bestcoast
Member
Thank you for the suggestion. I have actually come up with a solution for the Hi-Lift that I will expand on later. I still have some catching up to do with the thread.
First Jeep
- Thread starter bestcoast
- Start date
bestcoast
Member
After driving the jeep with the newly upgraded suspension components for about two months, I decided it was time for tires. This is another one of those topics that has been debated heavily. Everyone and their cousin has an opinion but for me it came down to use, comfort, and looks in that order. After a ton of reading I was between the BFG KO2's and the KM2's. I was between the KO2's in the new 34x10.5r17, the KO2's in 315/70r17, and the KM2's in 35x12.5r17. I like the factory wheels so I chose to keep them even though they are technically narrower then BFG recommends for either of the 35's. What ultimately swayed my decision was cost and that I could get the KM2's in a load range D whereas the KO2's in the same size where only available in an E range. I decided against the 34's because they were more expensive than I could get the 35's for. On black Friday I was able to get 5 of the KM2's in 35 shipped to my door for $1228 from Northridge 4x4 which was a steal because they normally sell for over $300 a piece.
After getting the tires I went to my local America's Tire to get them installed. I walked away from this with both positives and negatives. They didn't hassle me about the width of my stock wheels with the tires, however they did a terrible job balancing them. Most of the tires had at least 5 oz of weight on them and one had over 7 oz which is unacceptable. With that there was a decent vibration right at 65mph to 80mph. There are a couple solutions to the issue. Take them back to America's Tire and have them rotate the tires on the wheels until they could get the weights lower, or take the tires to a shop with a road force balancer. I chose the later and went to a local shop. I ended up with tires that are significantly better balanced with much less weight (somewhere around 2 oz or less per tire), and with much less vibration at highway speeds.
Here’s how it sits with the new tires and the lift installed. This is at the Point Reyes light house:
At 30PSI the tires measured about 34" mounted on the jeep. I was expecting them to measure smaller because BFG's seem to be notorious for this so I was pretty happy with how they turned out.
After getting the tires I went to my local America's Tire to get them installed. I walked away from this with both positives and negatives. They didn't hassle me about the width of my stock wheels with the tires, however they did a terrible job balancing them. Most of the tires had at least 5 oz of weight on them and one had over 7 oz which is unacceptable. With that there was a decent vibration right at 65mph to 80mph. There are a couple solutions to the issue. Take them back to America's Tire and have them rotate the tires on the wheels until they could get the weights lower, or take the tires to a shop with a road force balancer. I chose the later and went to a local shop. I ended up with tires that are significantly better balanced with much less weight (somewhere around 2 oz or less per tire), and with much less vibration at highway speeds.
Here’s how it sits with the new tires and the lift installed. This is at the Point Reyes light house:
At 30PSI the tires measured about 34" mounted on the jeep. I was expecting them to measure smaller because BFG's seem to be notorious for this so I was pretty happy with how they turned out.
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bestcoast
Member
Thanks!
AdventureHare
Outfitting for Adv
My wife and I are huge fans of light houses and your pics are incredible. Gonna have to add that to our destination list.
bestcoast
Member
Thank you! Point Reyes is an awesome place to visit and luckily its a short drive for us.
bestcoast
Member
Thanks! The lighthouse is at Point Reyes National Seashore in California.
bestcoast
Member
Update Cont.
After putting on the new tires I ran into the issue of where to put the spare tire. The options available were to use the stock tire carrier, get an aftermarket tire carrier that mounted to the tailgate, or to get an aftermarket bumper with a tire carrier mounted to it instead. I knew eventually I was going to get a new rear bumper with a tire carrier because of the issues with running a lot of weight on the factory tailgate. For the time being I wanted to try the factory carrier but quickly ran into issues.
First, because I am using the factory wheels, offset requires the use of a spacer or offset mount bolted to the carrier. I decided to try bolting a spare 1.5” wheel spacer to the carrier but as soon as tried to mount the wheel I realized there was no way to make it fit because the tire hit the edges of the bumper cutout.
Rather than beat around the bush any longer, I started looking at rear bumpers with tire carriers. I chose to go this route over something like the Teraflex HD hinges and carrier because ultimately I wanted to get the weight off the tub and onto the frame. 35’s, a hi-lift, and jerry cans etc are heavy. I wanted the peace of mind knowing that over time I wasn’t going to run the risk of degrading the integrity of the tub by hanging a ton of weight off of it.
I looked at a couple of different options online and then went to my local 4wheel parts to see what they had in stock. I am a huge fan of Poison Spyder and after seeing their rock brawler 2 rear bumper and tire carrier I was sold. I was not however sold on the $1700 price point. 4wheel parts also had a Smittybilt atlas rear bumper with tire carrier conveniently side-by-side the with the PSC bumper.
Knowing Smittybilt’s reputation and nickname, I was very hesitant to give their bumper a serious look but the features it had were hard to ignore. Where the PSC bumper was super high quality, it did not come with provisions for a hi-lift mount or a hitch receiver, and there was no option available for jerry cans. The Smittybilt on the other hand came with mounts for a hi-lift, integral mounts for two 20L Jerry cans, and a class 3 rated integral receiver. It also held the tire carrier pin in double sheer which I was a fan of given the amount of weight it would be supporting. Ultimately I chose the Smittybilt for cost and features. I knew the quality was not going to be as good as the PSC and I did not like that it was not made in the USA, but it would meet my needs.
The Smittybilt is one heavy mother. All said and done it weighs about 190 lbs. Installation was not too difficult, the hardest part being getting the frame inserts to line up with the bumper mounted. It bolts to both frame rails as well as the rear crossmember. Needless to say, it’s not going anywhere. Knowing Smittybilt’s reputation, I expected to have to do some adjustments. It took some adjustment of the latch mechanism and carrier pin to get the carrier level and to get it to latch properly. Overall I am happy with the bumper and have used it for towing as well. I like the features it has and generally it is rattle free. My hi-lift on the other hand is not so quiet and I will be looking to change that in the future.
Here’s a look at the bumper mounted:
I'll get a couple photos of the carrier open when I get a chance. Thanks for looking!
After putting on the new tires I ran into the issue of where to put the spare tire. The options available were to use the stock tire carrier, get an aftermarket tire carrier that mounted to the tailgate, or to get an aftermarket bumper with a tire carrier mounted to it instead. I knew eventually I was going to get a new rear bumper with a tire carrier because of the issues with running a lot of weight on the factory tailgate. For the time being I wanted to try the factory carrier but quickly ran into issues.
First, because I am using the factory wheels, offset requires the use of a spacer or offset mount bolted to the carrier. I decided to try bolting a spare 1.5” wheel spacer to the carrier but as soon as tried to mount the wheel I realized there was no way to make it fit because the tire hit the edges of the bumper cutout.
Rather than beat around the bush any longer, I started looking at rear bumpers with tire carriers. I chose to go this route over something like the Teraflex HD hinges and carrier because ultimately I wanted to get the weight off the tub and onto the frame. 35’s, a hi-lift, and jerry cans etc are heavy. I wanted the peace of mind knowing that over time I wasn’t going to run the risk of degrading the integrity of the tub by hanging a ton of weight off of it.
I looked at a couple of different options online and then went to my local 4wheel parts to see what they had in stock. I am a huge fan of Poison Spyder and after seeing their rock brawler 2 rear bumper and tire carrier I was sold. I was not however sold on the $1700 price point. 4wheel parts also had a Smittybilt atlas rear bumper with tire carrier conveniently side-by-side the with the PSC bumper.
Knowing Smittybilt’s reputation and nickname, I was very hesitant to give their bumper a serious look but the features it had were hard to ignore. Where the PSC bumper was super high quality, it did not come with provisions for a hi-lift mount or a hitch receiver, and there was no option available for jerry cans. The Smittybilt on the other hand came with mounts for a hi-lift, integral mounts for two 20L Jerry cans, and a class 3 rated integral receiver. It also held the tire carrier pin in double sheer which I was a fan of given the amount of weight it would be supporting. Ultimately I chose the Smittybilt for cost and features. I knew the quality was not going to be as good as the PSC and I did not like that it was not made in the USA, but it would meet my needs.
The Smittybilt is one heavy mother. All said and done it weighs about 190 lbs. Installation was not too difficult, the hardest part being getting the frame inserts to line up with the bumper mounted. It bolts to both frame rails as well as the rear crossmember. Needless to say, it’s not going anywhere. Knowing Smittybilt’s reputation, I expected to have to do some adjustments. It took some adjustment of the latch mechanism and carrier pin to get the carrier level and to get it to latch properly. Overall I am happy with the bumper and have used it for towing as well. I like the features it has and generally it is rattle free. My hi-lift on the other hand is not so quiet and I will be looking to change that in the future.
Here’s a look at the bumper mounted:
I'll get a couple photos of the carrier open when I get a chance. Thanks for looking!
bestcoast
Member
After driving the JK for a couple of weeks with the Atlas rear bumper and the stock front, I had enough of the stock plastic junk and wanted to give the front some love so I started looking at front bumper options. Once again the JK dilemma struck. Full width, mid width, or stubby?
First I had to decide what I wanted in a bumper. I knew I wanted a mid-frame winch mount, hi-lift jack points, d-ring mounts, fog lights integrated or the ability to add an aftermarket solution, and something a little lighter than the heifer that was bolted to the back. The last but hardest decision to make was looks. Obviously the bumper had to function, but if it didn't look right it wasn't going on the jeep. Knowing that with a 2.5” lift and 35's, I was going to be modifying the fenders at some point (read: tube fenders), and that ultimately decided the width debacle. Stubby it was.
After countless more hours reading and looking at photos I came down to two: the Evo 1/4 pounder and the ARB stubby. Yes the Evo is more geared towards the rock crawler crowd, its features and quality are pretty undeniable and it deserved a good hard look. Its solid, simple 1/4” steel construction was right along with the look, quality, and durability that I wanted. It also had the option for an integral stinger that was just as stout as well as two hi-lift jack points. It did not however cover the entire width of the grill and I was going to have to get creative with mounting fog lights. the only other downside I could see, if you can call it that, was that I would have to cut off the factory crash bar and rotate my sway bar disconnect up out of harms way.
The ARB stubby got my attention because of the reputation of ARB to make a fantastic product, the features that came standard, and the look as well. The ARB checked all of the boxes of the Evo but required no permanent modifications. It also came with all of the brackets necessarily to mount aftermarket fog lights as well as to relocate the vacuum canister. Needless to say, I ordered the ARB and a Warn VR8000 winch.
The installation was straight forward. The bumper bolted up without much hassle and there was enough access to mount the winch with the bumper on the jeep.
The hardest part of the install was getting the factory front bumper off. It was a pain getting a socket onto the inner frame bolts.
There is plenty of room in this bumper for whatever large frame winch you want to run. ARB also includes instructions for trimming the inside of the bumper to mount larger winches.
Overall, I love the look and fit and finish of this bumper. I am still undecided on which fog lights to go with. Any ideas?
Here you can see how the bottom of the bumper comes in to provide extra clearance for large tires during suspension articulation. The shackle mounts are also through-welded to the brackets that bolt to the frame instead of being only welded to face of the bumper.
The wiring for the winch came pre wrapped, crimped, and heatshrinked with ring terminals. I fed it under the grill and up just under the power steering reservoir. From there I unbolted the air box and ran the wiring under the factory air scoop. The wiring ended up being the perfect length.
Warn included the correct size nylock nut for the negative terminal post.
First I had to decide what I wanted in a bumper. I knew I wanted a mid-frame winch mount, hi-lift jack points, d-ring mounts, fog lights integrated or the ability to add an aftermarket solution, and something a little lighter than the heifer that was bolted to the back. The last but hardest decision to make was looks. Obviously the bumper had to function, but if it didn't look right it wasn't going on the jeep. Knowing that with a 2.5” lift and 35's, I was going to be modifying the fenders at some point (read: tube fenders), and that ultimately decided the width debacle. Stubby it was.
After countless more hours reading and looking at photos I came down to two: the Evo 1/4 pounder and the ARB stubby. Yes the Evo is more geared towards the rock crawler crowd, its features and quality are pretty undeniable and it deserved a good hard look. Its solid, simple 1/4” steel construction was right along with the look, quality, and durability that I wanted. It also had the option for an integral stinger that was just as stout as well as two hi-lift jack points. It did not however cover the entire width of the grill and I was going to have to get creative with mounting fog lights. the only other downside I could see, if you can call it that, was that I would have to cut off the factory crash bar and rotate my sway bar disconnect up out of harms way.
The ARB stubby got my attention because of the reputation of ARB to make a fantastic product, the features that came standard, and the look as well. The ARB checked all of the boxes of the Evo but required no permanent modifications. It also came with all of the brackets necessarily to mount aftermarket fog lights as well as to relocate the vacuum canister. Needless to say, I ordered the ARB and a Warn VR8000 winch.
The installation was straight forward. The bumper bolted up without much hassle and there was enough access to mount the winch with the bumper on the jeep.
The hardest part of the install was getting the factory front bumper off. It was a pain getting a socket onto the inner frame bolts.
There is plenty of room in this bumper for whatever large frame winch you want to run. ARB also includes instructions for trimming the inside of the bumper to mount larger winches.
Overall, I love the look and fit and finish of this bumper. I am still undecided on which fog lights to go with. Any ideas?
Here you can see how the bottom of the bumper comes in to provide extra clearance for large tires during suspension articulation. The shackle mounts are also through-welded to the brackets that bolt to the frame instead of being only welded to face of the bumper.
The wiring for the winch came pre wrapped, crimped, and heatshrinked with ring terminals. I fed it under the grill and up just under the power steering reservoir. From there I unbolted the air box and ran the wiring under the factory air scoop. The wiring ended up being the perfect length.
Warn included the correct size nylock nut for the negative terminal post.
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