Currie Short Arm vs. Savvy Mid-Arm
- Thread starter jordans05tj
- Start date
Your Rubicon 44's came with MOAB rims from the factory. If you put 35's on them and bolt them up, what happens when you go lock to lock offroad or in parking lots?
I don't know since I don't have the factory rims or 35" tires yet. I'm guessing they'd rub so I was planning to get rims with 4" or 4.25" backspacing.
Even with 33s, on stock Moab rims, it will rub at full lock. You need either wheel spacers or washers on the steering stops to avoid rubbing with 33s, 35s will be that much worse.
Would somebody please explain to me why 37’s are so bad on a tj? My buddy is running them on his and it a) doesnt look bad b) isnt anymore tippy or unstable c) doesnt break everything
I've never cared about my scrub radius because I've never heard of it until 30 minutes ago reading that post of yours I quoted from. That's why I was asking about 35s on the stock axles, which I though could be done without issue. Are you saying that there's no way to properly put 35s on stock axles?
Kind of a stretch here, but a man can survive on Doritos and Mountain Dew for every meal. Doesn't make it right.
Some people would rather fine tune their Jeep to take on the trails/rocks with the most optimal setup. A Jeep can be setup to run 37’s and do well. Generally it take a bit of work to make that size tire work and work really well.
Because there's not an axle the factory ever installed into a TJ that is strong enough for 37's except if that TJ never does anything tougher than mall crawling.
Based off what you are asking, you are looking to put 35’s on for pure looks, am I right?
I am not implying that is a bad thing.
I'm no expert but here is a short video that explains a little about Scrub Radius.
This is the first time I've heard anyone mention any issues with changing wheel offset. Thanks for that video.
Forget you ever heard the term 'offset' which is really only a useful measurement where car wheels are concerned. For Wrangler and truck tires the measurement you're most interested in is 'backspacing' which is the absolute distance between the wheel's mounting surface and inner-most edge of the wheel. That is how you can tell how close the wheel's inner-most edge will be to the suspension components and how far in or out it will sit in the wheel well.
The yellow ruler below is measuring the backspace dimension.
The yellow ruler below is measuring the backspace dimension.
It has to do with expectations and reality thereof. As you lift and put bigger tires on, the challenge is to maintain or improve stock handling and driving characteristics. The reason that Currie likes to see a wider axle is so that a good scrub radius is maintained to slow down tire scrub, ease the burden on steering components, and maintain good steering response.
As you move the tires outward without making the axle wider, you are increasing the amount they roll to turn instead of pivoting on the contact patch.
At the end of the day it boils down to what we can get by with and not adversely affect what we need the rig to do. Since is it common to ignore most of that, we see a lot of comments to the effect, "it's a Jeep, it is supposed to ride, handle and drive like shit".
If you keep the tires tucked in as tight as the rubbing will allow and maybe a bit less, that is getting things on the right track but it will never be ideal. Whether you notice it will depend on how the rest of your rig is built.
So understanding that it's impossible to have the ideal setup on stock axles, how would you put 35s on an LJ Rubicon's D44s?
Accept the compromise, build around it and keep the backspacing around 3.75-4"
Ideally I was going to use the Savvy mid arm lift, maybe outboarded shocks, with ~4" of backspacing. (Upgrading to 17" rims so I can use the largest Vanco bbk to be extra safe in the mountains.)
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