Why is picking a tire size so difficult?!

[WILL1E]

Bought my '20 JTR about 3 months ago and I've been loving it!! It only has 11k on it, but i'm itching to put on some bigger rubber. It has the 2" mopar lift and the wheel wells are just begging to be stuffed. The Jeep spends 99.9% of it's life on the road as a daily driver and biweekly commutes (200mi round trip) to my cabin up north and ill occasionally pull a 14' tandem trailer with my atv's on it.

I've read some of the popular threads about 35 vs 37 and i keep flip flopping. I don't want to spend the money on regearing yet but yet I don't want to suffer terribly on peppiness, gas mileage, etc. I also want to stick with the factory rims for now as I haven't seen a wheel that i've fallen in love with yet.

As for the tire...i've done the BFG AT and MT on all my past jeeps and i'm over that. I like the more agressive look. The Nitto Ridge Grappler seems like a good happy medium.

So, for those that were in the same situation, what was the one things that finally tipped you one way vs. the other.

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[JTR178]

You can buy 35s and sell them at a loss a few months later when you upgrade to 37s. Or you can just buy 37s now.

 

[JeepOfTheseus]

37. I have the same lift. You want 37.

 

[WILL1E]

37. I have the same lift. You want 37.

Did you regear? Keep stock wheels?

 

[chorky]

I vote for 35‘s so you dont have to regear. If its always on the road, the extra cost, weight, and resistance of 37’s doesnt make sense unless you have deep pockets. I mean, the stock 33’s dont look all that bad IMO. Maybe just keep them and get the money out of them.

 

[JeepOfTheseus]

Did you regear? Keep stock wheels?

Yes. No.

I eventually regeared to 5.13, but honestly it wasn’t as horrendous as I expected on stock gearing - and I have an Overland with 3.73 stock, you already have 4.10 with the Ruibcon (I think). The 5.13 does offer a little more pickup from a dead stop, but it was completely survivable on stock gears. Most of the benefit was getting the RPM range back so that I could actually use 7th and 8th and get halfway decent mileage.

I bought Venomrex wheels - I’m not sure if you’ll have clearance issues with stock backspacing. Also not sure if stock rim is wide enough - the KO2s are 12.5, not sure about other 37s.

 

[bleda2002]

You live in WI, go with 37's. I ran 17K miles on light 37 in florida, and towed my 3500lb a liner around with no issues, it wasnt until i went to 39's and started heading to the mountains that I actually felt like it was time to regear.

 

[HoustonGobi]

We put 37's on with 800 miles on the Jeep. They have been on for over 40k miles now. I wouldn't do it any other way. We have not regeared. I'm still not sure I would for how we use the Jeep. It is my wife's daily driver/fun car.

 

[Dryfly24]

I keep 35’s on because they do just fine off road despite what you’ll hear here, and I don’t have to deal with any of the negatives associated with making the jump to 37’s. The negatives of making that jump far outweigh the slight benefits for me.

Although I do a lot of off road and overlanding with my truck, it is also my daily driver. So for me, 35’s have many benefits and a few minor drawbacks. 37‘s OTOH, have a few benefits but many drawbacks.

It comes down to your own specific personal needs.

My personal opinion based on observation is that the vast majority of people go with 37’s just for the aesthetics. Not everyone of course but most I’d bet. I don’t blame them, they look great. But 35’s are a great compromise between performance and aesthetics.

 

[LordEnzo]

37s on max tow. Don't feel I need to regear. Been through some sloppy muk without issues here in FL. Still have plenty of pep, for gasser. Even have stock rims, tho most, if not all, 37s will require a min 8.5" width wheel. The pats I got were the last set in existance at the time that allowed 7.5" width. Most regears seem to be if u live higher elevation, assuming 1k+^. Also on 3.5# rc spacer lift with 1.5" wheel spacers, due to control arm rub

 

[Jeepasaurus_Rex]

If it's going to be on the road for that high of a percentage of time, and you're not looking to regear soon, I'd suggest the 35's. Unless you want the look of the 37, specifically.

Like others have said, though, if you think you'll do 37's in the future, then just skip the 35's entirely.

Also, you don't HAVE to regear.

 

[bleda2002]

The actual tire/rim combo matters more than the 2" in terms of daily driving we've found. My wife's wrangler on heavy 35's with heavy rims (110lbs a corner or so) actually gained MPG and performance by going to light 37's with light rims (96lbs or so a corner). If you go lightest 35's to lightest 37's the 35's will win. If you want the benefits of 37's, which imo are actually substantial in that you gain 2 inches of ground clearance instead of 1 and smoother ride with increased capability off road by virtue of it being larger and able to span gaps better, then go for something on the lighter end and try to keep your rim and tire combo to something near stock for a minimal performance hit.

 

[Barnaby’sdad]

“Buy once, cry once.”

If you’re already thinking about 37’s, just get the 37’s. You’re not going to be happy with the 35’s even though the manners would be better.

 

[WILL1E]

Most of the benefit was getting the RPM range back so that I could actually use 7th and 8th and get halfway decent mileage.

I've got a Tazer in my JTR already, isn't the tire sizing feature in that supposed to help a little bit in terms of telling the tranny when to shift so that i get a bit more out of each gear?

For the ridge grapplers, it looks like 35's or 37's i'm looking at the mid 12" range for width. I see their "approved rim" list, but are you saying backspacing on the stock wheels will be a problem?

 

[chorky]

The actual tire/rim combo matters more than the 2" in terms of daily driving we've found. My wife's wrangler on heavy 35's with heavy rims (110lbs a corner or so) actually gained MPG and performance by going to light 37's with light rims (96lbs or so a corner). If you go lightest 35's to lightest 37's the 35's will win. If you want the benefits of 37's, which imo are actually substantial in that you gain 2 inches of ground clearance instead of 1 and smoother ride with increased capability off road by virtue of it being larger and able to span gaps better, then go for something on the lighter end and try to keep your rim and tire combo to something near stock for a minimal performance hit.

actually. You only get 1 inch of extra clearance. And that is assuming you have true 35 and 37 inch tires that are the exact same. Most are not. Most are some bit of a fraction below their stated tire size so if you had a 34.8 inch tire and jumped to a 36.5” tire it would only be a total of 1.7 inches difference which equals to 0.85 inches of lift also assuming you pressurize them equally.

But even with that, tire size is a diameter measurement. Not radius. Meaning a 37” tire is 1” taller but also 1” ‘lower’ than a 35. Its 2 inches of difference in total. But it only provides 1 inch of extra lift.

thats a lot of money and extra weight and cost for a pretty insignificant increase of 1” at most of ground clearance

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