Having run this forum for years now, one of the more common topics I see has to do with wanting to run 35" tires, what's required, and how much it really costs.
I decided it was worth making a thread about this, since I feel that many people end up purchasing a Jeep Wrangler TJ thinking that they'll just slap some 35s on it and call it a day. When they find out how much is required to actually run 35s and how much it costs, they gawk at the price and want to know if it can be done for cheaper.
I'm going to break this thread down into what I consider to be mandatory parts and optional parts required to run 35s.
Mandatory Parts
These parts should be considered mandatory to run 35s. I've included the cost next to each item, and please keep in mind these are high quality parts, nothing cheap here. Can you find a cheaper lift kit? Yes, I have no doubt you can. However, I'm using top shelf parts for this thread, as I am in the mindset of buy once, cry once.
Parts Total: $7,703
Labor Estimate: $2,000
Total: $9,703
Optional Parts
While these parts are parts I would consider optional on your path to running 35s, they are parts I personally wouldn't skip on.
Parts Total: $3,978
Labor Total: $1,400
Total: $5,378
So there you have it. You want to run 35s? Assuming you wanted to do it using quality parts and have someone else install them, you'd spend
$9,703 roughly for the "mandatory parts". Add in another
$3,378 for the "optional parts" and labor, and you've got a total of
$15,081.
This of course doesn't mean it can't be done cheaper. It surely can if you were do do the install yourself. However, certain things like a gear install are something that most of us would never attempt ourselves, and the labor on a gear install alone is around $1,000 to $1,300.
Keep in mind those prices don't include shipping costs, sales tax, or anything else. The bottom line is that when you plan on doing a big project like this,
always, always, always plan on spending more than you anticipate. Rarely ever does it come out to be the amount you originally have worked up in your head.
Conclusion
Before you think about running 35s, think about it really, really hard. Do you just want 35s to cruise around the streets and never take it off-road? It's still not going to be cheap, but it can be done for a bit less using lower quality components.
However, if you want to do it and do it right, I would say that you should expect to spend between $8,000 to $15,000, which isn't cheap.
