Hey WJ guys. Just got one have a few questions.

[Fahrvegnugen]

Hey all, I’m a lifelong Jeep owner, but I’ve only ever had 2 door wranglers and one beater XJ. I wanted something a little bigger this time and a 4 door wrangler is out of the budget. I found an 03 Laredo with 92,000 with full service history since new. Trans fluid changed every 30k religiously and all other services done. I probably over paid but service history and low mileage made it worth it. Anyway, specs are 4.0 242 case trailer prep with 3.73 gears. Also not to bad. My question is since there’s not a ton of info on these, I’m thinking of going with the 4 inch iron rock critical path, leaning towards 235/80r16 on stock wheels.
My concern is both will it rub seriously and will the narrow tire have drawbacks. I know they like to dig and I drive on the beaches of the outer banks where the sand can get deep. Aired down will I be ok or should I go with wider 265s and trim? Also I’m on the east coast so rocks and mud are the name of the game. I avoid mud where possible but it’s not always possible.
Also for those of you at this height have you messed with the front driveshaft, I have CV at t case and u joint at axle. I had dual CVs and was lifted and they lasted a long time. I’ve heard conflicting information on this.
This Jeep won’t be a daily, just a foul weather car and road trip as well as a wheeler. Kind of a do it all, off road parks to road trip. Not going full crawler but it needs to get over rocks well. Any advice on good setups is appreciated.

 

[drinkdrankdrunk]

At 4" you'll clear the 265's fine. I have 3" IRO's in the front and I don't rub on the bumper at all, but do rub ever so slightly on the control arms, not enough to worry at all though. I thought about going the 235/85 route but I'm very glad I didn't. The 235's just look too narrow on a the WJ when lifted 3-4", plus the 265/75 is a much more common tire size. At 4" you can probably run spacers to clear the control arms and still have enough clearance at the front bumper. Just remember spacers always make your rub worse on the bumper.

As far as the driveshaft, you'll definitely need to replace it. Mine blew out after a couple months on a 2" BB, and has completely fouled when I put my 3" lift on. At 4" it'll probably tear as soon as you put the tires back on the ground. Mine had the rzeppa joint at the tcase and a ujoint at the diff, so I only had to swap the tcase yoke, which wasn't hard at all. From my understanding the diff side is a little more tricky because there's a crush sleeve. But as far as the tcase side all you have to do is go to the junkyard and find a V8 WJ and pull the tcase front output yoke and take the driveshaft too and it'll work perfectly. I'm not positive what to do for the diff side but there is a very informative thread on jeepforum about it.

Clean looking Jeep, and the WJ is one of the most underrated platforms for what most of us do. Have fun building it.