Anyone else have photos of these on their TJ? I’m starting to think I may want a set. I really love the look of Moab’s but hate that they are 16”.
I think the "lack of tire selection" for 16" wheels is a bit overblown. I mean seriously, how many selections do you want or even need?
I way I see it, the main advantage to the 16" wheel is the metric tire size.
If you want to run a 33" tire on a 15" wheel, you either have to get the WIDE 12.5" tire or the rather narrow 10.5" tire. With the former, you are going to have a backspacing problem. With stock wheels, you will need wheel spacers to make that size work. And almost all aftermarket wheels are going to have more backspacing than you need, and so the wheel is going to stick out from the flares. Then of course is all the extra rolling mass of the fatter tire. With the latter, tire selection is even more limited, and some don't like the look of "pizza cutters."
If you want to run a 33" tire on the stock 16" Moab wheel, the metric equivalent is 285 75R 16. That size is not nearly as wide as the 33x12.50, and avoids the "pizza cutter" look of the narrow 33x10.50. Performance won't suffer as much as with running the much wider 12.5" wide tire. The width of the 285 75R 16 tire is perfect in that you don't need spacers with the stock Moab wheel. The tires stay under the flares where they belong, and you get to keep your stock wheel. Which, by the way, is the best-looking wheel that came on the TJ.
And then there is a matter of proportions. The Jeep CJ and YJ came stock with 15" wheels. The TJ comes along in 1997 with much larger fender openings, and they also came stock with a 15" wheel? I personally think the stock size should have been 16" all along, if not for better aesthetics but also for the more suitable tire widths that come in the metric sizes. Yes, almost all new vehicles have 17" or larger wheels now, but 16" was considered a cool size in the 1990s - when the TJ was designed.
