I was considering using 15x10 wheels with 4" back spacing (if they clear my brakes) and 35x14.5 tires. These wide wheels and tires will stick out considerably from my fenders, but will I wear out parts quicker? I'm concerned about wheel bearings, steering components, ball joints, etc. Let me know what your experience is, even if you may have similar setups on a TJ Wrangler. Mine is an '07 Rubicon. Thanks.

 

I have an 07 4 door rubi with 35x13.50's. I have about 12,000 miles on this setup and have no ill side affects. Just make sure to keep everything greased and tight.

 

Thanks, has anyone found that parts wear out more quickly if you use wheels with very little backspacing and wide tires? I thought I heard of this before. If I don't get any more replies, I guess I'll buy them.

 

Parts DO wear out more quickly.

The wheel bearings for example are leveraged significantly more when there's less BS.

Larger tires place more stress on the entire drive train under load, etc.

Every one does it anyway...I mean, crashng over rocks and through mud bogs is not exactly increasing longevity either.

The thing to remember is that the wrangler is a HORRIBLE choice if you don't off road, as all that extra steel and so forth to help survive off road, is just a MPG penalty ON road.

If you're not going to offroad a wrangler, its a bad choice from a practical perspective...there are better choices in that regard, that are MEANT to drive on pavement, etc.

So - As long as you HAVE made the decision to take it off road, and to modify it so it does off road what you want it to...then ALL of the sacrifices in street performance, longevity, mileage, etc, are part of the deal.

That said...the unibearings are pretty good, and I don't know anyone who killed them yet....and, if after 100K or whatever you DO kill them...its not hard to replace.

 

Anytime the spacing is changed from center either +or- the load on the bearing increases exponentially. The width makes little difference and the tire weight makes little difference to the bearing if all is kept centered.

Unfortunately it is a fact of life that you have to often increase the backspacing or offset in order to run really wide tires, so you take your chances.

Or like some picts you find on here, you buy wider axles to begin with, keep your tires and wheels centered and look cool even if illegal to drive on the street.

 

I think you will run into problems. My CJ has 10" wheels and 15.50 swampers and wore out ball joints, tirerod ends, and wallowed out a brand new Tri-County Gear high steering arm (and it's 1-ton tierod end). The Jeep's front axle is a 3/4 ton Chevy D44 8-lug. The width was great in sand and rock, but made for white knuckle rides on any fire roads, ice, mountian roads.

Your JK's axle (even the D44) has much lighter weight tierod/ball joint equipment. See the pic below for a comparison. This is after I put the RC 2.5" BB on the JK:

 

You've got to be the smartest common sense and knowledgable off-roader ever.

 

Thanks for the replies. Mizedog, that CJ with Swamper SX's looks really good. I was thinking of 35 x 14.5 Boggers. Hope the performance off road and the cool looks outweigh the negatives.

 

Garshk....you're making me blush now.