[Water Dog]

OME Heavy Load 2" lift scheduled to be installed professionally in early April. Apparently, I'm not the only person who spends his tax refund on a lift kit....who'da thunk it?!

First time Jeep owner. '05 Wrangler X with 38k miles. Pretty much bone-stock, except for the aftermarket bungee cords on the front bumper and nifty new grab handles.

Plan on keeping the stock rims, while adding 31" all-terrain tires (still undecided). Mechanic was asking if the stock rims require any offset?? I wasn't aware this could be an issue with suspension lifts.

Thanks all.

Offset to what??? Do you mean do they require wheel spacers with 31's? Since offset is built into wheels, the question doesn't really make a lot of sense.

31x10.50's will work fine on your stock rims. Worst case, if there is minor rubbing at full lock, just put a couple of washers behind each steering stop

 

[Jerry Bransford]

Forget you ever heard the term 'offset' which is a term that is more useful for car wheels. The term and method for measuring Jeep and truck wheels is called 'backspace' which is the distance between the wheel's mounting flange and the inner-most rear edge of the wheel. That measurement tells you how much clearance away from the suspension the wheel has.

Offset and backspace are not interchangeable terms, they are measured differently.

Your 31x10.50 tires will work fine on stock factory wheels which have either 5.25" or 5.5" of backspacing, depending on the model of wheel.

Sometimes a 31x10.50 tire can rub slightly on the control arms when the steering wheel is turned left or right all the way to the stops. If you have any minor rubbing, it's easily fixed by adding a five cent washer under the left and right steering bolt stops as described at Jeep Steer Stop Adjustment

This pic shows how the backspace is measured... the yellow tape measure is directly measuring the amount of backspacing present.

 

[jquinn83]

This is why Jerry is such an asset here. That picture and explanation just lit the light over my head with respect to wheel backspacing. So if your going to be running a bigger, wider tire you don't want as much backspacing so the tire will not rub against the arms?

 

[troyboyz7]

Thanks for the help Dennis and Jerry! Makes perfect sense. Was hesitant about asking such a Newb question.