Our 2012 Jeep Wrangler has new shoes. Man, what a difference. In no time at all we've gained about 2 inches of ground clearance owing to the larger radius of these tires. And the dorky mail truck look is long gone.
We of course mounted the BFGoodrich KM2s white letters out, in accordance with IL reader poll results. Frankly, I like it better than I thought I would. We'd have had too much black otherwise.
Of course gearing has suffered. And the speedometer is now off by about 10 mph at freeway speeds -- the wrong way. It read 60 this morning when I was going about 70 mph. New axle ratios are in the cards, but we're going to live with this awhile and measure the ill effects at the track.
On the road, acceleration isn't near as bad as I expected. Maybe that's because the 3.6-liter engine packs 83 horsepower more than the 2011 edition, has 23 lb-ft more torque. It also has a 6-speed manual, which means the gears were never canyons apart to begin with. With these tires it feels pretty natural if I ignore 6th alltogether and drive it like a 5-speed.
Yeah, there's more tread noise, but not as much as I expected and it's not that evident until 40 mph. Our soft top isn't helping, of course. Braking doesn't seem too bad in normal use, either.
We'll quantify all of this when we take it to the track next week. Should be interesting.
But you wanted to know how much these babies weigh...
That's right, each wheel and tire assembly weighs 91.4 pounds, exactly 40 pounds more than the originals. According to Price is Right rules, aspade called it with a guess of 90 pounds.
And so our Wrangler gained 200 pounds in one go; 40 pounds of pure unsprung weight per corner and another 40 for the spare. The ride is a bit more "clompy" over rough stuff at speed, but it's not a dramatic change because the Wrangler's solid axles didn't exactly represent a Lexus starting point.
Upgraded shocks will help and we're just beginning to play with air pressure. With a higher rated load capacity, we can safely run these tires at a slightly lower pressure than stock if we so desire.
In corners the extra tire footprint and the increased track width seem to make it feel more planted despite the extra height. The track is about 4 inches wider at the center of the tread and something like 6 inches wider from outside rib to outside rib. (We'll measure these numbers later.)
At just over 50 pounds, the old rubber came off rather easily.
But I was glad to have a Go-Jack roller jack handy to save my back the hassle of lifting a 91.4-pound replacement into place while the Jeep itself was suspended at knee height by our Rotary lift. Here the tire sits on rollers that allows me to clock it into position and line up the studs. These jacks are usually used four at a time to move cars around in tight spaces, but we've figured out a couple of other ways to make them pay for themselves.
Dan Edmunds, Director of Vehicle Testing @ 6,155 miles
Photos by Scott Jacobs
jeepsrt says:
11:17 AM, 12/20/11
Looks way better, nice to hear it didn't hurt the ride too much.
metro88 says:
11:22 AM, 12/20/11
yay!!!
Looks so much better now!
shaddai says:
11:28 AM, 12/20/11
NOW it looks like a Jeep. Very nice!
ahightower says:
11:28 AM, 12/20/11
Looks good. Even the stock fender flares are enough. What's the resale value of the stock wheels and tires?
joefrompa says:
11:30 AM, 12/20/11
Looks great. Dissapointing you did this in a LT test car that's primarily highway driven, but probably similar to what real-worlders do - put 15,000 miles a year on a car with this setup.
My worst experience was driving a CJ with massive mudders on it. Slamming on the brakes simply felt like the car had plowed into 6 inches of water - the vehicle slowed, but at it's own pace. Steering and road handling was awful.
The car was pretty much a dedicated off-roader, and for that it was perfect, but on the road what a POS. All because of tires & wheels.
csubowtie says:
11:52 AM, 12/20/11
Much better looking. I like the white out. When I got my BFG MT's, it took me a while to figure out why they didn't look as good as I thought they should. Then I realized it's because they were mounted black out, the shop never asked. And right now, with a year of driving them on the street, I would switch them back to the BFG AT's. They seem to spin the rears more on acceleration then the AT's, which sucks on the wet, hilly roads up in the Pac NW. Hopefully they will make up for it when I finally get around to playing in some mud.
bodyblue says:
11:55 AM, 12/20/11
Love it! The black wheels looks very sharp! I also like the white letters out. I think the tread is too aggressive but damn, they sure do look nice!
greenpony says:
12:08 PM, 12/20/11
A definite improvement in appearance. Great job!
robert4380 says:
12:58 PM, 12/20/11
Does it look cool? Abso-freakin'-lutely. Is it an idiotic upgrade for just tooling around Santa Monica? Absolutely. I can't wait for more blog posts about how the Wrangler made the trip to the mall with no problems now.
s197gt says:
01:11 PM, 12/20/11
looks awesome!
ahightower says:
01:35 PM, 12/20/11
And I evidently missed the poll, but prefer blackwalls out both for aesthetics and cleaning/maintenance.
bkaiser1 says:
01:38 PM, 12/20/11
It looks amazing...great size/stance. Were it my own vehicle, though, I just don't think I could stomach adding *that* much unsprung weight to each corner...but I'm not an offroader, so the aggressive setup would be overkill for snowy highway driving. I'm really interested to see how much these new shoes degrade performance...
chrisnick04 says:
01:42 PM, 12/20/11
not sure if this new engine/transmission combo can do it, but with a lot of modern cars, speedo recalibration can be done with a handheld tuner.
desmolicious says:
01:47 PM, 12/20/11
Careful mounting the spare on the hatch. Not sure how much extra weight that can handle w/o stress fractures.
Also, how about those beyond crap headlights? Still no mention of them.
It's like driving with a hamster holding a candle in a jam jar.
Anyway, I just replaced mine with an IPF/ARB replacement set. They come with the H4 connectors.
I bought the shells from 4wheelparts and bought the Sylvania UltraStar h4 bulbs from PepBoys.
All together about $110, and it took 15 minutes to replace the stock lights (which when you pull them out are so flimsy it's no surprise how poorly they work).
Incredible difference. Do it, and do a write up so everyone can see how easy and quick it is.
fundango says:
02:03 PM, 12/20/11
Looks great, instantly transforms the Jeep into a serious looking machine. I have no doubt the performance/handling numbers will suffer, but this may be worth it.
actualsize says:
02:07 PM, 12/20/11
@desmolicious
Good points. The spare tire carrier is engineered to take the extra diameter of larger tires. One would think they would factor in weight, not just diameter, but we'll be looking at that. And yeah, the headlights, marginal to begin with, need re-aiming on account of the hike in altitude. We'll take care of that as soon as we reach maximum height!
@joefrompa
I don't think we're going to see that kind of drop-off here because this generation of Jeep is built with factory Rubicon packages and the like in the design mix. Therefore we're not too far out of the factory design envelope (if we're out of it at all.)
That the fender flares have no trouble with these tires and wheels is but one example. The skinny factory tires almost seem like throwaways on an entry-level model made for people that want to build their own Jeep their own way.
autoboy1 says:
03:07 PM, 12/20/11
Oh man, those wheels make me want to buy another Jeep. I'd love to know how it performs on the trail with those meats? At full twist do the tires still fit with the stock ride height? How about when you pull the sway bars off and twist it up some more?
When I lifted my old Jeep it ruined the car on the road so I'm wondering how this thing fares with real tires and stock ride height? I'd love a Rubicon for the trail but they are just too expensive for a toy. This seem much more plausible.
bonzjr says:
03:10 PM, 12/20/11
This. Looks. Awesome.
Manly -- without adding trucknutz!
ralphhightower says:
03:44 PM, 12/20/11
Jeep looks great with the white letters visible; nice stance also. I'll bet with the added weight of the tires, changing a flat would be a bear.
bankerdanny says:
04:01 PM, 12/20/11
Despite the crap I gave IL about the black wheels, they do look very good. The RWL makes a huge difference breaking up the sea of black. And Jeeps just look better with white letters.
I built a model CJ7 in around 1980 or so and gave it RWL's on the 31" tires (on wagon style wheels 'natch). It's the classic Jeep CJ/Wrangler look.
However, in the case of the 911, while it does need the void in the wheel wells broken up, but by a polished rim lip, not RWL's or white walls.
miamifan1 says:
04:57 PM, 12/20/11
i'm one of those who oposed the tire swap - i expected you'd go too big.
i am hereby converted!
now it looks perfect.
is this the same size as the sahara wheel/tire? http://www.prlog.org/11467022-2011-jeep-wrangler-unlimited.jpg
miamifan1 says:
05:08 PM, 12/20/11
note how the stock flares line up just so. its perfect.
stock ride height looks perfect too. of course, you've made no secret that a lift is on the way as well - and thats when you're going to go too far.
autoboy1 says:
05:27 PM, 12/20/11
I gotta say the stance looks about perfect. I don't think a lift is needed at all. Might be interesting to read, but not needed.
explorerx4 says:
05:46 PM, 12/20/11
Not a big fan of the 'murdered out' look, but the white letters lighten it up just enough.
I hope you have some wheel locks holding that setup on.
Also agree with the posters saying a lift kit is not needed.
heidis says:
06:35 PM, 12/20/11
Not a fan of those new AEV wheels or the all black look either. But It kinda all works and you get points for white letters out. But the lift need will become obvious once the RTI score is attempted. The tires will hit those fenders a big hurry. Speed bumps and road dips will also cause some tire bark on the under bits without a lift.
Oh and why have I never heard of that lift gadget you all have there? I wonder if it's too late to modify my Christmas wish list... Just too bad it can't help you get the spare on. Lift with yer knees!
theace415 says:
08:52 PM, 12/20/11
man i used to work for a tire shop maybe 4 years ago and man i wish i had rotary lift back then.
Other than that that jeep looks legit now!!!
eric_l says:
10:26 PM, 12/20/11
It looks nice but now you have modified the vehicle to be something that most buyers of the vehicle will not do, and as such, it will drive differently now. This spoils somewhat the objective nature of a long term test, which is supposed to show what the stock vehicle is like to live with for 15,000 miles.
lostboyz says:
04:00 AM, 12/21/11
@eric_l, how many jeep owners do you know keep them stock? I've counted exactly 4, and they were all leases. The other 1500 in the area all have something different going on.
jacton says:
06:37 AM, 12/21/11
Damn! That looks awesome. I love the stance and the white letters out too. I didn't think I would but it does look killer. Nice job!
ed341 says:
07:43 AM, 12/21/11
I say paint the lettering on the 911's tires white so everyone will love the look with black wheels.
Only joking.
rick8365 says:
10:09 AM, 12/21/11
"And the dorky mail truck look is long gone."
LOL.....thanks for the laugh.
Nice wheel/tire choice - the Jeep looks great.