I'm Ryan from extremeterrain.com, and today
we're gonna talk about how you choose the best tire for your Jeep. We're gonna be doing a lot of videos like
this so make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel to see the latest. Today we're gonna be talking about the pros
and cons of different tire sizes. We're gonna take you out on the road and finally
hit the trail to really illustrate the differences. Today to show the three different tire sizes
that we're talking about, we have three different Jeeps. Starting on my right, we have a four-door
Sahara that has a 2.5-inch TeraFlex lift kit with shocks. It is running a 17x9 inch mammoth black type
88 wheel with a 33-inch Nitto Terra Grappler tire. Directly behind me, there's a Dune, four-door
JK that has a 3.5-inch Rock Krawler XFactor lift kit that is running Mammoth Boulder Beadlock
Style black wheels in the 17x9 and those are wrapped in a Mickey Thompson Baja MTZ that
is a 35x1250. Finally, we have a black four-door Rubicon
that also has the same 3.5-inch XFactor Rock Krawler lift kit, but it also has an inch
and a quarter rough country body lift which is why looks a little bit taller as well as
the flat fenders. That Jeep is running the Mammoth DWindow black
steel wheels in a 17x9, and those are wrapped in a Nitto Trail Grappler that is a 37x1250
inch tire. There are a few different reasons to wanna
put a larger tire on your Jeep. One is for the looks, but another is so that
you can roll over obstacles off-road a little bit easier and have a larger footprint off-road,
so you have more traction. But when you go up to a larger tire there
are certainly going to be pros and cons, and that's what we're gonna talk about today. So, the first tire we have over here is a
stock 31-inch tire off of a JK. This is a Bridgestone Dualer AT, and this
is a 255/7018. Now, tire sizes are in both metric and in
standard, we're gonna be using standard inch measurements. So this is roughly equivalent to about a 31,
32-inch tire that is about 10, 10.5 inches wide on an 18-inch wheel. Now, this is going to be a factory wheel,
so it's gonna have a little bit more backspacing than these aftermarket wheels. When you go with a wider tire, you need a
little bit less backspacing to clear because you do have that wider tire. But with a narrow 10.5-inch tire like this,
you can get away with a little bit more backspacing and tuck the wheel a little bit closer into
the Jeep. This is going to be as it says in the name,
an all terrain tire. So you're gonna get very little tire noise
when you're driving down the road. You're also gonna get really good tire wear. With a big knobby mud terrain tire on the
street, you are gonna wear those tires out a little bit quicker than you would an all
terrain tire like this. This is also going to have a smaller sidewall
because it is a smaller tire and you're running an 18-inch wheel. There's less sidewall, so you have a little
bit better handling, a little bit less of that squishy feeling that you can get when
you have a larger sidewall. The next tire we're talking about is a 33-inch
Nitto Terra Grappler, which is still an all terrain tire and it is going to be a little
bit more aggressive than that Bridgestone Dualer that we just talked about. Again, this is roughly equivalent to a 33-inch
tall tire that is 12.5 inches wide, and this is going to be on a 17-inch wheel. Now, because this is gonna be a taller tire
and a slightly smaller wheel, you are going to have a little bit more sidewall, so if
you're taking turns at speed, you might have a little bit more of a squishy feel it may
not be as firm. Although let's face it, Jeeps aren't race
cars. You're not driving a Jeep for its cornering
ability. What you're going to get from a tire and wheel
combination like this because you do have a wider 12.5-inch tire on a 9-inch wheel,
is some additional sidewall pressure, and the ability to air down the tire a little
bit further off-road without the risk of losing that bead. As you air down a nice wide tire like this,
you're getting a bigger and bigger footprint giving you even more traction to get over
obstacles. The 35-inch tire we're talking about today
is a 35x1250 inch Nitto Trail Grappler MT that is a mud touring tire. So, this is going to have the big knobby treads
that aren't going to wear quite as well on the road and give you a little bit more road
noise, but the pro is that this is going to give you some really good traction off-road. Now, when you go up to a 35-inch tire, you
have a couple of things going against you. One is just the height of the tire, and the
other is the weight. When you go up to a larger tire like this,
it changes your final drive gear ratio which can make your Jeep feel sluggish if you don't
regear, and regearing is expensive. So, if you're looking to save on parts and
keep your build a little bit on the lower end of the budget, I would recommend sticking
with a 33-inch tire. However, you are definitely going to notice
a difference. The other thing that you have going against
you with a big tire like this is the additional weight. That additional weight no matter what you're
gearing is, will make the Jeep feel a little bit more sluggish. The pros to a bigger tire like this is that
you are gonna be able to roll over obstacles off-road a little bit easier, and when you
air this down, you're gonna have an even larger footprint than you would with the 33. Finally, we have a 37-inch by 1250 Nitto Trail
Grappler MT which is the same tire as the 35, but of course, a couple inches bigger. A 37 is pretty much the largest tire you're
gonna go with on your JK without starting to get into the realm where you have to cut
the body to clear these larger tires. A 37, while it looks mean, you have much less
resistance when you're rolling over large obstacles off-road, and you can get a huge
footprint when you wear this tire down. You do end up with even more issues if you
don't regear your Jeep. This is going to be a really big heavy wheel
tire combination, so you're definitely gonna get a sluggish feel when rolling down the
road, so regearing is a must with a big tire like this one. Now that we've introduced the four different
tires let's take a couple of them out on the road and then out on the trail to really illustrate
the pros and cons. So now that we introduced those tires, it's
time to actually take a set out on the road and really compare and contrast and talk about
the pros and the cons of each one. Now, in general, I think everyone can agree
that they want a bigger tire. Bigger is always better, especially when you're
talking about tires. However, again, there are some negatives to
having a big tire. The Jeep we're driving in today has a set
of 33x1250 all terrain tires on it. And by having a smaller tire, that allowed
us to get away with a couple of things. This Jeep is still going to have a good amount
of pep and pick up because we do have a smaller 33-inch tire on it, all without the need to
regear. Now, any time you're putting a larger tire
on your Jeep, it's always a good idea, especially if you have an automatic transmission to use
a recalibrator. That will let the computer in the Jeep know
that you have a larger tire and allow it to adjust for the shift points, but you're still
not going to get that full peppy feel back that you would if you had a factory tire on
the Jeep. So again, a 33-inch tire's gonna give you
something that is larger. It's going to give you a little bit more of
that off-road look. It's also going to give you a little bit more
performance off-road by giving you the ability to roll over obstacles a little bit easier
and also giving you a bigger footprint. But, you don't have the major drawback to
a 35-inch tire or a 37-inch tire of needing to regear to get that peppy feeling back. And these are all things that you have to
consider. If your Jeep is just going off-road, then
yeah, 37 is gonna be the better tire for your off-road situation giving you more clearance
and giving you the ability to roll over obstacles easier. And you don't have to worry about the drawbacks
to driving a 37 on the road. But, if you do have a mixed purpose rig or
if you're building a specifically on-road build, then a 33-inch tire is going to probably
be the better choice for you. If you are looking at a larger tire for off-road
ability, it's important to remember that a bigger tire is going to give you more clearance
to the bottom of your axle. However, a lift is going to give you more
clearance to the bottom of your Jeep, to the belly pan, to the frame. And those two clearances are very different. In a minute here, we're gonna hit the trail,
and we're gonna be able to illustrate that as well as the difference between how easy
it is to roll over an obstacle with a 37-inch tire versus a 33-inch tire. So, here we are on the trail. I'm still in the Jeep with the 33-inch tires
on it, but we also have a Jeep right behind me with 37-inch tires on it. So, we can really show you guys the difference
between how these tires work off-road when you come up to an obstacle. The first thing we're gonna do is find an
obstacle that we can clear easily with the 37s and really show you where you're gonna
gain clearance with those tires versus the 33. And then we'll show you how easily a 37-inch
tire rolls over an obstacle versus the 33-inch. So, you can really have an idea of where the
benefit comes in with having a larger tire off-road. So, with this obstacle that we found on the
trail, we're really gonna illustrate the difference between the clearance you get from having
a larger tire, versus the clearance you get from having a larger lift. The larger tire will give you more clearance
between the ground and the axle, where the bigger lift is gonna give you more clearance
to your skid plates and your frame. So, let's roll over this obstacle with the
Jeep with 33s and then with 37s to really show you the difference. Here comes the Sahara with the 33s, let's
see how it does over the obstacle. So, as you can see with the 33-inch tires,
we did hit the log with the pumpkin. This is just a log, it's not gonna cause a
lot of damage, and it's gonna move out of the way. But if we were on a trail with rocks or if
that was a stump, and we hit it with speed, we may have peeled back the differential cover. We could have caused some damage. Or in the best case scenario, we just got
hung up, and we would have had to back up and try going around a different way. Now, we'll see how the obstacle gets cleared
with the 37s to really illustrate why having larger tires is beneficial when you're off-road. As you can see, now we have plenty of clearance
between the bottom of the pumpkin and the obstacle, even with this larger and differential
on the Rubicon than we had on the Sahara. And that's all thanks to the 37-inch tires
versus the 33s. So, clearance to the bottom of the axle is
one thing, but you also get the ability to roll over obstacles easier when you have a
larger tire, so let's find some other obstacles and check that out. Another benefit to having a big tire off-road
is that it rolls over obstacles a lot easier than a smaller one. So, the Rubicon on 37s will have much less
trouble getting over this log than the Sahara on the 33s. And even though this is just one log in the
middle of a fairly open trail, what that translates to when you're off-road, and there's lots
of obstacles, stumps or even rocks, is the day when you're dragging the axle over obstacles
all day long, or you're cruising along to the next trail. So, today we went over the pros and cons of
running a 33, a 35 and a 37-inch tire both on the road and on the trail. Make sure you comment below to let us know
what setup you're running on your rig or if you have any questions about what we went
over. But for now, I'm Ryan from extremeterrain.com. Thanks for watching.
