carls 92

yeah, i know "dont get a cherokee if you want mpgs."
anyways, i have a 6.5'' lifted xj auto 4.0. ill be driving it as my dd in the summer, being 17 years old every mpg counts. i need to decide on weather to get 33 inch tires or 31 inch tires. ive heard that with 31s id get somewhere around 14mpg, which isnt bad. but ive also heard that if i put on 33s my mpgs would drop down to 8mpg, which wouldnt be in my budget. how valid are these claims? i have a k and n filter and cherrybomb

blakexcore

6.5" lift with 31's would look stupid. drop it down about 3 inches. I get about 19-20 mpg mixed (40% city 60% hwy) on 3 inch and 31's

2000chersport

I get about 16 with 4.5 inch on 33's and stock gearing

ZINGGG

I couldn't agree more. Or if you wanna keep that lift, get 35s and regear it

EagleXJ

^^This. I get about 13.8mpg on 31"s. If you re-gear for your tire size though your mpg will jump back up.

worleyburd

I have 4.5 with 31s , mine is a standard but Ive got 19 city before. I don't have hills where I live and I don't sit in traffic for a long time though. But I drove around in Dallas for about 2 weeks and I was still getting 17 not goin on the highway. My jeep is in really good shape though I guess. But yeah I'd so go down on the lift and get 33s. You can cut your fenders on a 4.5 and fit 33s looks pretty sick too.

carls 92

yeah, i do like the look of 33s alot better. and i cannot reduce my lift, i dont have enough money for a different lift kit, i bought the whole jeep for 500 dollars. im pretty sure the gears are 3.50:1 if that helps any

blakexcore

You must have a heavy foot

Bossokee

The real question is, why 6.5" of lift?
Not really a way to avoid bad mpg's unfortunately, but 33x10's would minimize the damage and not look too bad

ZINGGG

Regearing would minimize the damage more than anything

carls 92

hmm so far im thinking 33s and eventually regearing. and its lifted 6.5 inches because thats how i bought it.

ZINGGG

How big of tires are on it now?

I wanna see a picture of your XJ

Slick761

33x12.5 w/5" lift avg 14 mpg with stock gears. That's driving 60 miles a day on a fairly rural highway with slow and go traffic, 5 stop lights and hills. I get 17 or 18 on the actual highway at 65 mph

howie-14

4.5"lift 31"tires and i get between 17 to 19mpg on stock gears

macgyver35

Carl, when you are making your decision, consider a few things:

1) What is the cost difference between 31's and 33's? For example, BFG mud Terrains have a price difference for a set of 4 of $130. And you can figure in that premium, or more, with each new set you buy down the road.

2) Now figure out the cost of regearing to 4.10-4.88 for those 33's. I think you might get sticker shock. I'd say $425-$675 per axle, depending on the quality of the components and if you do the work yourself or pay a shop. Please note that that figure does not include strengthened axle shafts. Depending on you rear axle, 33's may not be a great idea. A Chrysler 8.25 27 spline may hold up if you don't go crazy with the skinny pedal off road in low gear, but it may fail soon too. Just something to think about.

3) Why was this thing only $500? The lift surely costs more than that. Could it be that this lift has caused nothing but problems for the previous owner and he just wanted out from underneath it? Perhaps not, but worth considering.

I guess what I'm saying is that you could get a 3-4.5" lift plus the 31's for less money than what a set of 33's and regearing would cost. Now, maybe you just want that huge lift, but it wouldn't really be absolutely necessary unless you were doing a lot of rock crawling. Dropping her a few inches and going with 31's means that you'll have cheaper tires to buy in the future, and probably better mpgs even with regearing for either tire. Re-gearing helps a ton with larger meats, but no matter what, you've dramatically increased mass by going with 33's, which negatively affects MPGs. Gearing only helps so much.

Of course, your mileage may vary. Pun intended.

Just food for thought. I see plenty of guys with 33/35/37 tires and big lifts for dedicated trail rigs, and that's great depending on the terrain any given rig sees and how often. But for a DD, I would personally tone it down a bit to strike a better compromise of street vs. trail. I suspect like most DD's yours will see about 85%+ of its miles accumulated on the street. I can tell you in Texas we have no shortage of "cowboy-types" that put a 6" or 8" lift and 35" tires (but no lockers) on their shiny new crew cab, long bed pickups. And because terms like approach angle, departure angle, and break-over angle cause their eyes to glaze over, and they don't understand how a differential works, they still don't know why they can't go places my XJ can go on a 2" lift, 29" tires, and a Spartan rear locker. Nothing pisses off a redneck more than having his $50K "Billy Bad-***" truck rescued by a 15 year old XJ that has a total of $7500 invested in it, which includes the new motor.