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Swapping XJ and WJ wheels

I have a '95 XJ and a '01 WJ (Limited, Up-Country suspension)... The XJ goes offroad (mud) whereas the WJ stays on the street most of the time... I usually change tires on my XJ when the tread starts getting so low that it would not be gripping the mud as well, but if the tires were used on the street, they would still be good for quite a few more thousand miles... I was thinking about rotating the tires from the XJ to the WJ after they have gone through half of their life... Unfortunately, the WJ has 17" rims on it, so I'll need to replace them... I guess I've got a couple of questions...

  1. Will 15" rims even fit on the WJ?
  2. What is the bolt pattern of the XJ and WJ? I think the WJ is a 5x5 and the XJ might be a 5x4.5, but I'm not sure and haven't been able to find a definitive answer on the web...
  3. What about using a lug pattern converter on the WJ (assuming that I can find one that will convert from whatever the WJ's pattern is to whatever the XJ's pattern might be) as in:
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    Will a 31x10.50 fit on a WJ with the Up-Country suspensiion or will Ineed to at least put a 2" budget boost lift on it?5. Will a 31x10.50 fit in the spare tire compartment on the WJ? The ultimate solution for me would be to be able to just swap the rims and tires between vehicles instead of having to have the tire shop move the tires to the other vehicle's rims...
Reply to
Grumman-581
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WJs have a different bolt pattern size so its wheels are not compatible with Wrangler wheels. Wrangler have a 5x4.5" pattern, and though I'm not 100% sure, I believe the new WJs have a 5x5" bolt pattern.

Jerry

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4. Will a 31x10.50 fit on a WJ with the Up-Country suspensiion or will I> need to at least put a 2" budget boost lift on it?> 5. Will a 31x10.50 fit in the spare tire compartment on the WJ?>

Reply to
Jerry Bransford

I meant to say Cherokees have a 5x4.5" bolt pattern... which is the same as a Wrangler anyway.

Jerry

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questions...

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> 4. Will a 31x10.50 fit on a WJ with the Up-Country suspensiion or willI

Reply to
Jerry Bransford

Reply to
L.W.(ßill)

Ok, so that means that I would need to either go with an adapter on the WJ or change the tires between rims once I had got them to their half life point on the XJ... I would prefer the adapter route if it won't cause any problems since it would be easy for me to swap the tires around and only have to take one vehicle to the tire shop when it was time to get new tires...

Will 15" rims physically fit on the WJ or are the discs and such too large and thus they might get in the way?

Of course, this might be a moot point if the 31x10.50s that I currently run on my XJ will not fit in the spare tire compartment on the WJ... Grace would not look too kindly to me mounting the spare on the roof of her WJ as I did on my XJ... Not being able to get into a parking garage would definitely get an adverse reaction from her...

Reply to
Grumman-581

Reply to
L.W.(ßill)

Break off on the street or on trails? Grace would probably kill me if I took her WJ the places that I take my XJ, so a little compromise on trail readiness is acceptable for the WJ...

The WJ can come with 16" or 17" rims... The 16" ones are standard with the Laredo trim package and the 17" ones come with the Limited trim package... So, unless they changed the brakes between those two packages (which I highly doubt), it would be possible to put 16" rims on the WJ... Since no one has tried putting 15" rims on the WJ, I guess I'm going to have to do it myself to see if it looks like it would fit... I don't want to go with larger rims on my XJ since I like having all that rubber down there protecting the rims from curbs and such (here in SE Texas, we don't have rocks, we just have mud)...

Unfortunately, the WJ is over in New Orleans right now whereas the XJ is in Houston and I don't foresee them being in the same general area anytime soon...

Reply to
Grumman-581

Grumman-581 did pass the time by typing:

I don't think it will. The reason they went with 16" rims was to get clearance for larger front discs and there isn't much room between the cailper and the 15s even on my ZJ.

Reply to
DougW

Hmmm... Doesn't sound promising... Any idea if a 31x10.50 will fit in the spare tire well on the ZJ?

Reply to
Grumman-581

Dunno.. My ZJ doesn't have a well. Best bet there is to visit the local Jeep dealer with a measuring tape.

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Reply to
DougW

Reply to
L.W.(ßill)

I should hope the heck not, on the ZJ the back seats fold forward after you remove the headrests and fold the cushions vertical/forward.

Approximately 10/9/03 15:39, L.W.(ßill) Hughes III uttered for posterity:

Reply to
Lon Stowell

Hmmm... I take it that the ZJ puts its spare in the same place as the XJ then... On the WJ, the spare sits inside a well underneath a lid in the cargo area...

Reply to
Grumman-581

Reply to
L.W.(ßill)

Approximately 10/9/03 16:07, Grumman-581 uttered for posterity:

At least one year ZJ just sticks it along the side of the cargo area behind the rear seat on the driver's side and covers it.

Reply to
Lon Stowell

Reply to
L.W.(ßill)

Yeah, and from that image.... First you remove the headrests from the rear seat. At which point you will probably break the latch holder for the. No biggie, the replacement is more robust but does require a bit of Dremel to install. Then you grab the little leather loop at the back of the rear seat cushion. You *did* leave that little loop attached hopefully. As you pull on that leather loop, it unlatches the back of the seat cushion so it can be rotated up and forward 90 degrees. This leaves the bottom of the rear seat cushion as a sort of wall between the cargo area and the front seats. Then you unlatch the rear seatbacks and fold them down, where they become the floor of the cargo area. To store the headrests, there are holes on the rear of the back seatcushion, which is now pointing upwards. The latches that hold them there also break... *Lovely* design.

Approximately 10/9/03 16:19, L.W.(ßill) Hughes III uttered for posterity:

Reply to
Lon Stowell

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