While the tire height difference is only about 1/2', the weight difference is considerable. A total savings of 66.4 pounds of rotational, unsprung mass!
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A lesson learned—keep it light and nimble!
- Thread starter Irun
- Start date
Have you noticed the difference in size or weight as far as handling or performance? Any change in your MPG?
While I understand if you're driving it mainly on the street that running a more aggressive tire doesn't make sense but I also understand those who want that "LOOK" too so they still run a more aggressive tire...
I’d be curious on how different it drives. The balance of weight and diameter is interesting to me as a 4cyl it’s very important. I’ve felt that diameter has a larger negative effect on driving especially with gearing but weight while being less obvious is still not beneficial. Now being on the east coast I feel more inclined to go to a heavier set up with beadlocks and mud tires than to 35s but feel both would be too much.
I ran both heavier 33" & then 35" tires on my TJ when I still had the 4 popper.... I never minded it that much but about 6-10 months after I installed the 35" tires it became a second vehicle so I wasn't driving it as much...
I had 4.88 gears as back then that was the lowest you could go with the Dana 30 & 35.
I'm sure having the smaller & lighter tires would help with performance. I can remember how great it was to go from 4.10 to 4.88 gears as I could use 5th again with the 33" tires.
Acceleration, braking, ride, and handling are all noticeably better. One other dramatic difference is wet weather driving. I had to be relatively careful in heavy rain. Now, I can drive with much more confidence, all around. It's like I had forgotten just how well a TJ on stock/ish tires drives.
I've run those Michelin MS2's on my trucks and SUV's in the past. Great tires. Among the best I've ever run.
Retirement has given me time to finally take on a couple big home projects. One of those, putting a roof over our 18x20 back deck and screening it in, is nearly complete after 6 weeks. Since the Jeep needs safety inspected, and I'm planning a Fall wheeling trip in October, I gave the Jeep a little attention.
My main focus was to identify the cause of a very slight shimmy that had developed. After looking things over, I found the cause, a bad tie rod on the CurrectLync steering. I'm not sure what's going on but this is the second tie rod failure in 20k miles. I've also replaced all the rubber boots once, and now they're split again.
Given the tie rods are roughly $100 and boots are $10 each, I've pulled the CurrectLync steering and replaced it with ZJ steering, using Moog parts. To my surprise, all the Moog parts were Made in USA. The only part that wasn't made here was the Monroe steering damper, Made in China
. For my needs, the ZJ steering is a better fit, lighter, cheaper, and easier to source replacement parts, if needed.
During the swap, I used a set of Bleepin Jeep alignment tools a buddy gave me. While I probably wouldn't have bought them myself, using them to set toe in was very easy.
My main focus was to identify the cause of a very slight shimmy that had developed. After looking things over, I found the cause, a bad tie rod on the CurrectLync steering. I'm not sure what's going on but this is the second tie rod failure in 20k miles. I've also replaced all the rubber boots once, and now they're split again.
Given the tie rods are roughly $100 and boots are $10 each, I've pulled the CurrectLync steering and replaced it with ZJ steering, using Moog parts. To my surprise, all the Moog parts were Made in USA. The only part that wasn't made here was the Monroe steering damper, Made in China
. For my needs, the ZJ steering is a better fit, lighter, cheaper, and easier to source replacement parts, if needed.During the swap, I used a set of Bleepin Jeep alignment tools a buddy gave me. While I probably wouldn't have bought them myself, using them to set toe in was very easy.
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Is your passenger side brake caliper even connected to a brake line? That wheel is CLEAN clean!
I just put the street tires on and that was the spare.
Ah, ok. At first I was about to compliment you for your BOSS-level OCD fueled cleaning skills. But then I saw the driver side wheel and was like wait, that's not it
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