What upgrades are needed for 35's?

[Red Heep]

I've been holding out on buying new tires for a while, but now that I blew out a tire I need a set. I'm thinking of just going to 35's from 33's. Here's what I have and what I think I need:

I have:
Dana 44
RE 3.5 lift
1" MML

I need:
4.88's
1.25" or 1.5" body lift
New front Rotors & Yellowstuff brakes

What else do you recommend I need for 35's? Thanks.

[mrchips]

This would be my areas of concern.

At full flex to you have the body clearance for the 35's?

Do you have the Axle strength to deal with the 35's?

[Red Heep]

This would be my areas of concern. At full flex to you have the body clearance for the 35's? Do you have the Axle strength to deal with the 35's?

I don't know the answers to these questions, I'm looking for someone to point me in the right direction who has already gone to 35's. Thanks for the response though. RH

[Jerry Bransford]

Your rear Dana 44 and front Dana 30 axles are fine for 35" tires and 4.88 gearing will be ideal for them with your 5-speed transmission.

Your existing RE 3.5" lift is more like 4 to 4.5" in reality so that, combined with your existing 1" body lift, should provide sufficient clearance for 35" tires. I'm running an RE 4.5" lift plus 1" body lift and could easily clear 37" tires with the amount of clearance I have.

Your EBC Yellowstuff pads are as good as you can install so test your braking after installing the 35" tires. Some TJs seem to do fine braking 35" tires, others like mine did not so I ended up upgrading my front brakes to Vanco's Big Brake kit which brought my brakes back up to being able to stop my 35" tires.

If you start adding lockers and doing really tough trails, it'd be time to start considering aftermarket alloy axle shafts. But without lockers, your present axles should be fine with 35" tires.

Oh, you'll want to install a 39 tooth speedometer gear once you get your 35" tires and 4.88 gears installed. That will make your speedometer accurate again.

[OU812]

What axels do you have? And how do you feal about trimming your fenders and mooving your fender flares? If you put 35s on and are rubbing you cand install some extended bump stops. If you serach around the www you will see that many people are able to run 35 with with less lift than you have. But they run big bumpstops and cut thier fenders. If you have a friend with 35s you might try swaping in the driveway just to look at the clearances.

[Jerry Bransford]

He already said in his very first post that he has a rear Dana 44 and TJs come with a Dana 30 up front.

[aw12345]

4.56 or 4.88 gears and chromolly axle shafts front and rear and maybe tweeking the bumpstops a little and you will have a nice wheeling Jeep. As Jerry said the brakes is kinda a wait and see affair. If you feel they are inadequate go to the vanco kit and be happy. Stepping up to 35's is a bit costly but when its all said and done it will make you a very happy camper

[Red Heep]

Your existing RE 3.5" lift is more like 4 to 4.5" in reality so that, combined with your existing 1" body lift, should provide sufficient clearance for 35" tires.

Thanks Jerry, Art & others. Jerry, to be clear, I have a 1" motor mount lift and was thinking I need a 1.25"+ body lift to clear the tire & future T-Case skid. Does the body lift change the COG very much? Thanks.

Art-- Since this is a weekend toy, would I be happier with the 4.88's over the 4.56's? Looking for opinions.

[Jerry Bransford]

I'm not Art but having had 4.88 gearing and 35" tires on my TJ for years, 4.88 far better offroad than 4.56 is. FAR better. And the very slightly higher rpms of 4.88 over 4.56 helps on the road too to prevent the need to downshift for even a slight grade as 4.56 would tend to make you do. 4.56 isn't quite enough to fully restore the power loss that 35" tires cause.

A 1" body lift is fine, no need to spend extra for that needless extra .25". And at your height, a 1" body lift doesn't raise the COG enough for it to be even a minor consideration. A 1" BL raises the COG less than an equivilent 1" taller suspension lift does.

[bails85]

hey guys not to steal anyones thread but do they make an upgrade for a xj cherokee im having a braking problem with my xj and i only have 32's on it but from stock size 32's are alot bigger.

[Jerry Bransford]

Try replacing your front brake pads with EBC Yellowstuff brake pads, they should help improve your braking performance quite a bit. Make sure your rotor is a good all cast (not composite) rotor too.

[NAILER341]

I've been holding out on buying new tires for a while, but now that I blew out a tire I need a set. I'm thinking of just going to 35's from 33's. Here's what I have and what I think I need:

I have:
Dana 44
RE 3.5 lift
1" MML

I need:
4.88's
1.25" or 1.5" body lift
New front Rotors & Yellowstuff brakes

What else do you recommend I need for 35's? Thanks.

Where do you want to play with your jeep at?
Do you have lockers front and rear?
What steering do you have? Is it stock, or an upgraded currie unit?
Do you have a steering cooler?
Are the axles in your dana 30 stock shafts, or some hardened alloy axles like "Superior" axles?
What is the offset of the wheels you have on there now?

Answer these questions and you may find that the cost of running 35's is a hell of a lot more than the tires.

[Red Heep]

Where do you want to play with your jeep at? [COLOR="red"]Rocks, sand, mud, etc... Usually go to Big Bear or Anza[/COLOR]
Do you have lockers front and rear? [COLOR="Red"]Open in the front, LSD in the rear[/COLOR]
What steering do you have? Is it stock, or an upgraded currie unit? [COLOR="red"]Stock for now, but I'm going to upgrade now anyhow[/COLOR]
Do you have a steering cooler? [COLOR="red"]Nope[/COLOR]
Are the axles in your dana 30 stock shafts, or some hardened alloy axles like "Superior" axles? [COLOR="red"]Stock, but will upgrade once I go locker in the front. I'm keeping it open for now[/COLOR]
What is the offset of the wheels you have on there now? [COLOR="red"]No clue[/COLOR]

Answer these questions and you may find that the cost of running 35's is a hell of a lot more than the tires.

See above. Thanks.

[NAILER341]

So, when you go to 48 are you going to lock it, or do the set-up twice?

What are you going to upgrade your steering to?
When you do the upgrade, you should add a steering cooler at the same time.

Find out what the backset of your wheels is as this may be an issue with your 35" tires requiring either spacers or new wheels.

Stock shafts in a 30 on 35's is not a good match. Upgrade to some hardened axles.
I recommend the "Super 30" so you get the larger axles and an ARB all in one swoop.

35" tires is not an inexpensive upgrade, especially if you take your jeep to places where you will actually need the clearance and traction provided by the 35" tires.

Which 35's are you looking at getting?

[Red Heep]

So, when you go to 48 are you going to lock it, or do the set-up twice?

What are you going to upgrade your steering to?
When you do the upgrade, you should add a steering cooler at the same time.

Find out what the backset of your wheels is as this may be an issue with your 35" tires requiring either spacers or new wheels.

Stock shafts in a 30 on 35's is not a good match. Upgrade to some hardened axles.
I recommend the "Super 30" so you get the larger axles and an ARB all in one swoop.

35" tires is not an inexpensive upgrade, especially if you take your jeep to places where you will actually need the clearance and traction provided by the 35" tires.

Which 35's are you looking at getting?

You're a buzz kill! LOL! Change of plans, I'm going to downgrade to 31's now. Man this is getting expensive. I'm going with GY MT/R's. Maybe I should just stick with the 33's.