33/12.5 R15 vs 35/12.50 R15

rprudenzano

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Marietta, Georgia
I am thinking about switching to a 35in tire to fill up my wheel well a little bit I have a 4in lift and 33/12.50r15 right now. My question is can I run the 35in tires on my 15in rims with out changing the ride terribly. Would a 35/10.50 r15 be an option? If I need to buy new rims should I just goto a 17in to make up for the tire size change? There are so many options I am stuck! Thanks!
 
You can get away with running 35's with the 4" lift but you may need to add a 1" body lift. What gears are you running? You may want to think about a re-gear at 35's. What trans do you have?
 
I have a similar setup on my LJ, but have tube fenders. I need to change my gears, the lugging/constant shifting, at highway speed, kills me and my mileage.
I almost dropped back to 33’s for daily and kept 35’s for the Trail.
My TJ had a 6” BDS Long arm, 35x12.50x15’s on rock crawler wheels, and a 4.56 Gear. That worked well! Aired down(BFG MT TA KM 2’s) the grip was phenomenal, and I had no issues at Upper Tellico, or at Golden Mountain, for Dixie Run with SFWDA.



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No need to go to a 17” rim with a move from 33-35. High fender flares or 1” BL or extra bumpstop to handle 35’s at 4”SL will be needed. If you haven’t regeared, that will be the biggest negative on your driving experience.
 
You can get away with running 35's with the 4" lift but you may need to add a 1" body lift. What gears are you running? You may want to think about a re-gear at 35's. What trans do you have?

Its a 2003 Jeep Wrangler X, automatic transmission, I believe it has stock gears 2:73. I don't have any issues driving at highway speeds and I live in a hilly area.
 
No need to go to a 17” rim with a move from 33-35. High fender flares or 1” BL or extra bumpstop to handle 35’s at 4”SL will be needed. If you haven’t regeared, that will be the biggest negative on your driving experience.

What gearing would be optimal without losing the pickup I have now? I have been wanting to install lockers if I'm going to re-gear I will do it at the same time.
 
What gearing would be optimal without losing the pickup I have now? I have been wanting to install lockers if I'm going to re-gear I will do it at the same time.
4.56 is a good DD gear, 4.88 good trail gear based on my experience and opinion. 35's on a 15 inch rim are great especially when aired down. Only thing I have ran into is maybe a little harder to balance correctly then a 17 inch set up.
 
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Its a 2003 Jeep Wrangler X, automatic transmission, I believe it has stock gears 2:73. I don't have any issues driving at highway speeds and I live in a hilly area.
I think you had a typo on the gears. 3.73 would be one of the stock gear options. You would be looking at 4.88 border line for those 35's. I live north of you up 75 and know how these NGA hills can be.
 
I have a 4" lift on mine and when I went to 35X12.50R17 I found that my tire would rub the bottom of my fenders. I will be adding a 1"body lift. Give some serious consideration to the 17" wheel if moving to 35". When I had my 33" tires, my brakes were OK but not impressive. After driving with the 35s for a while, I'm going to do a brake upgrade with larger rotors.. The larger wheel will help you here. Gives you more options in the future.
 
I have a 4" lift on mine and when I went to 35X12.50R17 I found that my tire would rub the bottom of my fenders. I will be adding a 1"body lift. Give some serious consideration to the 17" wheel if moving to 35". When I had my 33" tires, my brakes were OK but not impressive. After driving with the 35s for a while, I'm going to do a brake upgrade with larger rotors.. The larger wheel will help you here. Gives you more options in the future.

Thank you everyone for your technical and personal help with this, I already purchased some used 35's for 200.00 on crap rims. I am going to install them this weekend and drive it for a week to make up my mind what long term solution will work for me. TO BE CONTINUED!
 
I have a question that I think falls into this thread instead of making a new thread. Lmk if I should start a new thread please! I bought the jeep I have now and the PO(previous owner) just slapped on a 4" suspension lift with 35" km3's. I've done a fair amount of reading on this forum, with a little from other forums, and it seems like there's a lot more that needs to happen in the drivetrain before running 35's Offroad. I don't think I have the budget for a SYE, adjustable control arms, re-gear, etc.. Does anybody have a rough estimate for what that project would cost?

Staying on the subject of 33's and 35's, most of my wheeling includes national Forrests, with some rutted out hill climbs(sometimes pretty tough stuff). I very rarely will see any true rock climbing, or have any Moab style riding. Should I go to 33's until I can afford the right equipment to run 35's? Right now, if I articulate too much I get into my factory rear fenders pretty hard, so I assume I need longer bump stops? Driving down the hwy I have a slight roaring sound that I hear, but only when accelerating, as soon as I let off the gas pedal it stops. wondering if it also has to do with the angle of the rear driveshaft. Any help will be much appreciated!
 
I have a question that I think falls into this thread instead of making a new thread. Lmk if I should start a new thread please! I bought the jeep I have now and the PO(previous owner) just slapped on a 4" suspension lift with 35" km3's. I've done a fair amount of reading on this forum, with a little from other forums, and it seems like there's a lot more that needs to happen in the drivetrain before running 35's Offroad. I don't think I have the budget for a SYE, adjustable control arms, re-gear, etc.. Does anybody have a rough estimate for what that project would cost?

Staying on the subject of 33's and 35's, most of my wheeling includes national Forrests, with some rutted out hill climbs(sometimes pretty tough stuff). I very rarely will see any true rock climbing, or have any Moab style riding. Should I go to 33's until I can afford the right equipment to run 35's? Right now, if I articulate too much I get into my factory rear fenders pretty hard, so I assume I need longer bump stops? Driving down the hwy I have a slight roaring sound that I hear, but only when accelerating, as soon as I let off the gas pedal it stops. wondering if it also has to do with the angle of the rear driveshaft. Any help will be much appreciated!
There are some more cost effective options you can do in the meantime that will alleviate some of those issues. For example, a body lift and motor mount lift will provide extra fender clearance and also tilt the driveline favorably for your rear driveshaft.

Where do you see yourself ending up? If you want to eventually have 35s, personally I would stick with them and start adding components as your budget allows. But if you think you eventually will be at 33s, go there now.

Here’s what I would do as I get funds in your situation:
  1. Body lift/motor mount lift ($250 ish)
  2. Slip yoke eliminator, new rear driveshaft, delete transfer case drop. May need rear upper adjustable arms at same time. (Maybe $750)
  3. Adjustable control arms and track bars (Maybe 500-1500 depending upon brand)
  4. Regear, shafts, lockers if desired, ($2-3k)
 
There are some more cost effective options you can do in the meantime that will alleviate some of those issues. For example, a body lift and motor mount lift will provide extra fender clearance and also tilt the driveline favorably for your rear driveshaft.

Where do you see yourself ending up? If you want to eventually have 35s, personally I would stick with them and start adding components as your budget allows. But if you think you eventually will be at 33s, go there now.

Here’s what I would do as I get funds in your situation:
  1. Body lift/motor mount lift ($250 ish)
  2. Slip yoke eliminator, new rear driveshaft, delete transfer case drop. May need rear upper adjustable arms at same time. (Maybe $750)
  3. Adjustable control arms and track bars (Maybe 500-1500 depending upon brand)
  4. Regear, shafts, lockers if desired, ($2-3k)
Thank you for the suggestions man! I appreciate the detail and steps..👍🏻
I’ll be honest, I had a 97 tj se(4 cyl) back in 2015. I don’t know what all the PO did to the Jeep, but I know he had about 4”s of lift, front and rear “auto lockers” and only had 32” km2’s, but wow that thing could climb almost anything I wanted plus some I never would have thought it would have been able to. I say that to say this, if I could do so much with 32” tires, can somebody testify for the need for a 35” tire? I’m at the point where I want to get rid of the 4” suspension lift, and go back with a 3” suspension and 1”-1.25” body lift and 33’s. Unless someone here can testify for the 35’s enough to show that it’s not worth me going through the trouble of swapping lifts on my Jeep.
 
i’m running 35x12.5 R17’s with a 3 inch suspension and 1 inch body lift. they rubbed a tiny bit when flexing and turning but i got adjustable control arms so i could move the axle forward a little.