Are tires only an option? I honestly didn’t look into 16” tire options to know the answer because I wanted the steel wheel look…wouldn’t save you much but would help a little…
Improving Ride Quality
- Thread starter Indy05Rubi
- Start date
There are a lot of benefits to going to a 15" wheel, including a much bigger selection of tires and wheels that cost less than the 16" selection does. You live in Indio/SoCal so therefore you wheel on rock strewn trails. That means I'll only recommend an aluminum wheel, steel wheels bend and dent way too easily when on our local rocks. I experimented with steel wheels years ago and they were constantly denting enough so they'd start losing air on the trail.
My RC axle end track bar bushing failed with mostly road use in a year, a moog presses right in. The new RC track bar looks like an ES 3096L might fir the frame end, be a good option.
Some of RCs bushings are mexican made and their bushing technology may not be there yet-
Blaine sells a good bolt kit to.
I'm definitely going to a 15" wheel. Just not looking forward to shelling out the money for new wheels and tires at the same time. Just paid for an engagement ring, so I'm broke beyond my comfort level at the moment. I've got my eye on a couple different aluminum wheels, definitely won't be going with steel. It's a want more than a need at this point, although once I make the switch I'll be kicking myself for not doing it sooner.
Been a tire guy for decades, so I'll chime in here. If you're running non-stock tires, the pressure label on the body tub is useless. Low pressures can create heat, but only if you go low enough to deflect the sidewall too much. An E rated tire on a Jeep is a pretty stiff tire. For example like @jjvw , I run 25 PSI on 285/75R16E KM2's and I got there by doing the chalk test - chalk mark across the tire then drive back and forth and keep reducing pressure until you scrub off the chalk all the way across the tread. Whatever that pressure ends up being, if you did it right, will be good and shouldn't create excess heat, even if it's well below a "normal" pressure. I'm at ~55k miles on those KM2's and still at about 40% tread flat across. But as noted above, offroad, 10 PSI is fine but still doesn't result in a ton of deflection. If you go low enough to get some good grip, like 3-5 PSI, you can do it, but popping a bead gets really easy to do without beadlocks.
Thanks so much for this thread! It made me 
.
For background, my recently-acquired 05 LJ rides rough. Really rough. PO told me the tires were very recently installed (and that looks to be true). They are Kuhmo Road Venture AT51 32x11.5. I know nothing about them, other than they are very new.
I read this thread and then realized that I had assumed that anyone working at a tire shop would know what the correct tire pressure should be. Yes, when I say that out loud, I realize how silly that is. So: I'd never checked the tire pressure!
Ran out for a look and found 35-36 psi in every tire. Cold. Dropped it to 28 pounds, went for a ride, dropped it further to 25 pounds and it rides much better (still rough-ish, but much better). Even after dropping 10 lbs, there is barely any sidewall deflection. Now I think I can live with this suspension for a good while longer, before I need to decide what to do with it.
Y'all saved me so $$$s. Ok, you've helped me redirect the $$$s to other Jeep mods
.For background, my recently-acquired 05 LJ rides rough. Really rough. PO told me the tires were very recently installed (and that looks to be true). They are Kuhmo Road Venture AT51 32x11.5. I know nothing about them, other than they are very new.
I read this thread and then realized that I had assumed that anyone working at a tire shop would know what the correct tire pressure should be. Yes, when I say that out loud, I realize how silly that is. So: I'd never checked the tire pressure!
Ran out for a look and found 35-36 psi in every tire. Cold. Dropped it to 28 pounds, went for a ride, dropped it further to 25 pounds and it rides much better (still rough-ish, but much better). Even after dropping 10 lbs, there is barely any sidewall deflection. Now I think I can live with this suspension for a good while longer, before I need to decide what to do with it.
Y'all saved me so $$$s. Ok, you've helped me redirect the $$$s to other Jeep mods
I'm curious, which part numbers did you choose for the RS5000x shocks?
I believe I went with the Part #s ending in 255/256 combo which are the longer shock option. They didn't ride nearly as well as I expected. Plenty of folks run the shorter RS5000x shocks (2-3" lift version iirc) and really like them.
I also went with the 255/256 part number combo and they seem fine to me...but my frame of reference is comparing them to very old and blown out Rough Country shocks.
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