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35” Tires - 17 or 18” Wheels

Silver TT

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I am currently running 33s - 315 Nitto Terra Grappler G2 (~12.2 wide) on a 18” Method wheel. For the JLU Rubicon I am considering I will want to go to 35s. Thinking of the Ridge Grappler.

Question is should I go with 17” wheels or just keep my 18s? Would be easier to keep the 18s but not if ride quality would be any better with the 17s. Those of you who have run both any discernible difference between 17 and 18 on am otherwise stock Rubicon?
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Where are your stocks bro? get 17's you can air down more and make your tires more a part of the suspension.
 

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With 17’s I believe you can get a C rated tired like BFG KO 2’s, that was the main reason I went to 17’s on my Sahara
 
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Where are your stocks bro? get 17's you can air down more and make your tires more a part of the suspension.
I have the stock Sahara 18s from our 2016 JKU. Will put back on for trade in. On the Rubicon I’ll either sell th stock take offs or put in storage to do the same if/when I trade in that one down the road.

With 17’s I believe you can get a C rated tired like BFG KO 2’s, that was the main reason I went to 17’s on my Sahara
Makes sense...I have heard that before. Just wondering if any other differences as some people report a really smooth ride with 20” wheels! I don’t even think my ride is that smooth with 18s. The rating in the tire definitely makes a difference a silver had Mickey Thompson’s in E rated and the Nitto in D rating are smoother for sure.
 
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Anyone else go from 18s to 17s or vice versa with a 35” tire?
 

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I did 17" Fuel Vapors with 35s. Some people told me the ride would be rough with E rated, but at 31 psi, it's very smooth. Barely feel any bumps and my wife that is 8.5 months pregnant rather ride in the Jeep over the BMW X6m, because the bimmer is too "bumpy".
 

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I did 17" Fuel Vapors with 35s. Some people told me the ride would be rough with E rated, but at 31 psi, it's very smooth. Barely feel any bumps and my wife that is 8.5 months pregnant rather ride in the Jeep over the BMW X6m, because the bimmer is too "bumpy".
Cause the bummer has 3 inches of sidewall...
 

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14 years ago, when I bought my pickup, it came with 275/60R20 tires (32.992"). When they needed replacing, I went with 275/65R20 (34.075"). People think "oh, 20 inch tires" and it must be low profile, but they have plenty of rubber between the rim and the road and as long as you don't put extra wide rims on the tires, the rubber will still stick out past the rim and you won't damage your rims from scraping curbs or whatever. They were a LT type tire with an 80 psi rating, IIRC. I think I normally ran them at around 50 psi though. They were nowhere near as stiff as the low profile tires there were on the Porsche Cayenne Turbo that my wife drove. It came with 22" rims, so not much rubber between rim and road. I ended up replacing those tires and the rims with the stock 18" rims after we hit a pothole one night and it busted a quarter size hole in the sidewalls of *2* tires on the same side of the vehicle.
 
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I did 17" Fuel Vapors with 35s. Some people told me the ride would be rough with E rated, but at 31 psi, it's very smooth. Barely feel any bumps and my wife that is 8.5 months pregnant rather ride in the Jeep over the BMW X6m, because the bimmer is too "bumpy".
Thanks for the information. Jeep looks great. What brand and size tires are you running?
 
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14 years ago, when I bought my pickup, it came with 275/60R20 tires (32.992"). When they needed replacing, I went with 275/65R20 (34.075"). People think "oh, 20 inch tires" and it must be low profile, but they have plenty of rubber between the rim and the road and as long as you don't put extra wide rims on the tires, the rubber will still stick out past the rim and you won't damage your rims from scraping curbs or whatever. They were a LT type tire with an 80 psi rating, IIRC. I think I normally ran them at around 50 psi though. They were nowhere near as stiff as the low profile tires there were on the Porsche Cayenne Turbo that my wife drove. It came with 22" rims, so not much rubber between rim and road. I ended up replacing those tires and the rims with the stock 18" rims after we hit a pothole one night and it busted a quarter size hole in the sidewalls of *2* tires on the same side of the vehicle.
I have had similar experiences with low profile tires but reality is it is hard to compare a Porsche Cayenne Turbo to a Jeep for a lot of reasons. I had 21s on my Cayenne Turbo and the ride was amazing, smooth, yet totally controllable. We have a 2018 Atlas now with 20s and very low profile tires and it is also smooth as butter on all road surfaces. So really depends on air suspension and other factors. On the Jeep I think the issue is my E rated tires as they just transfer every single rut and bump on the road.
 

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Thanks for the information. Jeep looks great. What brand and size tires are you running?
Thanks!
I have the Nitto Ridge Grapplers in 35x12.5x17. They are e rated.
 

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Anyone else go from 18s to 17s or vice versa with a 35” tire?
I just ordered 315/70r17 KO2's for my Sahara. I chose the 17" specifically for the C rated tire.

I also ordered the RC 2.5" spacer lift and Black Rhino Warlord wheels. Looking forward to getting it all put on.
 
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I just ordered 315/70r17 KO2's for my Sahara. I chose the 17" specifically for the C rated tire.

I also ordered the RC 2.5" spacer lift and Black Rhino Warlord wheels. Looking forward to getting it all put on.
Was this because you have had a bad experience with D or E rated tires in the past or just from reading all the stories here about E rated being an issue?

I have had E rated (MT Baja ATZ P3) and now have XL (think its basically the same as C rated; Nitto Terra Grappler G2) and there is a difference. E rated tires can feel great on a nice road but from my experience at least on an 18" wheel the Es are pretty rough over small choppy sections. Very smooth and stable ride on good roads but on crap roads everything comes up into the cabin.
 

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Was this because you have had a bad experience with D or E rated tires in the past or just from reading all the stories here about E rated being an issue?

I have had E rated (MT Baja ATZ P3) and now have XL (think its basically the same as C rated; Nitto Terra Grappler G2) and there is a difference. E rated tires can feel great on a nice road but from my experience at least on an 18" wheel the Es are pretty rough over small choppy sections. Very smooth and stable ride on good roads but on crap roads everything comes up into the cabin.
Mostly from reading the reviews. I dont see myself going off road and I wanted to maintain the best ride quality as possible
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