Jeep Nancies 1

If I called anyone out… it would be an entire population of forum dwellers

31″ tires apparently DON’T fit on stock ZJ’s. Any forum will tell you that a minimum 2″ lift is required, in addition to longer bumpstops… and even then trimming of the front bumper will be needed. This seemed a little bit stupid to me. After all… the Toyota’s all fit 33’s without any noteworthy trimming, YJ’s and TJ’s the same… and a lot of newer trucks have no problems with 35’s.

31’s are peanuts. They are the bare minimum for trail running. Sure you can buy 30’s… but those are for Samurai’s and Sidekicks. Then again… anyone with enough motivation to take a Samurai or Sidekick offroad has probably hacked it to even smaller bits so that 35’s or at the least… 33’s can be run. Instead… most ZJ and XJ guys who don’t want to LIFT their trucks end up buying 30’s.

Shame.

If they actually did the measurements… they’d see that 30″ is pretty much the stock size. To say that 31’s won’t fit is a tremendous compliment to American engineering. Your intelligent, car enthusiastic brain can calculate that a 1″ difference in diameter means a half inch difference in radius. Saying that 31’s won’t fit is saying that Jeep got awfully precise with fender placement. Judging from my e-brake linkage which looks like it was designed by a 10 year old and built buy a 4 year old, I am certain that is not the case.  What is more likely, is that Jeep just randomly put a fender on, looked at it thought it looked boxy and tough… said sweet… and sent it to production.

I wanted 31’s for a couple of reasons… all of which are silly. The first is offroad capability. Not that I’ll ever do anything serious offroad. I’ve had fun running easy trails with Ryan, and it’s something I want to experience with Yoshiko. I don’t want to spend a day recovering the truck from some massive mud hole, or after it’s fallen off a ledge… I just want to experience the outdoors and expand my driving skills. Furthermore… not that we’ve ever gotten in really serious trouble on our daily drive… but sometimes it can be hairy. I can forsee situations were real all-terrain tires would be beneficial. The second is looks. I’m vain. The 235/75 15’s just make the truck look like it is shaking at the knees.

The only negatives I could forsee of 31’s would be decreased fuel economy (narrow 235’s are going to be better) and… RUBBING.

Now… I’ve got some experience with wheel fitment. I won’t say I’ve ever pushed it to the max… but I’ve had some low cars on wide wheels that required fender trimming, and rolling… and pulling. A half slick Falken rubbing on your fender though… is a lot different from a Claw like BFG… but I just took that as meaning I needed to test it out slow, rather than just roll out and flog it at speed where a bit of rubbing could rip my bumper right off or even tear a fender.

So… I flexed it out in my garage by putting the drivers front on a ramp, and a jack on the passenger side of the rear axle. This is the result.

How far can I really flex it in my garage? I dunno… I guess it didn’t look that crossed up. Still… with the hub level with the bottom of the bumper it looks like there is going to be lots of room.

Just to be safe though… and because the curvy, saggy recessed lip on the front bumper already bugged me, I did some trimming. I already had the bumper off a couple weeks ago when installing the tow hooks, and I made a few modifications that allow me to take it on and off in about 2 minutes so… I popped it off again and pulled out the cutting wheel.

You can see the saggy bits.  Conveniently this bottom lip was also the part that was closest to rubbing.  And so… after trimming, we get this.  I think it looks a lot cleaner now… but for the most part, barely noticable.

And so… after a quick drive and some snow bank flexing I’ve confirmed… there is no rubbing… on the BODY WORK.  On the lower control arm however, I do get some rubbing close to lock.  I don’t see how a two inch lift is going to help that.  However…it’s not a huge deal… except when parking and making other tight manuevers.  That means… it’s got to be fixed.  I’m not the only one driving this thing afterall.  Perhaps notching the control arm is the answer… or maybe I can somehow change the steering stops.  Probably the former is preferred.  Maybe I can notch the control arms and then box them with my Heta welding skills.  Yay!