OK, time to whine

Lol, no doubt! You should have seen all the chrome aplique crap we peeled off the night we brought it home. It was a Beaverton rig. Self explanatory. Surprised it didn't have angry eyes.
 
Yeah, Beaverton tends to have that vibe to it, haha!

We both have money woes, I'll tell you that much :p

Sometimes you just need to win the lottery, you know?
 
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Best thing I think you could do is compromise: get her the Sahara take off's (relatively speaking they are cheap, and you can probably get brand new tires with them), and then get yourself your locker! Compromise always diffuses the situation! Then, later down the road you can get the rest of what you want for your TJ.

Keep us posted!
 
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Ugh...My dad has those on his 2 door sahara...I strongly dislike them...but its his rig, so whatever. You should be able to sell the wheels on it to help some. Scour Craigslist...Buy take-offs! There HAS to be some out there. You ok with shipping? You shouldn't need to pay much more than 500 or so for the wheels.

EDIT: Just reread most of the other post...You said SHE'S paying for the JKU...so if she wants new wheels, tell her to go get em, SHE can afford it! :risas3::risas3:
 
Ugh...My dad has those on his 2 door sahara...I strongly dislike them...but its his rig, so whatever. You should be able to sell the wheels on it to help some. Scour Craigslist...Buy take-offs! There HAS to be some out there. You ok with shipping? You shouldn't need to pay much more than 500 or so for the wheels.

EDIT: Just reread most of the other post...You said SHE'S paying for the JKU...so if she wants new wheels, tell her to go get em, SHE can afford it! :risas3::risas3:
Yup! And I'll bet that goes over like a fart in church.
 
Paint those ugly chrome wheels satin black - and spray some tire shine on them and they will look great for the summer!!
Hopefully that buys you some time to order lockers, gears and shafts. :)
 
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Somehow tires and wheels have become my problem. Don't know how that happened, actually.

You know Lagertha, from Vikings? Ya, my world. It's her JKU, she's paying for it, but somehow I'm ending up building it. End goal: it's gotta go wherever the SE can go, with the grandkids and / or various relatives in it. Oh joy. I'll see if I can talk her down tomorrow. At least it has a Dana 44 in the back already.
 
lol, right? Still working on selling her on a set of Rubicon take-offs. Almost had her convinced...then she saw a set of the new, 18" Sahara wheels at the grocery store. Crap. Started the selection process all over again.
Get in touch with Stan at Jeep Performance in Yucaipa. He had a few sets of the Sahara take-offs in new condition the last time I spoke with him about tires and such. They would be cheap.
 
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Oh man, no, please! I just got her convinced that 285/75R16's where the way to go...on some 16x8" wheels. (Until that new Sahara showed up) I can live with 17" takeoffs, but those 18" Sahara wheels are going to come back to bite me in the backsides sooner rather than later.

She's even got pictures!
View attachment 14637

There's been a complete 5 tire package of Sahara rims going for only $1000 where I live. They have the basic rubber on them though nothing fancy.


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Get in touch with Stan at Jeep Performance in Yucaipa. He had a few sets of the Sahara take-offs in new condition the last time I spoke with him about tires and such. They would be cheap.
Thank you for the contact, @mrblaine! I appreciate it.

I may have to go on the offensive with a little psychological warfare here and steer the spousal unit away from those 18" wheels if I can. 18" tires are expensive for what they are and the sizes are really limited. The 7" rim width further limits the rubber that you can apply because you really need to go with a fairly low profile tire to make them fit in the fender wells and behind the front bumper at normal ride height. (60, 65 and 70 series metric) Did I mention that the tires that fit those wheels are expensive for what you are getting?!

There's been a complete 5 tire package of Sahara rims going for only $1000 where I live. They have the basic rubber on them though nothing fancy.


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Thanks for posting that @JWjeepSask! JK takeoffs, though not totally common around here in great quantities, sit on craigslist all day for sub $700 asking. The going rate is probably around 5 bills or so if the wheels are in good condition and the tires have lots of tread.

One of the issues I'm having is that JK's aren't TJ's. What I mean by that is what works on a TJ is pretty well understood. When you get to looking into JK's though you are wading through a lot of BS to find the nuggets of truth. It's making my head pop filtering out the "how to install angry eyes" and "do these flat fenders make my butt look fat" threads. JK's can be built into off road monsters; Jeep did a good job of providing the bones for that. The problem is that the people who are doing that are either too busy building to comment on forums, or are getting drowned out by the kids showing off their purple rock lights. Example: 15" wheels, contrary to popular wisdom, fit on a JK. There is a good possibility that there will be interference issues though. What are those interference issues and are they a show stopper? It took several hours to actually find out that there is a high probability that you will get interference with aluminum wheels and the front disc brake mounting brackets. That interference is easily corrected. Those sorts of seemingly small details are important, but hard to find reliable sources on with the JK.

Edited to add: Whoo-hoo! Talked her off the ledge! No 18" Sahara wheels! (...and I have an idea on making the axle upgrades for the TJ more appealing as well. Yes, it's honest...)
 
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Thanks to everyone who participated in this thread and listened to me whine a bit. I hope you found some humor here. And thanks to everyone who offered constructive solutions to my dilemma! We got it worked out without bloodshed and little wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Have a great Jeep day, all!
 
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So are you back to 17" rubicon wheels?
Nope. We are going with a non-takeoff that actually will have the correct rim width and back spacing for the tire / suspension setup in the JKU build plan. Had a little heart to heart talk about what looks good to her and what works best for the situation. For the moment, the spousal unit gets it. She gets to pick the appearance of the wheel, and I get veto power if the technical specs don't work. Oh, and she's paying for it. It's going to run about $2,300, all in, with wheels, tires, TPMS sensors, warranty, mounting and balancing. That's a pretty rough estimate, but probably close enough for our budgeting purposes. She gets shiny new wheels and KO2's x 5, and I avoid the headache of making it work right after the fact. Oh, and I get all new front and rear brakes from Blaine! The SE axle upgrades are being put off for six months or so. That's fine, I need brakes more than I need gears, lockers and axle shafts right now.
 
Nope. We are going with a non-takeoff that actually will have the correct rim width and back spacing for the tire / suspension setup in the JKU build plan. Had a little heart to heart talk about what looks good to her and what works best for the situation. For the moment, the spousal unit gets it. She gets to pick the appearance of the wheel, and I get veto power if the technical specs don't work. Oh, and she's paying for it. It's going to run about $2,300, all in, with wheels, tires, TPMS sensors, warranty, mounting and balancing. That's a pretty rough estimate, but probably close enough for our budgeting purposes. She gets shiny new wheels and KO2's x 5, and I avoid the headache of making it work right after the fact. Oh, and I get all new front and rear brakes from Blaine! The SE axle upgrades are being put off for six months or so. That's fine, I need brakes more than I need gears, lockers and axle shafts right now.
Are you able to reuse the TPMS sensors from the current wheels?
 
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Are you able to reuse the TPMS sensors from the current wheels?
Yes, but they are gong under the workbench as spares. They're of indeterminate origin, and probably not Mopars. It's $85 to $150 to replace all five, so I'm just going to do it. Jeeps and aftermarket sensors don't play well together sometimes.
 
Yes, but they are gong under the workbench as spares. They're of indeterminate origin, and probably not Mopars. It's $85 to $150 to replace all five, so I'm just going to do it. Jeeps and aftermarket sensors don't play well together sometimes.
I have 5 oem sensors, but they are off of a 2012. Not sure if those would work with her year JK, but you are welcome to them...also, they are on the steel wheels, and those may or may not work with alloy wheels, but the offer still goes. Heck, if you want spare wheels and sensors for off roading, you can have those too...they have not sold on CL since listed. Not one hit.
 
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