35's on a Sahara, Lift or No Lift

HarleyPap57

New member
I looked else where and did not see this question so I'm going to throw this out to everyone. Just picked up my Sahara JLU and want to put 35's on it, actually looking at Nitto Terra Grappler 2 on XD-820 20" X 10" rims. Some tire stores say no way they will fit without a Lift and the Tailgate Reinforcement and other Tire Stores say "Yep, no problem" with both. Anyone running a combo similar to this and what are your thoughts. Hate to buy them and then have to take it in for a lift before I can drive it. Mostly highway and dirt / gravel roads. Maybe to the beach once or twice a year.
 

Supercharged

New member
You will need a lift for 35s on a Saraha. The Rubicon has higher fenders and I have heard it said that the Rubicon suspension is an inch higher than Sport and Sahara models.

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wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
I looked else where and did not see this question so I'm going to throw this out to everyone. Just picked up my Sahara JLU and want to put 35's on it, actually looking at Nitto Terra Grappler 2 on XD-820 20" X 10" rims. Some tire stores say no way they will fit without a Lift and the Tailgate Reinforcement and other Tire Stores say "Yep, no problem" with both. Anyone running a combo similar to this and what are your thoughts. Hate to buy them and then have to take it in for a lift before I can drive it. Mostly highway and dirt / gravel roads. Maybe to the beach once or twice a year.

On a Sahara, you really NEED to be running a 2" lift to clear 35's. As far as wheels go, I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you stick with a 17" and go no wider than 9" if you can help it. 20" is an odd size especially for a tires so small and your options will not only be fewer, they will be more expensive. This is to say nothing about how your ride quality will suffer.
 

JTCO

Meme King
I looked else where and did not see this question so I'm going to throw this out to everyone. Just picked up my Sahara JLU and want to put 35's on it, actually looking at Nitto Terra Grappler 2 on XD-820 20" X 10" rims. Some tire stores say no way they will fit without a Lift and the Tailgate Reinforcement and other Tire Stores say "Yep, no problem" with both. Anyone running a combo similar to this and what are your thoughts. Hate to buy them and then have to take it in for a lift before I can drive it. Mostly highway and dirt / gravel roads. Maybe to the beach once or twice a year.

Most '35' inch tires are going to sit about 33.25 to 33.5 diameter with the weight of the vehicle on them. So, go with the higher number and divide by 2. This will give you a radius of 16.75 (call it 17 to be safe). If you put a tape measure in the very center of the wheel cap and extend the tape out to 17 inches and pivot it around the tire, you'll be able to see if the tire will rub or not. Turn your wheels all the way to the right and left and repeat this measurement to make sure they do/don't rub while turning.

This will not account for articulation nor wheel width, but it will give you a good idea of how the tire's diameter will fit in relation to your wheel wells.
 

HarleyPap57

New member
On a Sahara, you really NEED to be running a 2" lift to clear 35's. As far as wheels go, I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you stick with a 17" and go no wider than 9" if you can help it. 20" is an odd size especially for a tires so small and your options will not only be fewer, they will be more expensive. This is to say nothing about how your ride quality will suffer.

Thanks, appreciate the advise. May have to reconsider my wheels and add a lift.
 

HarleyPap57

New member
Most '35' inch tires are going to sit about 33.25 to 33.5 diameter with the weight of the vehicle on them. So, go with the higher number and divide by 2. This will give you a radius of 16.75 (call it 17 to be safe). If you put a tape measure in the very center of the wheel cap and extend the tape out to 17 inches and pivot it around the tire, you'll be able to see if the tire will rub or not. Turn your wheels all the way to the right and left and repeat this measurement to make sure they do/don't rub while turning.

This will not account for articulation nor wheel width, but it will give you a good idea of how the tire's diameter will fit in relation to your wheel wells.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.
 

JLSahara

Member
Get the lift. It’ll look funny with 35’s and no lift, though I have seen a YouTube video of a guy with 35’s on a Sahara with no lift. He had to do a front bumper cut for it not to rub for on-road driving but it definitely looked like it will rub for anything remotely off-road.

I just got the 2.5 EVO lift with 18x9 and 35’s; it looks and feels amazing driving.


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Jlusahara

Member
You will need a lift, and a re-gear. At the price of these magines now, would be a shame to build one half way.

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JLSahara

Member
I haven’t re-geared and it feels fine. But yet again this is my first Jeep so I’m not to accustom to the driving style yet.


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Jlusahara

Member
Of course. There is no way you can go from 32 to 35 inch tires without adverse effects on gearing. It's not only the diameter, it's the width and added weight.

For 35s, you need at least 4.10 gears.

You can try to convince yourself until you're blue in the face that you are or will be fine, but you aren't or won't be.

So unless you are a teenager with no care in the world but looks, reconsider the tire size, or regear.

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JLSahara

Member
Is the re-gearing done at the dealership or how do you all most do this?


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JTCO

Meme King
Is the re-gearing done at the dealership or how do you all most do this?


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Re-gearing is a very detailed and time-consuming modification. It can be done at a dealer or specialty shop. It requires specialty tools and knowledge/experience to set them up properly. It can be done at home by yourself, but you'll spend a ton of money on tools and it takes a lot of time.
 

BillArnett

New member
Re-gearing is also very expensive. And very bad things can happen if the job isn’t done perfectly.

I strongly suggest you drive for a while with the stock gearing and see how it feels to you. As far as I know, there are two reasons to re-gear: to improve acceleration and to improve low-speed crawling. In the first case, re-gearing will let you use a higher gear in the transmission at any given road speed. But the 8-speed automatic will downshift to make up for the difference in most cases. Not in 1st, of course, but unless you’re drag racing I doubt you will notice. In the second case, re-gearing will give you a better crawl ratio which theoretically gives you better control at really low speeds. But in 4-LO in 1st gear you have a very good crawl ratio in the first place. I can’t think of a situation where it wouldn’t be good enough even with your bigger tires.

My JL is a Rubicon and so I have slightly higher numerically gears than your Sahara but I also have 37s instead of 35s. I’m definitely NOT going to re-gear. YMMV.
 

JLSahara

Member
If those seem to be the two main reasons why to re-gear, I don’t see myself even doing that. Been happy with the shifts on 35’s for the last few days. I can tell a small difference but nothing really worrying me to change.

Thanks for the feedback, guys.


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JTCO

Meme King
If those seem to be the two main reasons why to re-gear, I don’t see myself even doing that. Been happy with the shifts on 35’s for the last few days. I can tell a small difference but nothing really worrying me to change.

Thanks for the feedback, guys.


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On a JK, it is pretty common to re-gear to regain power that is similar to OEM power when you run 35 inch tires, however, from what I've hear on the JL, the transmission is geared very well so that the final drive is peppier even with larger tires. I'm not sure of the differences of the power-trains with the Sport, Sahara, Rubicons, but if you're happy with the way it drives now on 35s and the highway RPMs are good, no need to mess with the gears IMO.
 

Supercharged

New member
Those of you with 35's have you recalibrated the computer to account for the different tire size? I know there are only a couple options so far to recalibrate.

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