What size tires are you running?

 

As for getting custom wheels made, that's a little bit out of budget. Especially since I already bought wheels.

I'm running 33" x 12.5" tires.

 

That's the same setup I'm running. I've never seen a set of those flares in person but they must be pretty wide. Other than being harder on the unit bearings I see no problem running some spacers. IIRC the bearings themselves are not serviceable so you have to change out the whole assembly.

 

On a "Mall Cruiser" you can run all the spacers/Aluminum wheels you want for off road/trail/mud/rocks you need steel wheels and the large majority all run steel wheels.


Main reason you don't break big chunks out of them and if the lip is bent you can straighten them out and reseal the tire and go on saving the spare in case a sidewall gets torn out.

 

Thanks for the info. Here's a picture of my rig. I don't have a good one where you can compare the stance to the picture I posted, but you can get the picture. I'm installing new wheel bearings Im a couple weeks. I'll just make sure to go with timkin in case I end up getting spacers.

 

Here's another one. I could only post one pic at a time on mobile for whatever reason.

 

Yeah those do look a bit narrower. That maroon Jeep must be running spacers. Overall nice looking rig you got there.

 

Thanks man! It's coming along. Im enjoying the build.

 

I think the reason most run steel wheels is because they are cheaper. I've ran my ProComp alloy rims for years and have not damaged one. If you are running narrow tires or are deflating well into the single digits then maybe you could hurt one... Hasn't happened to anyone I know but to say someone is a "mall cruiser" if they have alloy rims is ridiculous. Then again I know people who think the same if you don't have beadlocks and a roll cage. My rims have probably been on 200 or so wheeling trips, almost all of which have rocks and have been fine. I guess we are all mall crawlers for something...


Your Jeep looks good OP! You probably don't want to go too far or you'll have to bumpstop early to avoid destroying your fenders.

 

Cost for wheels mean nothing in my case and I do have beadlocks with 35's on another set of wheels I run on some trails but only to 10psi. But the 33x12:50's on just steel wheels only 15psi at the lowest. So yeah it depends on where and how you wheel, we had one guy that wheeled with a group of us early last year with aluminum wheels on a 28 mi run and in only 17mi he had broken 2 wheels in less than a 1/8mi. of trail by sliding sideways on hillsides into rocks. No one else broke any but some did bend wheels, Myself included one wheel on my 33"s but it still held air.


We have a little of everything as far as wheeling goes except huge boulder fields but lots of trails and private ground to go on.


I loved MT. in the late 60's when I lived in Butte miles and miles of trails to run now overran by people from CA. that purchased all the huge ranches and slowly closed most all the roads into the mountain areas that I used to hunt and closed the access roads. Even then no one ran an alloy wheel on any rig that went into the mountains to hunt, same reasons still apply. Yes were a lot of alloy wheels then also I had them on my 1966 Dodge Hemi and a 56 Chevy before I bought it and in todays money they were really expensive then.

 

I run hub-centric spacers And alloy wheels, follow me to the mall! rofl

 

Yea the CA immigrants have shut down quite a few of the trails. Luckily they only want to live on one side of the state and all the good trails are on the east side anyways. (Excluding a few). I have been on some rough/Rocky trails in places like UT, CO, WY, ID and here in MT (Ton of great ones down by Yellowstone) Maybe I'm just lucky with my rims! I tend to have about an inch of rubber on either side of them. I just like them for their weight.

If you ever come back with a Jeep, you should check out the OHV trail they made in Lakeside(WildBill trail)... By Polson. It is non-stop obstacles.. some of which only a buggy can do. It is still a work in progress.. About 40-50 miles of trails.(120 in the works) I have damaged my rig there more than anywhere else haha. Its somewhat unique in that its a partnership WITH the forest service (The famed Holy Cross trail in CO is another) so there has to be a 9' bypass around the hard stuff.

 

I think you took a wrong turn.

 

For anyone interested, I just heard back from the guys at Notch Customs (great guys btw). The Xj in that pic is running a 4.5" lift, 35" tires (width not specified), 15 x 8" rims with 4.5" backspacing plus 1.25" spacers.... Making his net offset is -.75".

Question answered! Thanks for the input.

 

Yup that sand will break wheels real bad one of these days I will have to drive my XJ to the mall instead of the WJ or car but hell its 50 mi. to the closest one