THIS IS GOING TO BE UNPOPULAR, BUT IT'S FACT...
When you put over sized tires on a Jeep or any other vehicle, no one considers what happens to the rest of the suspension and drive line...
The first thing that happens is you over stress the lug studs trying to bolt those giant wheels on with 'universal' one size fits nothing lug nuts.
Then you stress the lug stud way past what it was designed to handle, and nearly twist it off trying to keep a wheel that is going to over stress the lug studs way past any acceptable limits time and time again....
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The second thing that happens is the wheel bearings take a beating because no one gets the back spacing on the wheels correct, and the longer leverage line created by the taller tire and wheel combination multiplies the side loading on the wheel bearings, along with the lug studs and every thing else....
It's like pulling sideways on the bearings with a short handle ratchet, which the bearings were designed to hold back,, then putting another 18" longer breaker bar on the ratchet...
Suddenly the wheel bearings are taking up to 15 times the side load that they were ever designed to.
And instead of getting the very best bearings you can afford, you are buying Japanese junk at auto-jerks cause it's $1 less...
---------------------------------
Then you have to consider the steering angles.
In one quick minute you just screwed up years of suspension design and testing...
The spindles, ball joints, steering knuckles, ect, were never designed to have the extra load the leverage the taller wheels and tires are going to produce.
Parts wear faster, parts fail, you get vibrations, the front end 'shimmy', the vehicle wonders all over the road, tires wear on the edges, or cup out, or feather edge, the steering won't center correctly any more, ect, ect,....
Mostly just damned dangerous to operate at highway speeds with all the wondering around...
All symptoms of incorrect front end suspension geometry, usually caused by oversized tires and wheels with incorrect back spacing.
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Now, lets move to the brakes....
With the extra leverage that taller wheel and tire combinations give, the brakes take a beating!
With the increase of the leverage on everything else, you have to consider the increased leverage on the brake friction surfaces.
Longer distance between the centerline of the wheel, and the ground mean that you just gave the wheel a longer ratchet handle to pull on the brakes with.
Considering that the factory, like all factories, use the absolute minimum they can get away with in the first place, then you multiply the load, and it's a recipe for disaster.
---------------------------------
Then add some lift, either body or suspension, to clear all that tire and wheel...
Without any regard for simple physics, you raise the center of gravity, and compound all the above problems, plus create more instability, and throw the suspension and steering geometry even further out of working specifications...
----------------------------------
So, In the end, what I am left with,
(when it comes down to my life over yours, you will hear me say 'I' a lot...)
Is a oversized, overweight, over centered, top heavy, nearly uncontrollable vehicle, that has all suspension parts stressed way past acceptable limits, and can't even stop acceptably if something should occur, hurtling down the highway at me on nearly a head on collision course, at somewhere between 55 and 80 miles per hour, oblivious to the fact that he's endangering every life around him.
Anyone in the vehicle, and anyone on the highway... (namely, ME!!) are in the 'Stupidity Kill Zone'....
And people wonder why I keep my airbags serviced and wear my seat belts...
It's so they can find my body after some rambo wanna-be looses control and slams me head on....
"I Have The Body Of A God... Buddha"
When you put over sized tires on a Jeep or any other vehicle, no one considers what happens to the rest of the suspension and drive line...
The first thing that happens is you over stress the lug studs trying to bolt those giant wheels on with 'universal' one size fits nothing lug nuts.
Then you stress the lug stud way past what it was designed to handle, and nearly twist it off trying to keep a wheel that is going to over stress the lug studs way past any acceptable limits time and time again....
---------------------------------
The second thing that happens is the wheel bearings take a beating because no one gets the back spacing on the wheels correct, and the longer leverage line created by the taller tire and wheel combination multiplies the side loading on the wheel bearings, along with the lug studs and every thing else....
It's like pulling sideways on the bearings with a short handle ratchet, which the bearings were designed to hold back,, then putting another 18" longer breaker bar on the ratchet...
Suddenly the wheel bearings are taking up to 15 times the side load that they were ever designed to.
And instead of getting the very best bearings you can afford, you are buying Japanese junk at auto-jerks cause it's $1 less...
---------------------------------
Then you have to consider the steering angles.
In one quick minute you just screwed up years of suspension design and testing...
The spindles, ball joints, steering knuckles, ect, were never designed to have the extra load the leverage the taller wheels and tires are going to produce.
Parts wear faster, parts fail, you get vibrations, the front end 'shimmy', the vehicle wonders all over the road, tires wear on the edges, or cup out, or feather edge, the steering won't center correctly any more, ect, ect,....
Mostly just damned dangerous to operate at highway speeds with all the wondering around...
All symptoms of incorrect front end suspension geometry, usually caused by oversized tires and wheels with incorrect back spacing.
--------------------------------
Now, lets move to the brakes....
With the extra leverage that taller wheel and tire combinations give, the brakes take a beating!
With the increase of the leverage on everything else, you have to consider the increased leverage on the brake friction surfaces.
Longer distance between the centerline of the wheel, and the ground mean that you just gave the wheel a longer ratchet handle to pull on the brakes with.
Considering that the factory, like all factories, use the absolute minimum they can get away with in the first place, then you multiply the load, and it's a recipe for disaster.
---------------------------------
Then add some lift, either body or suspension, to clear all that tire and wheel...
Without any regard for simple physics, you raise the center of gravity, and compound all the above problems, plus create more instability, and throw the suspension and steering geometry even further out of working specifications...
----------------------------------
So, In the end, what I am left with,
(when it comes down to my life over yours, you will hear me say 'I' a lot...)
Is a oversized, overweight, over centered, top heavy, nearly uncontrollable vehicle, that has all suspension parts stressed way past acceptable limits, and can't even stop acceptably if something should occur, hurtling down the highway at me on nearly a head on collision course, at somewhere between 55 and 80 miles per hour, oblivious to the fact that he's endangering every life around him.
Anyone in the vehicle, and anyone on the highway... (namely, ME!!) are in the 'Stupidity Kill Zone'....
And people wonder why I keep my airbags serviced and wear my seat belts...
It's so they can find my body after some rambo wanna-be looses control and slams me head on....
"I Have The Body Of A God... Buddha"
