33 x 10.50 safety...???

[Redline]

Exactly. He is entitled to his opinion and as one poster said, it's better to be cautious when giving free advice.

When I was a Jeep owner I very much appreciated his down to earth demeanor and willingness to discuss things. A good vendor.

just so everyone knows I am in no way bashing dirk. In all honesty after talking with the guy for 10 min i will be giving him every bit of business that i can. Just wanted to clarify that. And i forgot to add that I will be running a roof rack with 2-300LBS due to the wrangler being so CUTE in the cargo department.

 

[toyota_jon]

I don't know Dirk from any other vendor but I will say he is giving you the standard safety answer that most shops will give you. I have heard of rover guys who were told that running a 235-85r16 was dangerous. LOL! Don't worry about it i'm sure MANY of us on this board would be told we are running "unsafe" rigs, myself included. After all we use skinny tires and put lots of stuff on the roof while using a softer than stock suspension. i wouldn't worry too much and just drive accordingly.

 

[GPER]

With all the sue happy people in the world, I guess they all have to cover their butt. I stopped into a local tire store here in town pricing a new set of M/T's for my CJ. I told the salesman I was looking for a 33 x 15 x 12.5 tire. He just said he would NOT sell me anything other than the size of tire that came on it:Wow1: I bet it would have been a bias ply tire too, so I moved on, and found a great tire place the next town over.

 

[OverlandZJ]

Dirk's a good guy and a Christian, he will tell you the facts, as he sees them. He does make a valid point in width and COG.

I run a 33x10.5 tire, but i also have .75" less backspacing on my wheels ( vs stock) which negates the trackwidth/COG argument.

 

[matt s]

I run 33 x 9.5's on a full size blazer. Not only is it just fine, but they are far better on the highway than the wide tires and offset wheels that were on it before (they stay in the lane and don't get yanked around).

I would say you are fine. The lift and the tires will effect your stability as they would on any vehicle, drive accordingly.

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

It is true they have less lateral stability. I have a travel trailer that tows borderline dangerously when towed behind the vehicle with 33 x 10.5 r 15, mostly because the rim is so small with so much sidewall. If you go up to a 16 or even a 17 it gets much safer from that standpoint. I personally am sort of done with 15" for the most part but I don't think there is anything wrong with it particularly on a vehicle like a Jeep...

 

[michaels]

i drive a land rover with a 255/85 tire...you'll be fine. slap em on and enjoy. if you're worried about stability, then get some wheels with less offset.

 

[JohnnyS]

I run 33x10.50s (on stock wheels) on my LJ and wouldn't change a thing.

 

[Grim Reaper]

I don't value his opinion if that's exactly what he said... he is in fact an idiot to have said that in regards to your tire choice in my opion. Just saying :coffeedrink:


Factory a lot of 3/4 ton trucks run a 235 x 85 16 on a 6.5 inch wide rim. That's a 32x9.5ish inch tall tire on a tall truck. By his logic they should be flipping over catching fire and naming millions every time they pull out of a driveway and totally incapable of pulling a trailer safely by others.

The difference between a 10.5 and a 12.5 on the same rim is 1 inch of width to the outside per side.

Where the extra stability and improved handing would come in is with more so with offset on the wheel then the width of the tire. The TJ's came with what is basically a 31-32 on the Rubies? a 33 is only raising the vehicle 1 in beyond that. You are not changing that drastically.

Now as I pointed out, offset can help restore handling to some extent. If you draw a line thorough the axis of the ball joints where that line hits he road surface ideally that would be close to the center of the tire tread. This as well as Castor angle is where most "Death Wobble" comes in. To much or too little offset coupled with tire width allows the road to exert pull on the tire and start oscillating from one tire to the other. The larger the diameter tire the more offset you would need to make that work correct and the wider the tire is the worse the problem will be. Again you are not changing the tire diameter over stock a great deal over the factory available sizes so should be minimal problems. Again the skinnier tire will cause less issues with death wobble because you are going from a 9.5 inch factory width tire to a 10.5.

2.5 inch lift unless it has really soft springs should not make a huge difference in handling. A heavier Sway bar with disconnects would be able to offset the softer spring while improving offroad performance. Yes you need to treat it with respect and learn where its new limits are and yes they will be different but that is going to be because of the lift not the tire width.

Unsprung weight is bad for ride because it is more mass the suspension has to fight to keep control of. Tire and wheel weight play heavily into acceleration, braking and MPG. The lighter the better for all the above . So running a 10.5 on a light Aluminum rim would improve all of the above over a 12.5.

Enjoy the tire size you want for the reason you want it. :smiley_drive:


Edit: BTW did you steal your location from mine over at Pirate? LOL

 

[Scotsmanspride]

Nope. Thats been my location and everyone else has had the same location since the day that sorry (expletive string 5 miles long) was elected into office.

 

[Mexican_Hippie]

2" BB, 1" BL, 4" backspacing here (wheels stick out a about 1" wider than stock on both sides). I also have a Congo Cage and rack on the roof.

Had 33 x 12.5 first. Switched to 33 x 10.5 when those tires wore out. I really haven't noticed a difference in handling on the road.

With the Sahara flares, 4" backspacing and BFG 33 x 10.5 the edge of the tire is right about in line with the edge of the flare so less crap gets thrown up if your windows are off.

 

[Jeep]

1997 TJ, 3.5" Rubicon Express lift, 33x10.50-15 BFG's, I live near the mountains which is where we mostly wheel, but also hit Moab every 2 years. It works great, drives loose gravel just fine, takes on some decent trails, due to driver ability it beats the pants off a lot of other set ups and has no roof rash yet.........and that's with my wife behind the wheel. You'll be just fine, don't fall victim to egotistical opinions.

 

[The Swiss]

The J8, the Military version of the JK Unlimited, comes with 255/80-17, which translates to a 33x10. The stock JK come with 255/75-17, which translates to 32x10. My Defender had 235/85-16, which translates to a 32x9.25. Most of the people outside the US taking their vehicles off-road drive "pizza cutters" without issues; so 33x10.5 will work just fine.

 

[Black Dog]

I think the key here mostly is how you drive. If you drive a jeep the same as you might drive a Porsche, it will probably tip over. But if you take it easy on the tight corners you'll be fine.

Also, somebody up there was talking about stock track width and someone else about wheel back spacing, both spot on. Less back spacing on your wheel will give you a bit wider track width, so if you are running a non-stock wheel with the less back spacing you can compensate for the lack of width with the narrow tires. If you have a stock wheel or one with lots of back spacing, maybe try some wheel spacers to push your track width out wider. The thing is to picture it like a triangle, the wider the base the more stable it is. Surface area on the road won't necessarily make it less top heavy.

 

[SunDvl]

I've run 33x10.5's on my TJ with roughly 4" of lift for roughly 4 years with no problems. I did get aftermarket rims but stayed conservative on the BS, because I don't like the appearance of a lot of tire sticking out.