Virginia Opinions on the need for regearing for 34” tires

[Jacob D]

After reading posts on here and manufacturers’ articles elsewhere, it’s clear that regearing a stock 3.45 sahara is very important for offroad power and sometimes high speed highway efficiency on tires 35”+ But what about 295/70/18s? I know there is a way to calculate the change rotations vs the stock tire size and determine the ideal gear ratios for various applications based on that but I don’t like doing math so I was hoping to hear from some people who have stock ratios and larger tires about any negative effects they have had.

For the next couple of years I will be driving my sahara almost exclusively on road and just want larger tires for aesthetics. After that I will begin the transition to more offroad capable

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[CarbonSteel]

After reading posts on here and manufacturers’ articles elsewhere, it’s clear that regearing a stock 3.45 sahara is very important for offroad power and sometimes high speed highway efficiency on tires 35”+ But what about 295/70/18s? I know there is a way to calculate the change rotations vs the stock tire size and determine the ideal gear ratios for various applications based on that but I don’t like doing math so I was hoping to hear from some people who have stock ratios and larger tires about any negative effects they have had.

For the next couple of years I will be driving my sahara almost exclusively on road and just want larger tires for aesthetics. After that I will begin the transition to more offroad capable

You may want to ping an admin to move this to the correct forum so that it receives more attention. To answer your question, you can use @AnnDee4444's excellent spreadsheet to help you gain some insight into potential gearing -

Wile there may be some who will same that 3.45 gears and taller tires are "just fine", I will be the guy who states emphatically that it is not. If you have the 2.0T engine, it will be less of an impact, but 3.45 gears and 35" tires (which is what a 295/70/18 is) will not be a good long term experience. With that said, you have a D44 axle in the rear, but not in the front (I believe that it is a D30) and so you will likely want to upgrade that to a D44 as well.

Since you are not looking to invest too much at the moment (trust me when I tell you it becomes somewhat of an unending rabbit hole), I would just install the tires and drive it. You may not notice any issues with it and once you are ready to upgrade, you can dig deeper then.

PS...you may want to check the overall clearances as 35" tires on a Sahara may be a bit tight, but as you are not planning to off-road, you may be good.

 

[Dalvarado55]

You may want to ping an admin to move this to the correct forum so that it receives more attention. To answer your question, you can use @AnnDee4444's excellent spreadsheet to help you gain some insight into potential gearing -

Wile there may be some who will same that 3.45 gears and taller tires are "just fine", I will be the guy who states emphatically that it is not. If you have the 2.0T engine, it will be less of an impact, but 3.45 gears and 35" tires (which is what a 295/70/18 is) will not be a good long term experience. With that said, you have a D44 axle in the rear, but not in the front (I believe that it is a D30) and so you will likely want to upgrade that to a D44 as well.

Since you are not looking to invest too much at the moment (trust me when I tell you it becomes somewhat of an unending rabbit hole), I would just install the tires and drive it. You may not notice any issues with it and once you are ready to upgrade, you can dig deeper then.

PS...you may want to check the overall clearances as 35" tires on a Sahara may be a bit tight, but as you are not planning to off-road, you may be good.

I agree with CarbonSteel. I have a 18 JLU Sport 2.0L. I ran 35s with my stock 3.45 gearing and it ran fine. No loss in get up an go and no loss on the trail. It ran fine. The only loss is in the mpg. That being said, I just upgraded about 3 months ago to D44 Rubi take offs. I did this for the stronger front axle and the lockers. The 4.10 in the D44 take offs is better than the 3.45, I can feel a little more power and the mpg increased slightly.

I wheel almost every weekend on moderate to hard trails. The upgrade for me was a no brainer. If you don't plan on wheeling a lot now, I'd stay with the 3.45 gears and upgrade later when you do plant to wheel or go to larger tires. My two cents......

 

[AcesandEights]

35" is what, 10% taller than stock?

3.54 would then, at a very minimum require 3.9 to get you back to the same ratio. So, I'd definitely go 4.10 if I were going to 35" tires, and if I really thought I'd be spending a significant amount of time in 4-low, I'd go with 4.56.

 

[conFUcius]

How confident are you that you will always remain at 34” tires? Re-gearing can be expensive so I would only want to do it once. Be sure that you know what tire size you will run max and then make your decision. If you’re planning to stop at 34”, 4.10s would probably be appropriate since the Rubicons come with that ratio and can run 35s right away.

 

[Jacob D]

You may want to ping an admin to move this to the correct forum so that it receives more attention. To answer your question, you can use @AnnDee4444's excellent spreadsheet to help you gain some insight into potential gearing -

Wile there may be some who will same that 3.45 gears and taller tires are "just fine", I will be the guy who states emphatically that it is not. If you have the 2.0T engine, it will be less of an impact, but 3.45 gears and 35" tires (which is what a 295/70/18 is) will not be a good long term experience. With that said, you have a D44 axle in the rear, but not in the front (I believe that it is a D30) and so you will likely want to upgrade that to a D44 as well.

Since you are not looking to invest too much at the moment (trust me when I tell you it becomes somewhat of an unending rabbit hole), I would just install the tires and drive it. You may not notice any issues with it and once you are ready to upgrade, you can dig deeper then.

PS...you may want to check the overall clearances as 35" tires on a Sahara may be a bit tight, but as you are not planning to off-road, you may be good.

Thank you for the advice and info. Should this be in the wheels/tires forum page instead?

 

[CarbonSteel]

Thank you for the advice and info. Should this be in the wheels/tires forum page instead?

Since you are asking about re-gearing (mostly), it would be in this one:

https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/forums/transmission-axles-gears.41/

 

[cnapierala]

4.56 min if your spending the money. Spend some time with the chart, that will help.

 

[golong27]

I have run 35s on the stock 3.45 sport axles and 3.6 for a year and don't see a huge difference around town or off-road. I hardly ever see 7th gear and never 8th on the highway and thus less mpg. you may want to upgrade the brake pads with bigger tires to handle the increased rolling weight.

 

[Jacob D]

I have run 35s on the stock 3.45 sport axles and 3.6 for a year and don't see a huge difference around town or off-road. I hardly ever see 7th gear and never 8th on the highway and thus less mpg. you may want to upgrade the brake pads with bigger tires to handle the increased rolling weight.

Have you gotten bigger pads on yours? If so in what type of situation did you notice a significant improvement?

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