I have a 96 Cherokee xj and it has six lugs on the rims for each tire. I have noticed that all of the rims I would like to put on my Cherokee have 5 lugs.... Not 6. I am planing on putting 32-33 inch tires on my Cherokee. If I buy rims for larger tires that have 5 lugs then will I have to buy an adapter of some kind? If I do then won't it bump out my tires? if I have to buy adapters then what are they exactly and anybody have a link to buy the right one? plus what wheel back spacing will I need with that extra bump out from the adapters?? all replies are much Appreciated

 

Did some change your axles, because you shouold have the 5 on 4.5 bolt pattern. If you need to look up spacers you can go to www.performancewheel.com or www.spidertrax.com or www.trailsport4x4.com .

 

Do you have spacers on there now to change the 5 lug to the 6 from the previous owner by any chance? What axles do you have if you dont? Those are good links dbabicky90.

 

Well we have owned the car for 11 years and we never did any axle changes. I will check if there was an axle change though. As far as I know the previous owner did not put adapters on it but my rims do have 6 lugs. How do I check which axle I have? I do know however that the first owner put a heavy duty towing transmision in the thing and I guess that might have needed a new rear axle?

 

This is one of those times a picture of the rear differential would tell us a lot.

 

Yes a picture would be nice. I cant find the link for all the different axles so if some one has post it up for him if they can.

 

Yeah I will have a pic up in the morning. I don't feel like gettin out in my 30 degree garage.

 

My guess the previous owner changed the axles to a heavy duty axle from another vehicle. Looking for spacers or adapters to change the rims to a 5 lug pattern would be a waste of time. I have worked in a tire shop to 10 years and most shops will not touch a customers vehicle that has wheel adapters for risk of a lawsuit. If the lug nuts that hold the adapter come loose the tire will shear off the lug luts. So we will not even touch them. If you want to mount the tires yourself then go for it.

 

Good call on that. Just wondering why not just get a rim to fit your lug pattern now?

 

Well, for one, yes, any adapter is going to have a thickness to it (slightly more than the length of the hub studs) thus "bumping" your wheels out further. Secondly, as everyone else has said, the XJs came with a 5x 4.5" bolt pattern so perhaps there are already wheel adapters on them? If indeed you do want to use wheel adapters, I've seen numerous people run them with no problem, but as with every single thing in the world, there are a few horror stories. Torque the hell out of the nuts, use threadlock, and you should be fine. Obviously check them every so often, especially if you ever feel odd vibrations and such.

 

I checked this morning and turns out that for the past ten years there was adapters on my jeep without me even knowing. I don't get why anyone did that to begin with and I can't believe I didn't catch it earlier!