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97 Jeep wrangler tires

Looking to put bigger tires on my 97 jeep wrangler. Not going bigger than 31*10.5*15's Do I need to put on a lift for clearance issues. Also I don't really want to go any higher than a 2" lift.

Any feed back on this issue would be appreciated. It only has the 2.5 cycle engine in it, also is a standard. I really love that 4 popper and the stick finishes the deal.

P.S.- Little tid bit about painted on pin stripeing. Oven Cleaner works for taking it off, doesn't hurt the clear coat. Unless you let it sit on the paint job to long. If you do that the oven cleaner will eat through the paint. (not good) Apply oven cleaner wait about a minute, wipe off stripes. Then wipe with wet clean cloth, rinse thourghly. After done, hose down jeep clean as normal. Take to detailing shop have them was and buff the outside. If good looking woman works there, have her polish...............

Reply to
markdgordon2002
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31x10.50s will fit stock rims.... if you have the gamblers they might rub a hair on the control arms when turning very sharp
Reply to
Jarod Sprauer

I've had 31x10.5 BFG AT/KO's on my TJ for over 5 years. Same set up as you 4cyl 2.5L. Othere than breaking my old "ear driven" shifting reflexes, I haven't had any bad effects from them and I live in Pittsburgh where the term "flat" means 15 degree angle. You should note that you won't get into 5th gear except on very flat highways - or downhill The 4cyl has more than enough power to handles the 31's.

Your tires might slightly rub on the steering stops, but they're not hard to find or adjust. I ordered new wheels with 8.5 inch backspacing and they work just fine. BUT ! 10/5W with 8.5" backspacing causes a 1" protrusion of the tire beyond the wheel well. While not legal in PA, I've never been stopped and still pass inspection due to the "nebulous-ness" of the PA code for off road vehicles. The 1" also tosses up more ground gunk so you might want to consider mud flaps if you don't have them already.

FYI, the 31" also gives you another 2" of ground clearance already because your stock tires are 27's. (31-27)/2 = axel lift of 2 inches.

You also should get a new speedometer gear to compensate for the different road diameter in your 31's. Roughly speaking, you'll go

1.15x more miles than your speedometer registers. I never changed mine and have no bad side effects (except that it looks like I get phenomenal mileage for a jeep ?;-) ). Not getting it may be a problem in some states like New Jersey where they go nuts on all the things they check. Again, fairly easy to fix.

I wouldn't let any of this stop you from getting the new tires.

Reply to
Wildfire

You really might want to use a GPS to verify your tire size to speedometer... On our Cherokee oversized P235's make the speedometer exact to the GPS and for some strange reason 33's do it on my CJ7.

I have heard that some TJ speedometers are exact to a GPS with 31's....

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail >
Reply to
Mike Romain

My '99 TJ is dead nuts with BFG 31x10.5's

The speedo was high with the Wrangler 30's from day one. As they wore, the speedo became even less accurate, with my wife alwasy complaining of tailgaters.

Reply to
B A R R Y

When I was coming home Saturday night in my WJ I passed one of those radar gun on a trailer displays along side the road in the next community down.

I had the cruise control set for 35 and the radar gun showed 34. Okay... engage memory and functional brain cells.... (sometimes difficult at 5 AM) (35-34)/35 x 100% = ... speeder-meter is 2.9% slow.

Now if I go to a website with a tire size calculator I can play with the numbers until I find that 30 inch tires read 2.6% slow so I would be only

0.3% off

As it turns out this 30.1 inch tire (255x70-16) is the largest that fits well in a stock height WJ. Too bad I just got new tires a year ago....

Reply to
billy ray

good suggestion, i've done that with my 97TJ w/31s and my speeds are almost exactly 10% faster than what the speedo shows, so i adjust accordingly. my only real problem is that i bought the jeep before i understood the "jeep thing" and i haven't yet changed the gears... 3.07s which means with the 31s, i have forgotten how to shift into 5th gear and can do about 30 in 1st gear. makes offroading a challenge since my

4L gear is still pretty fast.

Mike Roma> You really might want to use a GPS to verify your tire size to

Reply to
Randy B

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