New Guy with Questions

Welcome to the Delaware Jeep Association.

Do You have a plan for a lift, Any idea what kind of tires. What do you have now?

Slapscott

First off, welcome to DeJA Secondly, welcome to the world of Jeepin'! Hang out, you'll be bitten by the Jeep bug very soon, if you haven't already.

I'm sure you'll find more than enough help and/or opinions here for your Jeep. To start us off, give us some more information on your rig. What year and model? What is the current set up on it? And how are you planning on using it (just easy trail-riding, rock-crawling, mudding)?

Being new to Jeeps, I'd suggest to you what everyone suggested to me. Take her out on a trail ride stock (or in it's current state), and see what it can do (you'll be amazed). This will give you the opportunity to see what trail-riding is all about, and see how you might like to use your Jeep. You can see other Jeeps and how they perform, and what mods they did to accomplish that. And most importantly, it will give you some experience driving off-road (if you've never been).

Just about all of our trail rides include stock level trails. You can, as many here have, wheel your Jeep stock for quite awhile to see how you'd like to build it up.

Or, if you're unsure about taking your baby off-highway, then keep an eye on the Trail Runs forum for an upcoming trip, and see if anyone has a right-seat available for you to tag along (there's usually a good amount of open seats, and everyone is willing to introduce you to the trails this way).

Again, welcome. Please feel free to come out to our next monthly meeting (July 11th), or to our surffishing competition on July 3rd, to meet some of us and let us meet your Jeep!

Regards,
Paul

first thing I would suggest is take your jeep out on the trails as a stocker at least once. You will find that trails are much different than the mud near your house. After you get a feel for what you like to do in your jeep you will have a much better idea for how to build it.

do as much work on the jeep yourself as you possibly can.

They both will suprise you everytime

Artie

Welcome Slapscott

First thing, come up to Paragon with us this weekend (Saturday and/or Sunday) and get a taste of what your TJ can do.

If this weekend doesn't work, Paragon Adventure Park (http://www.paragonap.com) has monthly open rides - you go by yourself and will be put into a guided group - on the first weekend of each month.

everything below is a matter of opinion and will receive many contridictory replies

Wheel with your current tires for a while. My '01 TJ was on the stock 30" for a while before lifting it. This helps you learn to wheel with skills that help later on.

Think about underbody protection first. A good gas tank skid is important, and then try an engine skid (protect the oil pan). Once you meet with bigger rocks, you'll want a steering box skid. Maybe a differential skid of some kind (there are many) for the front. You probably also will want some quick disconnects for the sway bar (give you more articulation on the trail).

Once you have some protection and experience, then you need to decide the primary focus. If this is your daily driver, you probably won't want to go past 33" tires. You can clear these with a budget suspension boost and a 1" body lift. You will probably be OK for a while with your current gearing. You'll also want to consider protection for your rocker panels (the area under the door sills), there are lots on the market.

If you get into serious riding, you'll want to go to bigger tires, requiring more complicated suspension lifts, gearing changes, bumpers, winch, roll cage, and all sorts of other fun stuff.

The best thing to do is go on a bunch of trail rides, and check out everyone else's jeeps before the ride. Ask the owner how he likes it, or what he would have done differently.

I haven't included any engine upgrades (air filters, throuttle bodies). I don't think they're necessary - my 4.0 provides plenty of power on the trail and on the road. But you'll get plenty of suggestions.

Quote from "bmf24"

and if Gavan is there, tell him you are driving his jeep.

...but don't let him spot for you...

This is better than actually working...

When looking at wheels(rims), you will have a size like "15x8". In this case, the 15 represents the diameter of the wheel in inches (if standing upright withough a tire, how tall it is). The second number is the width from one side to the other, in inches.

Most jeep tires use 15 inch diameter wheels, of varying widths - 15x7, 15x8, 15x10 are common. Rubicon uses 16 inch diameter wheels - they will accomodate a slightly larger brake rotor inside of them. You may see people put 20 or 22 inch wheels on their vehicles (bling bling), which is fine for the street but not off-road. For off-road, you want your tire to flex and wrap around uneven surfaces, not just ride over them.

Different tires are made for different width rims. But tire sizes are measured at their widest part at the tread, the bead (where they attach to the rim) is more flexible. You can put a 9 1/2" wide tire on a 15x8 rim; you could also put a 13 1/2" wide tire on the same rim (like mine). The narrower you force the bead, the more likely it is to stay put when you wheel with low air pressure. The trade off is that on the road, the tire is less stable with a 13 1/2" tread balanced onto a 8" wide rim. Your choice of tire size and rim size will depend on how you will primarily be using your vehicle, balancing on-road safety and stability with off-road performance.

Most tire manufacturers will tell you what range of rim widths are acceptable for a given tire width. (We tend to exceed that range slightly, but ...you know..)

Tire sizes come in a couple of formats. One is easy to understand, like the standard Goodyear GS-As on current Wranglers: 30 x 9.5 R15. The first is the diameter of the tire, standing up from bottom to top ("30" means it's probably about 29 1/2" tall, don't ask me why). "9.5" is the width of the tire at the tread, "R" means radial tire, and "15" means the diameter of rim that it will fit on.

Then there is the metric format, something like P215/75R15. The "P" says it's a passenger tire, I think the "215" represents the diameter (height) in centimeters, the "75" represents the ratio of width to hight (someone help me here), "R" again for radial tire, and "15" for diameter of rim. There are web sites that can convert these metric sizes to inches for comparison purpores.

Hope this helps (hope this is right! )

Geez....4 people responded while I was typing mine! I've deleted most of mine in lieu of [size=24px]Andrew's[/size] above, which had all the same info (and more).

I'm assuming, since you said your TJ has 30" tires, that it also has the stock Canyon rims? Like these:

These are the rims that came with the 30" tire package. The original tires, if they are still on there, are 30x9.5.

With your TJ stock, you can fit 31"x 10.5" tires, and you'll only have to adjust the bumps behind the rims. It's really just one bolt on each side that you add washers too so the tires won't turn full spin and rub on anything.

For some additional clearance in the wheel wells, you can add a 1" body lift. This will not "lift" your Jeep, as in, in won't gain you any clearance below the vehicles frame. It will lift the tub of the Jeep (and therefore the wheel wells) up an 1" off the frame, giving you more tire clearance when the tires articlulate off-highway.

Going to a larger tire size will require some sort of budget boost or suspension lift, as others stated above.

AGAIN, I'd stress taking your Jeep AS IS for now (unless the tires are totally bald.) Even if they are the stock Goodyear GSA's, you'd be fine on the stock trails for now. And for now, your money would be better spent on underbody protection, as stated above. It's really the best way to see HOW you eventually would like to go with your Jeep.

Quote from "wanderlust"

Geez....4 people responded while I was typing mine! I've deleted most of mine in lieu of Joe's above, which had all the same info (and more).

"Joe's"??? Just because we have similar avatars and titles...
Hmmfff!

My sincerest apologies Andrew, it was an honest mistake that has been corrected.

Well now I have a question......about tires.

My 02 TJ is still all stock. In the near future I want bigger tires and a small lift. Can I go to 33s and still not have to air down on the beach or off pavement?

Oh and welcome to the club Scott.

Patti

Patti, you will want to air down no matter what size tires you get. I have been lazy and got away with it on the beach a few times but for Paragon/Rausch Creek or wherehaveyou, you want your tires to leave a big "footprint" over the rocks.

Patti, you don't want to air down because you don't want to deal with airing back up again, right? Get yourself a CO2 system, there are a few on the market, even some fairly cheap ones. They make airing up really quick and easy, no lines at the gas station. Easier to install and maintain than the on-board compressors and stuff...

Airing down can also be easy with a set of Oasis deflators. Just set the desired "aired down" pressure, and then screw on and screw off, really quick and easy.

All it takes is money...