The 2.5 XT DualSport was our choice. It's been stellar, and for the price, is a great upgrade.
Wheel choice - to make a long story short, after experiencing problems with the first set of rims that didn't match the JK locating hub, we spent the money for a set of AEV wheels. All the vibration and shake went away. We fought it for a few months - the guys at Discount even replaced a set of tires and that didn't fix it. In my effort to save a few buck on that, it ended up costing me way more.
For us, getting decent fuel economy was one of the driving forces in picking tires. We have the Rubicon package w/ 4.10:1 gears, and with a 285/70-17 tire, the fuel economy was not severely impacted. I'm quite certain that our Jeep would have no problem with a 35" tire, but I don't think you'd be happy going that big with a higher gear ratio. A 3.73:1 with a 35" tire is effectively like a 3.41:1, and your torque will really suffer. I'm speculating that you'd be at 1700 to 1800 RPM at 65 MPH - no power with the 3.6L.
So, I'd not recommend a 35" tire without re-gearing - and that's not cheap. I'd say at the minimum use a 4:10 gear, preferably a 4:56 ratio.
Secondly, you have a Dana 30 front axle. Hard use with a 35" tire will bend or break it.
Again, these factors all played into the tire size we chose - a 285/70-17. As a good compromise, we have a set of the Discount/Falken WildPeak A/T, and they have been excellent in everything but deep mud. And when we did get into some of that, we aired down to 14 PSI, and they pulled thru without using the lockers. We don't go hard core rock crawling, so while I have tapped the rear shock mounts a few times, we've never been in any kind of trouble due to tire size.
http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...ucing-Miss-Rubi-a-2012-Jeep-Rubicon-Unlimited is the details on Miss Rubi, my wife's JKUR!
Mark
PS - I've got a local trail ride you would enjoy coming up next month. It's perfect for a stock 4x4. Check it out in the 4 Corners section.
http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...-Trail-and-Honanki-Ruin-Sedona-AZ-06-April-13
