Wheels, backspacing, tires, and fenders... oh my

So I know there's a lot of questions on here about regarding wheels, backspacing, tires and fenders on here but I thought I would just run this by you guys before I make a purchase.

I'm planning on getting a set of all terrains tires and 15" steel wheels. My current tires are nice for my daily highway driving, not so much off road, but they will be on most of the time. They are 245/75R16 Cooper SRX on the 16" Moab wheels.

My local off road store confirmed my suspicion that the previous owner installed the 2" Skyjacker spacer lift kit on it so that should mean I could stuff a 32" tire on there if I wanted, though I'm leaning towards a 31".

So this brings me to my questions and concerns. Could you guys tell me what backspacing I would need for a 31x10.5r15 and a 32x11.5r15 to keep them inside of my Rubicon fenders flares? The off road store had 2 workers give me 2 different answers on backspacing for both 32" and 31" tires so I held off. Also am I overthinking this whole keeping the tires perfectly underneath the fender flares? Lol

Chris said:

A 31" tire will be the better choice.

For a 10.5" wide tire, the factory 5.5" backspacing on the Moabs is just fine. Hell, I ran 11.5" wide tires on my factory Moabs and just barely, barely rubbed on full turns, but it wasn't enough to ever cause an issue, as you had to have the wheel cranked to it's fullest in order to rub.

With that setup on the factory Moab wheels, your tires will side inside the fender flares.

Stick those tires on the factory Moab wheels and you'll be fine, I promise. I ran the same setup on my Rubicon and it looks perfect!

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Thanks for the response! I tend to over think the small things lol

But with that said, I just got my bonus last week so friday I ordered some steel 15" wheels with a 4.5" backspacing that were on sale because I was pretty set on some Falken ATW3 in 32x11.50 I may have to rethink this now! Plus a set of Moabs wheels just popped up on the facebook marketplace in my area so I may have to check them out now

Chris said:

The only disadvantage with Moabs is they are 16", and the tire selection for 16" isn't very great (not nearly as good as 15". However, I personally believe that the Moab is the best looking wheel out there for the TJ, hands down. One reason I always decided to stay with my Moab wheels.

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Totally agree! Love the looks of the Moabs, just wish they came in 15x8! I almost made a rookie mistake when I first got my LJ and bought a set of 17" Moabs off craigslist but after a little research I found out JKs and TJs have different bolt patterns lol

Well I'm not 100% set on a size now that this other set of Moabs happen to pop up but I'll keep ya posted!

Well I finally got around to it and bought some tires! Went with the 32x11.5r15 Falken Wildpeak AT3Ws. The 16" moabs in my area were priced way too high for the shape they were in. Decided to stick with the 15" wheels. Got them mounted last night. So far pretty happy happy with them, looking forward to hitting the trails with them!