easy tire question!!!

Hi Jimmy,

Any tire that is not OEM size or has a more aggressive tread design can change ride characteristics. I am not familiar with Bridgestone's, but I can't imagine that they would make a YJ ride any more ruff. You should be able to clear 30's no problem.

-- JimG

80' CJ-7, 258 CID 35" BFG MT's on 15x10 Centerlines 4.56 D30-D44 SOA D300 w/4:1 & Currie twin sticks Warn 8000i w/dual batteries LockRight F&R

The truck tires usually have stronger sidewalls but they don't need 'more' air, usually less air than a passenger car tire.

Now they for sure can 'take' more air than a car tire usually, but you want a good footprint on the ground.

I run my BFG 33x9.5 mud's at around 26 psi city and 28 psi highway. Our Cherokee needs 32 psi with 235's on.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

The Commish wrote:

No. Not "no" exactly, Hell No.

First, the 235s you are looking at can be either passenger car tires, or Light Truck (LT) tires. Second, 25 psi is 25 psi. Third, if yuo get somewhere where the tires are too hard and are compromising the traction, you can let the air out to between 10 and 15 psi, and probably get enough additional traction to move on down the trail. You can drive like this to a gas station to refill the tires, but you will be perfectly safe at trail speeds. (You will experience a squishy and numbness in the steering response, so the trip to the gas station for more air should be kept to speeds below about 30.) Fourth, you are really going to get 30x9.50s. You can also consider

31x10.50s, but from what you have said, I think the 30s are better suited to what you plan on doing.

Jimmy, The lesson I learned is most likely what your talking about. That is, most, not all, of the smaller to mid sized metric tires are whats called "standard load" while the truck tires are "C" load. The truck tires have thicker sides and stronger plys. You have to run lower air in them to make them feel like the stanard load, but even then, it's not the same. For heavier loads or if rock crawling/trailriding a lot, sure, go with the bigger and stronger tire. But for daily driver/light off roader, I would stay with the standard load ...in your case, a 265 70 R 15 OR a slighty larger 265 75 R 15 (about a 31) will do great for you.

I'd never thought of that at all! So, I checked out the tire dimension chart for the Bridgestones I wanted to get and sure enough, it does say that the 30x9.5's are C load range rated. The P265/70R15's aren't rated at all, and they're also exactly 29.6 inches in diameter. They do however have a larger overall section width (10.6 vs. 9.9) a larger tread width (7.8 vs. 7.3) and a smaller tread depth (13 vs. 16). I'm new at this, but do those numbers mean anything significant? I mean, is there any other reason anyone can tell me NOT to go with the

265's?

Thanks all!

Jimmy

In my opinion, they are too wide for the street. That goes triple if you see snow.

Jeeps are light/short and wide tires just plain don't have enough psi on the ground for good handling in snow or on wet surfaces.

Tall skinny is the best for winter.

I had a 10.5 mud tire on that has a real 10" wide of tread and did not like them much. They were extremely dangerous at any speeds over 30 mph on the road in snow. They started to float and the steering control disappeared.

I went to a 9.5" mud tire with the same tread and these only have a 7.5" wide footprint. There was a Radical difference!

I still don't know at what speed they lose control in the snow, they do just fine on the highway following transport trucks at 55-60 mph which is good enough for me.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

The Commish wrote: