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The Single Most Important And Difficult Decision On This Jeep Build
Tires are arguably the single best way to upgrade your 4x4 vehicles performance. It immediately increases breakover and departure angles and ground clearance. Add a lift kit to fit bigger tires and add even more clearance. What type and size tire should you choose? It all depends. Below is the lift kit I chose for my Jeep.
Mopar Lift Kit Comes In Awesome Wood Box And Engineered For The Ecodiesel. I had mine installed in Scotts Valley CA at 4x4AndMore. (Not paid endorsement)
My First And Least Important Reason For Changing To Pizza Cutter Tires - Vanity
A lifted Jeep with stock tires looks silly! Making the Jeep aesthetically pleasing (unless your building a mall crawler) should be the last reason for mods. That being said the way your Jeep makes you feel when you see it in the driveway is important. My lifted vehicle needed taller tires for better off-road performance. I think it looks a heck of a lot better too. Check the pictures below and see if you agree.
These Photos Show Stock Tires With Lift On Left And Upgraded Tires With Lift On Right
Tire Choice Criteria - Building A Daily Driver And Capable Overlanding Vehicle
What did I expect my Jeep to do? It would be Purpose Built For Overlanding And A Everyday Driver. Tires should maintain some vehicle characteristics and enhance others. This knowledge would help me create a tire choice criteria. Heres a few items from the list. Click here for Road and Track all terrain tire information.
Maintain fuel mileage. Pick a smaller tire with less rolling mass
Maintain stock wheels. Fit on the Jeeps stock 17" X 7.5" wheels.
No Poke! Keep tires inside the fender guards. No Wheel Spacers! Keep mud off the side of the vehicle.
Maintain traction. Willys Wrangler stock tire was Mud Terrain. New tires have to be M/T.
Made in USA. I like to buy US made whenever possible.
Quality. Tires should be well known as good tires.
Expense. Quality tires get more expensive as they get bigger. Try to stay in budget.
On road/off-road. New tires need to work very well off-road and pretty good on road. (I'm not driving a sports car.)
C Rated Tire - I felt like a C rated tire would be ride more comfortable on road. Off-road I would not have to air down as low as a E rated tire. Less chance of the bead breaking loose.
All Signs Pointed To Pizza Cutter Tires!
Took a good long while to make the tire decision and save the money to buy the new tires. There is a argument my choice is not a true pizza cutter tire. Here is a brief list of what came on the Jeep and what my search came up with:
Stock Jeep Tires
255/75R/17 Firestone Destination M/Ts
Honorable Mention Tire
My Tire Choice
Picked Up Some Mopar Steelies Along The Way
New wheels were not part of my plan or my budget. Then I saw a new Ford Bronco rolling down the highway sporting black steelies. It looked so good decided to put them on my Wrangler. The spare tire on our Gladiator is mounted to one. Steelie is good for off-road. It gets dented you can potentially dolly it out. Aluminum wheels break. I wanted to add center caps and needed new lug nuts to install them.
Part #s and Links to purchase are listed below.
A Year Later How Have The Toyos Worked Out?
After a year, lots of highway and off-road miles over multiple types of terrains these Toyos have been awesome! They handle great, are not very loud on the highway and have not impacted mileage negatively. Wear is better than I expected.
New Larger Tires Different Air Pressure? Chalk Test? On And Off-Road
Because the new Toyos are C Rated like the stock C rated tires I started out with pressure listed on the door jam sticker, 37 psi. Monitoring tire wear over the last year it seems to have worked. No chalk test required.
Off-Road I air down to about 18 psi. Lets the tires grip without breaking the bead.
With All The Tire And Wheel Choices Out There I Feel Like I Did Pretty Well.
I will declare the Wrangler JL Willys Ecodiesel with 285/75R/17 Open Country M/T a worthy vehicle for driving everyday and hitting the trail on tough Overlanding Tracks. Tire choice is a big part of its success. Don't want to Jinx myself but I have not had any flats. Looking forward to wearing these out on future adventures!
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