It's a wheel dilemma... No 2012 JK steel wheels on Stock KJ

dirtywhiteboy · **Posted:** Thu Jan 17, 2013 11:54 pm

Our '02 Libby ltd keeps soldiering on (and on a single income, that's a good thing!). I bought a set of Bridgestone Dueler 689's for it 2 years ago and truly they define the phrase 'Buyers' remorse'. Hands down the WORST example of 'name brand' tires on the planet - Noisy, no grip (slide down my mildly angled concrete suburban driveway all "winter" long) and honestly have not weathered that well (garage kept all winter long) - their only saving grace is a stiff sidewall.

I've decided to bite the bullet and pick up a set of Cooper AT3's, they've reviewed well everywhere and I've had Coop's in the past with good results. I'll be running the 225/75/16 to pickup a little speedometer correction (off by about 3-4 MPH - 29.3" vs. 235/70/16 @ 29.0")

What I regret more than buying the Bridgestones is letting go the set of steel Libby wheels I had picked up along the way. I had plans to refinish my existing Aluminum rims (the standard 16x7") and sub in the steel wheels as an interim solution. I never got around to it and stupidly sold the steelies. :dizzy:

My buddy at work has dumped the better part of $4K into his '13 Wrangler (Lucky B'stard!), new rubber, rims and lift. He kindly offered the 5 stock steel wheels from his JK to me FREE - Nada, bubkes

.

For the most part we know they won't fit (directly). If you don't know :google:

is your friend. The JK has a 5 x 5 bolt pattern, the KJ runs 5 x 4.5. Both run 5.5" backspacing and 71mm hub.

I've seen one pic on the net of a KJ sporting JK 18" Aluminum wheels, made possible by wheel adapters. I'm not sure that's a direct comparison as the 18" wheel may have a different backspacing.

As I write this post, I realize more and more I don't want to use a wheel spacer to make these rims fit. At $200 for four quality adapters, It's not an inexpensive option, there's the constant maintenance to deal with and the strain on the hub bearings too. I'd bet money It'd all fit though, as there have been reports of 255's mounted to stock rigs with success.

What I'd like to do, is bolt on a set of 15" Cragar Soft 8's for $375 (rims, caps and new hardware) and jump down to a 235 75 15 (more affordable as well), problem is - the Soft 8 is only available 15x7 with 4" backspacing - right back to the original problem!

Or dilemma if you will.

arengant · **Posted:** Fri Jan 18, 2013 2:02 am

The wheel spacers won't really apply more stress on the wheel bearings. With the steel jk wheels and spidertrax you would be at 5 inches bs.

But I would get the steel "cragar" style wheels. You can get them in 4.5 bs easily! Those should be good for you.

I am going with jk wheels myself

dirtywhiteboy · **Posted:** Fri Jan 18, 2013 1:16 pm

I've spent a bunch of time on this, and still haven't figured it out.

Wouldn't using the S'trax spacer bring backspacing to 4.25" (5.5 - 1.25)? I'm not all that pumped about the Cragars and the cost is no joke ($375 + tax + shipping, closer to $500), I won't really be able to offset (double entendre) the cost of the wheels with less expensive rubber - just to have a backspacing that should technically be 'worse' at 4".

S'trax Adapters (these are 'Blems', - my Jeep is wheeled occasionally - and when I'm really feeling frisky I park it near the grocery kart shelter at WalMart, so scratches are not an issue but badges of honor)

http://www.spidertrax.com/1987-06-Wrang ... K-Adapters

$180

Cooper AT3's 225 75 16 X 4 = 464 (Reuse stock spare tire)

$664 all in.

Cooper AT3's 235 75 15 X 5 = 640
Cragar Soft 8's $500
Sold OE wheels -$200

$940 all in.

Oddly, 235 75 15 are more expensive that the 225 75 16. Wierd. Tire pricing is based on P series tires, not LT (we don't tow and all we haul is our little monkeys).

Dollar for Dollar, if they'll fit I'll pop for the wheel spacers and use the OE jeep wheels (like their look better than Cragar's anyway). Heck even if they don't, I could through in a Rusty's 2.5" lift and still be ahead of the game... Sounding more and more like a plan all the time!

tommudd · **Posted:** Fri Jan 18, 2013 2:09 pm

And another bad way to go..........
Rustys lift

JeepMorrison · **Joined:** Thu Jul 16, 2009 11:34 am **Posts:** 1236

No rustys lift, and plenty of people run stock bs rims with 1.25 adaptors. But you might get some rubbing in stock form, but a extra iso and clevis lift should help. And if your broke you can make rear iso out of plywood.

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dirtywhiteboy · **Posted:** Fri Jan 18, 2013 6:57 pm

tommudd wrote:

And another bad way to go..........
Rustys lift

4x4kayak2112 wrote:

No rustys lift, and plenty of people run stock bs rims with 1.25 adaptors. But you might get some rubbing in stock form, but a extra iso and clevis lift should help. And if your broke you can make rear iso out of plywood.

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Thanks very much for the input guys, I'll move the lift discussion to the lift section if necessary.

tommudd · **Posted:** Fri Jan 18, 2013 7:19 pm

4x4kayak2112 wrote:

No rustys lift, and plenty of people run stock bs rims with 1.25 adaptors. But you might get some rubbing in stock form, but a extra iso and clevis lift should help. And if your broke you can make rear iso out of plywood.

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depends on how much your springs have sagged already if you can without a lift
I've had them here that the stock wheels and stock size tires were almost rubbing

arengant · **Posted:** Fri Jan 18, 2013 7:32 pm

spidertrax (1.25") with stock JK steel wheels (6.25" bs) give you net 5" bs 180 for blems, but you have to add shipping... They had a free shipping deal back in OCT that I missed out on!

arengant · **Posted:** Fri Jan 18, 2013 7:49 pm

dirtywhiteboy wrote:

For the most part we know they won't fit (directly). If you don't know :google:

is your friend. The JK has a 5 x 5 bolt pattern, the KJ runs 5 x 4.5. Both run 5.5" backspacing and 71mm hub.

From what I have read, all factory JK wheels (16-18") are 6.25 BS"..

dirtywhiteboy · **Posted:** Sat Mar 09, 2013 9:38 pm

So, I found a thread here on lost, seems stock spring height is 19" in the rear, 19.5" up front (lip of fender to center of wheel)

Checked mine, right on spec - (Early 02 Liberty, pre drop).

Made my choice...

2012 JK steel wheel assembly (minus TPS) weighs in at 52 Lbs (Goodyear Wrangler ST 225 75 16)

2002 KJ Aluminum wheel assembly weighs in at... yup. 52 Lbs, no BS. (well worn Bridgestone Dueller 225 70 16)

Stock rim and Duellers

JK rim spacer mounted

SpiderTrax wheel adapters (Blems, $198 shipped).

That's right, parked under the "No Parking" sign.

Crappy night pic, better shot to follow tomorrow:

arengant · **Posted:** Sat Mar 09, 2013 10:11 pm

FYI the spidertrax add about 3 lbs... My 17" wheels at 32.1 MTs weigh 76 pounds with spacer... my stock KJ rim with stock SRA weighed 46 pounds...

Good choice I like the look!

Jeeper4life · **Posted:** Sun Mar 10, 2013 4:54 am

Those rims look good on that! Nice!

dirtywhiteboy · **Posted:** Sun Mar 10, 2013 8:39 am

Thanks guys - IMO they look nicer than the Soft 8's and you can't get more legit than the OE jeep center cap.

The wider stance is much more notable up front

Mounting the spare to the tire carrier is a treat. Thankfully there's a local wrecking yard that has 5 1st gen Libertys to pull from.

arengant · **Posted:** Sun Mar 10, 2013 4:24 pm

I have a 5x4.5 to 5x5 wheel adapter for 30 bucks if you want it for the rear

dirtywhiteboy · **Posted:** Sun Mar 10, 2013 9:26 pm

Thanks for the offer Arengant, but I'm afraid shipping would spoil the deal.

Ride Report:

Tires: OMG are the Wrangler's are so quiet and comfortable. I've read so many horrible reviews of the ST including reported sidewall blow outs that I was ready for the worst drive ever. Holy crap these things are Cadillac comfortable vs. the noisy, hard and sloppy tracking Duellers. Handling was steady and straight. A little slipping around in a sand covered parking lot with an aggressive turn in but nothing that wouldn't have happened with any other set of tires. Tire pressure set @ 35 PSI, leaving me room to drop them down if I felt it necessary. I like the ride just fine the way it is. Feedback is a bit numb, bit I'll live with that. Clearly these tires are passenger tires and should be treated as such: No massive loads on the trailer hitch etc, I can see if a person did try to hitch up a rated load they'd be in trouble. I now have the luxury of a spare set of rims and tires that do have a heavy sidewall just in case such a need should occur.

Speedo correction: Still reads slow according to our Garmin GPS, but only by .5 to 1 KpH @ 100 Kph. A big improvement over the 1 size too small sidewall Duellers (5 to 7 Kph slow 100 - 110 KpH). Most vehicles I've run the Garmin in show slow, 3-5 KpH.

Fuel Economy: Round trip = 150 KM (92 Miles). Averaged 22.5 Mpg, 95% highway driving @ 110 KpH (65Mph - as per GPS, tach reading 2200+ rpm, previously would've needed to hit 2500 rpm to hit 110 on the GPS). With the speedometer correction, we picked up 10 -12 KM traveled for the same odometer count, should translate in a gain of about .8 Mpg - static. Probably more like 1.5 - 2 Mpg increase when considering the reduced engine rpm = Yeah baby!

arengant · **Posted:** Mon Mar 11, 2013 12:44 am

Sorry I forgot shipping to Canada isn't cheap!

Glad you like the wheels!

It's a wheel dilemma... No 2012 JK steel wheels on Stock KJ

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