Rims

[xt master]

I have a a couple questions about buying rims.

What is a better choice steel or alloy?

Alloy has alot more choices.I only do light off roading nothing hard core.

How do you measure to make sure you get the right rim.i am seeing on web sites alot of this 5x4.5 Bolt Pattern I have a 97 TJ

 

[Bounty__Hunter]

TJ is the 5x4.5" lug pattern. Alloy is good for a light-weight good looking wheel, better on mileage. Steel is much heavier and takes a beating better, will bend where the allow would break. Steel can be bent back in shape if need be.

Get an 8" wide wheel for up to 12.5" wide tires. The added bulge to the sidewall will help protect the rim offroad and decrease the chance of knocking the tire off the bead.

 

[88Wrangles]

Ya if you take it off road much I would go with a steel wheel. Like bounty said you can just hammer it back if it does bend.

 

[buckaroo kid]

They make a light steel wheel thats as light as alloy rims. Steel rims are great for off roads. I have steel rims when I go off roading and alloy when just crusing in town.

 

[Dirk]

Well, I'll swim upstream here.8)

We only run alloy wheels- on and off road.

In the last 12 years of wheeling and serious rock crawling, I've only seen one alloy rim get damaged bad enough to replace, and that was on my rig after a multiple roll-over.
BTW- it actually bent. It didn't break.

Like Bounty said, running 8" rims provides better protection for 12.5" tires.
They retain the bead better when aired down too.
Good alloys can be had for under $100.00 each, so in the rare instance you could break one, it's not that expensive to replace it.
Anything that could break a good alloy wheel might also bend a steelie beyond what I'd like to continue using.

None of our crew will ever run steel wheels again.
Every set we've ever run had one of 2 that were out of round- right out of the box!:shock:
A high percentage of these wheels have this problem and larger MT's are hard enough to balance as it is.

Another thing I don't care for with steelies is that they just look cheap.
That's just my own personal opinion though.

I know some guys who run one set of tires on road and another off.
Many of the newer MT tires are really well behaved on the road, so most of us aren't interested in switching back & forth.
We mostly run more extreme dry trails & rocks though.

If we were big mud gooey guys, we might swap rims to run boggers or TSL's off-road as they are pretty lousy on the street.

YMMV...

 

[xt master]

New question.

I am looking at some used rims,How can I tell what the backspacing is?

How much backspace should I have on a 97 TJ?

Atm it is stock suspension running 31" x 10.5"?

I plan on putting on 2.5" lift but plan on staying with the 31's for awile.

Do you just need to measure from the back of the rim where the bolt holes are to the outer edge of the rim?

 

[Jeeper99]

I'm running 31's and just bought a set of rims with 4" of backspacing. The stance is a little wider and looks alot better IMO.

 

[xt master]

Thanks that what I thought wanted to make sure.Just need to pull of my spare and measure the factory distance and compare it with other rims.

 

[Dirk]

New question.

I am looking at some used rims,How can I tell what the backspacing is?
Do you just need to measure from the back of the rim where the bolt holes are to the outer edge of the rim?

Yes- just like the pic that jeeper99 posted.

How much backspace should I have on a 97 TJ?

Atm it is stock suspension running 31" x 10.5"?

I plan on putting on 2.5" lift but plan on staying with the 31's for awile.

That depends.
Do you wanna run bigger tires later?
Do you want to run the same rims at that time?

There is a backspacing range that is acceptable for a given tire size, but the smaller the number, the wider the stance.
The wider the stance, the more stability you can have.

If you wanted to add a small 1" BL to your 2.5" lift and run 33's later on, I'd opt for rims with a BS of 3.25" to 3.75", with the 3.25's offering the widest stance and most stability.

For 31's, you can go from near stock BS out to 3.25".

Going past 3.25" causes other issues.
I ran a spacer/wheel combo on an XJ (with 35's) that netted 2.5" of BS.
The stability was AWESOME but I had to replace ball joints once a year.
The scrub radius was affected noticeably too.

Some guys want to keep a "narrow" stance to keep a bigger tire under the flares.
Personally, I wouldn't sacrifice side stability and turning radius to do that- I'd just get wider flares if it were an issue in the State I lived in.
We don't have any issues with that in Kansas, and I kind of like the look of the tire sticking out from the flares.

 

[BAM4x4]

Okay, Another newbie question...
Seeing how you brought up the backspacing comment, I have a couple questions. What exactly is backspacing? Offset? Etc. I am looking at getting a 4" suspension lift with 33x12.5/15" tires, what do I have to consider for backspacing? I would like a wide stance, I think it makes it look awesome. How do I judge how much or little I need? I read what was said above and I got a lot of information but now I need to just connect the dots. If anyone could assist me in this that would be great thanks!

 

[Dirk]

Backspacing is the distance between the wheel mounting surface (on the backside of the rim center) to the outermost edge of the back side of the rim.
If you lay a straightedge across the entire rim, (backside) you can measure from that edge to the center mounting surface to determine a wheels backspacing.

Like I said in the previous post, I'd run a 15x8 rim with a BS of 3.25" to 3.75" for the best stability with 33's.