2025 Rubicon X clearance for 37” BFG KO3

[Siskiyou Recon]

I know I am not the first but who is running this tire set up on a 17” wheel on a new and what did you do to set it up? I know I want 8” to 9” rim width but what else.

Backspacing?

Who made your wheel? Can I get a Method Bead Grip?

I don’t want any rubbing but ….

Stock suspension right now but am willing to upgrade.

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[Ding gus]

Stock mojave (non x) ran 37 bf Goodrich on stock, raceline, and now fifteen 52s...standard offset. No rubbing but never had need to disconnect swayvar.

 

[jdinny]

Stock mojave (non x) ran 37 bf Goodrich on stock, raceline, and now fifteen 52s...standard offset. No rubbing but never had need to disconnect swayvar.

Looks great with both wheels.
I'm about to do the same thing, how big of a hit did your mileage take?

 

[bleda2002]

I did 37s on a non lifted Rubicon very briefly with 4.5 backspace warn jackhammers. No rubbing on the street, disconnected it ripped a front fender off and in the rear it half ripped a fender off when I went 3 wheeling with one rear fully stuffed and the other hanging. If you are on the street it's fine but off road, especially disconnected you're gonna need 1.5 inches or more id say and some bump stop.

 

[CrazyCooter]

BFG 37's will probably fit without any mods since they measure more like a 35" tire. 17x8.5/0 Offset/4.75'" BS is probably what you are looking for. You could do a 5.0-5.35"ish BS to keep inside the fenders, but a lot of those have been discontinued especially in Methods?

If you decide on a more true to size 37, you might need 1" of front bump spacing or a MC "DuroSpring". I haven't had an X in the shop so I don't know how they are bumped in the front.

Had a 392 in here yesterday and I was really surprised at how little up travel it had! Told the guy 37's NO PROBLEM!

 

[Bandit’s Lair]

Short answer for part of it is yes you can run a method bead grip. As stated, BFG runs on the shorter side so shouldn’t be too much of an issue running them on an X. Any decent tire shop or off-road shop will be able to tell you backspacing reqs for running what you want to run. Heck some of em may even mock them up for you if you ask.

I’ve been diving in deeper on bead locks and bead grip type wheels lately. There are a few different companies putting out products in this genre. Top ones I’ve come across are
-Method with the Beadgrip
- Icon with the Pro series (Bead nub things)
- BattleBorn with the Holdfast

Check into those just to expand your options. After that you’re pretty much into beadlock territory. Not a bad thing but there are only a few that are DOT compliant.

 

[CrazyCooter]

The Beadgrips are pretty cool, but honestly I've been wheeling for 35 years on regular wheels on only had one tire come off once because it had a hole in it and I didn't catch the extremely low pressure.

Beadlocks are for extreme wheeling and mall crawlers.......most shops wont touch them, so that's not something I could recommend.

Method is probably my favorite wheel line because the reasonable back spacing, hubcentric, and lighter weights. Every build that has come out of my shop over the past 5 years has been on Methods and one extreme wheeler did Hutchinson wheels.

 

[Bandit’s Lair]

The Beadgrips are pretty cool, but honestly I've been wheeling for 35 years on regular wheels on only had one tire come off once because it had a hole in it and I didn't catch the extremely low pressure.

Beadlocks are for extreme wheeling and mall crawlers.......most shops wont touch them, so that's not something I could recommend.

Method is probably my favorite wheel line because the reasonable back spacing, hubcentric, and lighter weights. Every build that has come out of my shop over the past 5 years has been on Methods and one extreme wheeler did Hutchinson wheels.

I’ve never fully broken a bead myself but I’ve burped tires on side climbs more than a few times and I’ve reset beads on other rigs. I think only 1 of those burps was outside of Superstition OHV. With the width and weight of these Gladiators and the fact that you’re going to HAVE to high side on tighter trails in the desert due to the length I can see the value of a bead lock/grip/protector of some sort.

I like the layout of the Hutchinson. Good DIY in my driveway setup that appears to be way more secure than the standard beadlock.

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