Tires

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The original 15X8 white wagon wheels had seen better days. I always liked the look of Outlaw II -style aluminum wheels and got a set from Eagle Wheels with the standard offset. Originally the Chief had 10X15LT (roughly 31 inch tall) tires. Judging from the look of the tires on the Jeep it looked like perhaps two were still the original Wrangler AT's and the others were severely rotted. I was able to get a used set of 32X11.50 BF Goodrich MT's to use until I could get more definite tires. We seated these tires on the rims the old fashioned way with a little starting fluid and a match! It works, but scared the $H*T out of me!The video clip below requires Quicktime to view.

Final plans were to upgrade to 35" tires after the suspension was lifted. The Chief will be mostly a daily driver with occasional towing duties, yet will be taken offroad once a month into sand, mud, and rocks. From past experience, a good all-terrain tread will work well in all but mud....but this is Florida, and there is a lot of mud! So, the search for a durable, streetable mud terrain tire began. I settled on Goodyear's new MTR. It has a tread that is chunky enough to sling mud, side biting lugs for sidewall protection and crawling out of ruts, a close enough pattern to give good wet pavement performance, and a thick sidewall. After being mounted and loaded on the Jeep's axles, these  35 x 12.50 tires measured 33.5" tall.

Here's some comparo pictures:

On the Narrow Track axles the tires fit well inside the fenders at full compression without rubbing. The only problem was that these same axles also left the metal fender flares exposed to damage from objects that would have otherwise bounced off the tire sidewalls. Perhaps there's a axle swap in the near future....!