Regardless of the tire size I plan to regear and support the 30 as added reassurance, which I don’t plan to wheel hard at all if much of any. But that being said that’s the reason I have 37s set in my mine because it’s not much added cost in that way
Right, you did say regear. I was just kind of adding my dissenting voice to all the "you don't need to regear" people. Yeah, you do. On stock 32s with stock 3.45s you do. The stock gears suck for the 6MT.
Tires and lift to go to 37's worked well for us, but definitely accelerated wear on the other components you mention. We put on a 2.5" spacer lift and 37" yokohama x-mt's last August right before a 2,500 mile road trip to moab. That was with 15k miles on the jeep. Drove, handled, and wheeled great. 85 mph through mountains on I-70 without issue. Upgraded to longer shocks and a new steering stabilizer with flip kit in October after crushing the factory 1 in big bear. After several more wheeling trips and about 20k miles on the lift and tires we started getting a shimmy in the steering wheel. Have since added a synergy tie rod with the flip kit and track bar bracket, Rubicon express adjustable front track bar, Rubicon express front lca's, and a rear track bar relocation bracket. Drives and handled great again with no wobble. The tie rod and ball joints are still stock with 40k miles on them, 25k with the 37's. It's been to moab twice, telluride, big bear, tillamook, the desert several times, and just ran the dusy ershim trail last week. It is smart to budget for all the upgrades, buy you don't have to put $10k into a full build right out the gate. Granted ours is a Rubicon and therefore better geared and a stronger axle to start. I don't think the Rubicon has any better parts as far as tie rod, ball joint, track bars, or lca's though. Some upgraded rear lower lca's, heavy duty ball joints, and a new tie rod are next on the list. It's a Jeep, there's always a list.
Indeed. I’m trying to imagine 37s with the 6MT and 3.45s and just… nope. Great way to turn your 6-speed into a 4-speed. 5th and 6th will be completely lost.
My opinion....... just get your lift and tires on and drive it. This will make your decision for you. There’s no way to know what you’re willing to put up with until you try it.
You'll probably decide, based on how you really use it, whether you "need" to re-gear. If you're on road, you probably won't care, unless you live in a mountainous area and drive a lot. If you're off road, depending on whether that means snow and mud or rocks and ruts, you may want to re-gear. My point though is if you want 37" because they look good (nothing wrong with that), then re-gearing is probably less important than how it performs...or maybe a better way to put it isn't that it is less important, but you have a wider margin of being happy with how it performs. If your vehicle was built for a specific task that was performance based, you'd have a more specific and identifiable "need".
I do live in a mountainous range, Appalachian mountains in the md/pa region most roads have hills and between towns/cities are mountains lol. I’m trying to spend the coin one time to build a dual purpose dd and slight off-road rig that is not going to do any wheeling as Moab or anything. At best I’ll hit up raush creek off-road park and run beginner trailer that I could do in a stock jeep atleast until I’ve been more aquatinted with that style. Mostly old logging trails is what I performed on in the past
PS - I hope you don't mind but I'm using your quote as my signature!
I did experiments on the 32s with the 3.45s, and driving it like a 4-speed achieved significantly better fuel economy. On 35s, driving it like a 4-speed gets me around, but the sooner I can get the regear done, the better. On 37s? I just don't think I could stand it.
