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Issue with ride quality on 24x14 wheels paired with 6" lift

CJ5w4wdSmokyOnMyTail

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Hello Gladiator community. I am hoping some (or many) of you can offer some insight into the ride quality of my Gladiator.

I recently purchased a used 2021 Gladiator Rubicon. The previous owner installed 24x14 wheels wrapped in 37x14.5R24 rubber and a rough country 6" lift. I am not sure what else has been done, but I do not see any other modifications visually.

My dilemma is that this Gladiator is ALL over the road while driving above 45 mph and it feels very unsafe at 60mph. I have to constantly steer and correct while driving in a straight line and just don't feel like this is normal. I have watched dozens of videos and spoke to several people and am told the following:

A) Don't worry about it, all Jeeps drive like this.
B) Having wheels/tires that size will always cause those driving issues.
C) A 6" rough country lift will cause those issues.
D) The stock aluminum steering box is the culprit.

I took it in to the dealer to have the stock aluminum steering box replace with the all steel unit, however they refused to do the work citing that they cannot properly align it after the box replacement due to the size/offset of the wheels/tires. That said, I purchased the steer smart sector shaft brace in the hopes it would suffice. Although the issue has improved, it still feels awkward and dangerous at highway speeds.

My question is, has anyone else encountered this and can provide a list of things to check and/or fix? Do Jeep's naturally wander? Do I need to downsize the wheels and offset? Is there possibly and underlying issue not related to tires and lift? Any help is greatly appreciated.

I come from a long line of sports cars, but I do not have any experience with lifted trucks of any sort, so I welcome the communities feedback!

Thank you.

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Mostly B & C. And those size tires and lift will mess with the drive train geometry and other components that haven't been updated to accommodate such a heavy, wide tire and lift. I fear the previous owner cared much more about a cool look and ignored his homework and upgrades needed to make that look 'driveable'.
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dcmdon

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37s on 20" wheels are not what I'd consider low profile tires. There is roughly 8.5" of sidewall.

OP has 37" tires on 24" wheels. Roughly 6.5" of sidewall.

A stock Gladiator with 255 70 18 tires has about 7" of sidewall.

I don't think tire sidewall height is a problem for OP.
It's not just the height of the sidewall. It's the height of the sidewall in proportion to the tread width.
With 6.5" of sidewall on a 14.5" wide tires, you are talking about a FORTY FIVE series tire.

Absolutely, definitely a low profile tire. Just look at the photos in the OP.

But let's not argue about semantics. The tires are much much much lower profile than what the suspension and steering were designed to manage. They are also much larger in diameter. And probably 150 lbs each.

I guess my point is that if it was a 37 with 70 series tires, it might have stood a chance of coping. But 37s that are 45 series tires are going to subject steering and suspension components to peak loads far far greater than what they were designed to deal with. I'm not saying anything is going to break. Just that suspension components will move around and deflect much more than if they were controlling something more reasonable.

It's funny because when I saw the thread title. I was sure it was a joke. But no joke. There's a photo of a gladiator on a 6" lift with 24" wheels and the owner is complaining it doesn't drive right.

I mean, who of you didn't laugh inside when you saw this??

Issue with ride quality on 24x14 wheels paired with 6" lift
 

Viper501

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I’ve witnessed interstate speed separation of the axle shaft and wheel from a Wrangler outsides of Asheville. While the two guys in it were definitely over the GVWR, the real cause of the failure was the ridiculous offset for the wheels. I watched from behind as the right rear wheel and axle unwound itself from the housing, separated, and went bouncing its merry way down the interstate. Luckily it didn’t hit anyone and the two bozos in the Jeep managed to get it over to the side of the road without flipping or hitting anyone else.

Wrong offset may look cool to some folks but it has a serious side effect of excess leverage on stock components. Add on the much higher weight of the wheels and tires on this rig and you have problems to the problems power. Not to mention the rotational mass of those wheels / tires is also having a negative effect on handling, braking, acceleration, and the life of the stock components.

As has been suggested before, get rid of those wheels to *start* fixing the handling problems.
 

Wheelin98TJ

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It's not just the height of the sidewall. It's the height of the sidewall in proportion to the tread width.
With 6.5" of sidewall on a 14.5" wide tires, you are talking about a FORTY FIVE series tire.

Absolutely, definitely a low profile tire. Just look at the photos in the OP.

But let's not argue about semantics. The tires are much much much lower profile than what the suspension and steering were designed to manage. They are also much larger in diameter. And probably 150 lbs each.

I guess my point is that if it was a 37 with 70 series tires, it might have stood a chance of coping. But 37s that are 45 series tires are going to subject steering and suspension components to peak loads far far greater than what they were designed to deal with. I'm not saying anything is going to break. Just that suspension components will move around and deflect much more than if they were controlling something more reasonable.

It's funny because when I saw the thread title. I was sure it was a joke. But no joke. There's a photo of a gladiator on a 6" lift with 24" wheels and the owner is complaining it doesn't drive right.

I mean, who of you didn't laugh inside when you saw this??

Issue with ride quality on 24x14 wheels paired with 6" lift
I see your point, I didn't think about the aspect ratio qualifying them as low profile.

I was just thinking the tires are too wide.
 
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theCATALYST

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It's funny because when I saw the thread title. I was sure it was a joke. But no joke. There's a photo of a gladiator on a 6" lift with 24" wheels and the owner is complaining it doesn't drive right.

I mean, who of you didn't laugh inside when you saw this??

Issue with ride quality on 24x14 wheels paired with 6" lift
Glad I could make someone laugh.

I'n my defense, in the past several years I have seen the big wheel/negative offset (poke) trend grow steadily in the full size truck market, but never owned or drove one so wasn't aware of the issues concerning them. My z06 had 355/25ZR21 on the rear and 295/30ZR20 on the front and never had issue with contact patch on the street, so was confident I wouldn't with the Jeep either. I grew up seeing jeeps on oversized tires, and didn't think nothing of it when I purchased this Gladiator. In my mind oversized tires = oversized wheels, no different then all the full sized trucks I have seen over the years. I see now that I was wrong thanks to this forum. I am learning, bear with me.
 

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dcmdon

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Glad I could make someone laugh.

I'n my defense, in the past several years I have seen the big wheel/negative offset (poke) trend grow steadily in the full size truck market, but never owned or drove one so wasn't aware of the issues concerning them. My z06 had 355/25ZR21 on the rear and 295/30ZR20 on the front and never had issue with contact patch on the street, so was confident I wouldn't with the Jeep either. I grew up seeing jeeps on oversized tires, and didn't think nothing of it when I purchased this Gladiator. In my mind oversized tires = oversized wheels, no different then all the full sized trucks I have seen over the years. I see now that I was wrong thanks to this forum. I am learning, bear with me.
We all live and learn. I now see why your expectation was probably a bit warped.

1) coming out of a Corvette Z06. Very sorted suspension and insane grip with large tires. Certainly benefits from the millions in engineering GM put into chassis development. That will set expectations perhaps a bit too high

2) Yes, there are lots of trucks here with oversized wheels/tires. But your truck has the largest wheels I've ever seen on this site as well as the tallest lift. So you are at the extreme end of what people do. And I suspect that most of those people don't plan on using their Jeep as their daily driver.

37s aren't huge, but they way they are set up on 24" wheels makes them very stiff and very heavy.

You will figure it out.

I'd suggest thinking about what you want to get to. If you want a cool ass street jeep, then maybe drop down to a 19 or 20 and stay with relatively low profile tires. If you want to go off road it's primarily 17s, though there are some decent 18" tires out there.
 

Lynn_F

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The lift kit is not complete. You need some adjustable control arms to adjust your caster and adjustable track bars to center your axles. Front and rear track bar relocation brackets will eliminate your bump steer. The wheels and tires definitely push the steering/suspension to its limits but if you finish the lift you'll be in much better shape. Then after you get all of that complete the first component that will likely wear out will be your ball joints...so if you pay someone to install all of these parts then I'd go ahead and take care of the ball joints. I'm running a 6.5" lift with 40x14.50r20 on 12" wide, -44 offset wheels. I have 26k miles and have had this setup since 3k. No issues yet but I can tell my ball joints are getting ready to go.

Jeep Gladiator Issue with ride quality on 24x14 wheels paired with 6" lift Screenshot_20230406_180624_Chrome


Jeep Gladiator Issue with ride quality on 24x14 wheels paired with 6" lift Screenshot_20230406_181252_Chrome




Jeep Gladiator Issue with ride quality on 24x14 wheels paired with 6" lift 20221231_130805


Jeep Gladiator Issue with ride quality on 24x14 wheels paired with 6" lift 20230112_053812
 
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dcmdon

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I dont pretend to be a jeep specific suspension expert. But I've raced cars and motorcycles and generally understand how suspensions work.

It would seem to me that with a 6" lift the control arms are angled down at so much of an angle the thing is never going to drive right at higher speeds. I would think that if you wanted a 6' lift to run right doing anything other than rock crawling, you 'd need some kind of long control arm kit to keep geometry change to a minimum?

Yes??
 
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theCATALYST

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The lift kit is not complete. You need some adjustable control arms to adjust your caster and adjustable track bars to center your axles. Front and rear track bar relocation brackets will eliminate your bump steer. The wheels and tires definitely push the steering/suspension to its limits but if you finish the lift you'll be in much better shape. Then after you get all of that complete the first component that will likely wear out will be your ball joints...so if you pay someone to install all of these parts then I'd go ahead and take care of the ball joints. I'm running a 6.5" lift with 40x14.50r20 on 12" wide, -44 offset wheels. I have 26k miles and have had this setup since 3k. No issues yet but I can tell my ball joints are getting ready to go.

Jeep Gladiator Issue with ride quality on 24x14 wheels paired with 6" lift 20230112_053812


Jeep Gladiator Issue with ride quality on 24x14 wheels paired with 6" lift 20230112_053812




Jeep Gladiator Issue with ride quality on 24x14 wheels paired with 6" lift 20230112_053812


Jeep Gladiator Issue with ride quality on 24x14 wheels paired with 6" lift 20230112_053812
Your rig looks fantastic. Thank you for the feedback. I need to do my homework.
 

Lynn_F

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I dont pretend to be a jeep specific suspension expert. But I've raced cars and motorcycles and generally understand how suspensions work.

It would seem to me that with a 6" lift the control arms are angled down at so much of an angle the thing is never going to drive right at higher speeds. I would think that if you wanted a 6' lift to run right doing anything other than rock crawling, you 'd need some kind of long control arm kit to keep geometry change to a minimum?

Yes??
I posted a screenshot above of the lift he has. It has front geometry brackets to lower the front LCAs but that's it. If what is in the screenshot is everything that comes with the lift , then he just needs the rest of the lift components.
 

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Lynn_F

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Your rig looks fantastic. Thank you for the feedback. I need to do my homework.
Thanks, ill be glad to help you if you need it. There is a lot of great info and people on this forum but sometimes you hafta weed thru a lot of bs to get what you need. If you could post some pics of your control arms & track bars then that will help to identify what components you'll need. I've bought multiple used lifted jeeps and it can be really difficult to determine what's OEM or aftermarket.
 

Lynn_F

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Thanks, ill be glad to help you if you need it. There is a lot of great info and people on this forum but sometimes you hafta weed thru a lot of bs to get what you need. If you could post some pics of your control arms & track bars then that will help to identify what components you'll need. I've bought multiple used lifted jeeps and it can be really difficult to determine what's OEM or aftermarket.
Especially if you have rims that are bigger than 17x8.5...🤣🤣
 

Vtur

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Big wheels with low profile tires usually rides more rough, but the 14" width is killer. Your ball joints and hub bearings are screaming for helps lol.

If you like the looks, goes with something like 24x8-9 with the highest offset as possible without rubbing. And adds some hub centric rings if required.
 

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The lift kit is not complete. You need some adjustable control arms to adjust your caster and adjustable track bars to center your axles. Front and rear track bar relocation brackets will eliminate your bump steer. The wheels and tires definitely push the steering/suspension to its limits but if you finish the lift you'll be in much better shape. Then after you get all of that complete the first component that will likely wear out will be your ball joints...so if you pay someone to install all of these parts then I'd go ahead and take care of the ball joints. I'm running a 6.5" lift with 40x14.50r20 on 12" wide, -44 offset wheels. I have 26k miles and have had this setup since 3k. No issues yet but I can tell my ball joints are getting ready to go.

Jeep Gladiator Issue with ride quality on 24x14 wheels paired with 6" lift 20230112_053812


Jeep Gladiator Issue with ride quality on 24x14 wheels paired with 6" lift 20230112_053812




Jeep Gladiator Issue with ride quality on 24x14 wheels paired with 6" lift 20230112_053812


Jeep Gladiator Issue with ride quality on 24x14 wheels paired with 6" lift 20230112_053812
The geo brackets will get the control arms where they need to be on that lift and they are included. The only thing missing is the adjustable track bar. I know at least 12 people with that kit installed, some on 40's and their jeep drives fine.
 

Lynn_F

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The geo brackets will get the control arms where they need to be on that lift and they are included. The only thing missing is the adjustable track bar. I know at least 12 people with that kit installed, some on 40's and their jeep drives fine.
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