 6.5" I believe, which is much deeper than you want. You want at most 4.5 after lifting, meaning that depth of your ruler would be shorter. My wheels have 3.5" of backspacing, meaning my depth is even smaller, which pushes my wheels out and away from the body of the jeep, giving clearance for the lower control arms. I ran the stock rims with the 1.5" Spidertrax spacers for a while, but that still put me at only about 5" backspacing, so at full crank my tires rubbed my front LCA's. Since I got the new wheels, I've had no issues. Hope this helps.