I'm currently working on a set of D44's to put on the Jeep. Currently it has narrow trac axles. What are your opinions on what width I should make them as now is a good time to change the width if I can keep it legal.. A few things to keep in mind are that I drive it daily during the non-snow months and the entire tread needs to be covered by the flares for legal reasons. I don't like the look of the aftermarket extended flares, so I don't really want to add them. I'm running 36x12.50 TSL on white spoke American Racing rims with 3.5 or 4" backspacing. What did Jeep do to keep the tires covered when they switched from narrow trac to wide trac? Did they just change the rim offset?
All opinions are welcome.
well.. i run 63" wide axles.. wheel mount to wheel mount.. (wagoneer width) with 35x12.5 tires on standard 8" rims with 4" of backspacing.. with 6" extended flares.. and my tires stick out 2" at the widest point.. middle of the tire.. the tread hangs out about 1"..
i love my width.. think its about perfect.. wide.. but not toooooo wide..
Even if you cut your axles to 60" wms/wms and use 15x10 wheels with 3 1/2" backspacing, your 36x12.50 tires will extend an inch or more on each side.
It doesnt make a whole lotta sense to, build axles to handle large tires, then build them so narrow that they are not affective off road.
You might consider some extended flares for the winter, or even bolt/rivet extensions to the stock flares for the winter. 36x12.50 tires require a wider than stock stance to give the stability needed for the tire hiegth, along with the suspension height needed to fit the tires in the 1st place. Remeber these words of wisdom, there is no such thing is too tall,...just to narrow. hehehehe not really, but,.. the higher you go the wider you need to go, both for off road performance and even stability on the road.
Jeff
89 YJ
Adversity is imminent, versatility is mandatory, misery is optional.
I agree with H8. In addition to the added stability that a wider axle provides, there are also the benefits of not having bigger tires rub during steering (especially during articulation) and more clearance for such things as longer shocks and traction bars. I remember running a narrow track Jeep where the rear tires would rub on the inside of the wheel wells during compression...and that was with 31's. I'm running axles of a Scout width which are about 3" longer than a Jeep wide-track coupled with 35" tires and I get lock to lock steering with no interference. It also allowed me to run shocks on the outside and up into the wheel well area because I had no room underneath with the trac. bar and exhaust. I would go with extended flares and bite the asthetic bullet before chopping axles too short. You can always chop them later if things don't work out.
Rick,
If I were you, I'd cut your waggy axle down 4" on the long side, this would give you the same as a wide track CJ. I had been running 33x12.5 MT's on my '85 (wide track) CJ7, with 8" chrome wagon wheel rims. The tread barely stuck out, I never got pulled over - I ran standard fender flares. Here is a picture:
BTW - one of our club members has a '81 CJ7, that for some reason has a wide track front Dana 30 & a narrow track rear AMC 20. He didn't realize it, until after he put a full-float & locker in the rear axle, so he runs it that way. He has had no problem with it.
If you want to feel safe & put a set of extended flares on, I'd say go for it, but - in my opinion - it isn't something you HAVE to do right away.
if it is a wag. front leave it as is. it's wide but not too wide. plus cheaper and when you need spare shafts you don't have to get them narrowed too. leave it as is!!!!
brian wilson
80 cj5 "high 5"
stretched to 100" wb
vortec350/4L80E/d300/d60fr/14br/detroits/4.56/38's
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