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| Ease of Installation: |
Piece of Cake |
| Product Usefulness: |
Couldn't Live Without Them! |
The trails we ran in Ohio consisted of mud, mud, and more mud. I originally planned
to purchase mud tires after my stock street tire wore out. But after much
frustration on the trail, some good-natured teasing from my trail buddies, and receipt of
my 1997 income tax refund, I decided to bite my lip and pluck down the big bucks for some
new meats. Ask 10 different people which mud tire is "best" and you'll get
10 different answers. I didn't necessarily have a strong preference for the
Generals. But I hadn't heard anything bad about them and the price was right.
As for their on- and off-road performance, I am completely satisfied. I chose the
31's because I only wanted to install a 2-inch lift kit (see Lift
Kit page for reason why). I purchased the tires from National Tire & Wheel, mounted and balanced on
15" x 7" white 5-spoke steel "wagon wheels" with 4.5-inch
backspacing. My stock rims have 5.5 inch backspacing, and I was told that the 31's
would rub at full turn on the stock rims. I could have adjusted the steering stops,
but I didn't want to. Besides, it was actually cheaper for me to buy the tires and
new rims as a package. Also, I wanted two complete sets of tires and wheels, one for
the street and one for the trail. The mud tires work fine on the street, but the
rubber is much "softer" than my stock street tires, and therefore wear much
faster. I'd rather use the cheaper, longer-lasting street tires on the street and
save my expensive mud tires for the trail. I got the set of 5 tires and wheels,
mounted and balanced, 5 center caps, 25 lug nuts, and UPS ground shipping, all for
$728!
The spare tire mounted easily on the stock carrier and didn't require relocating the
third brake light. However, because of the decrease in backspacing, the tire didn't
touch the rubber bumpers on the tailgate. I fabricated some ¾-inch spacers to be
used in conjunction with the rubber bumpers, and purchased 4 longer bolts to take up the
slack.
Note the picture on the right; it gives you a good indication of how much the
Tuffy under-rear-seat security drawer raises the rear
seat.
For more information about General Tires, visit their web site at www.contigentire.com, or National Tire &
Wheel's site at www.natltire.com
| Ease of Installation: |
Not Too Bad |
| Product Usefulness: |
Real Glad I Have Them |
My new tires & wheels, which I had purchased only a couple of months prior,
resulted in a track two inches wider than stock (the new rims have 4.5" backspacing
versus the 5.5" backspacing on the stock rims). My first trail ride after
installing the new tire and wheels resulted in a significant increase in the amount of mud
that ended up inside the cockpit and on it's occupants! I didn't mind the mud
getting inside the Jeep (I have vinyl seats and no carpet), I just didn't want it
all over me. Being soaking wet and full of mud gets pretty uncomfortable
on a long trail ride! Therefore, it didn't take me long to decide to install wider
fender flares. The Xenon flares were quite a bit more expensive than others on the
market, but they also came with a limited lifetime warranty. They're made out
of urethane (versus hard plastic), just like the stock flares. If I ever break one,
Xenon will replace it for free. And since I run into lots of
trees and stuff, that's
important to me! (Just kidding about running into trees and stuff).
Before installing the Xenon flares, I lightly sanded them with some medium-grit
sandpaper. That took off all of the wax that they came with from the factory, as
well as some of the shine. Yes, I know, the flares still look shiny in the picture,
but they're not as bad as when I first got them.
| Ease of Installation: |
Piece of Cake |
| Product Usefulness: |
Couldn't Live Without Them! |
After running 31" tires for a little over two years, I was ready for
some bigger rubbers. Well . . . that didn't come out exactly how I
meant, but you get the idea. Anyway, I ran my Generals for over 30,000
miles, and as best as I could tell, they still had another 10,000 miles left on the
tread. They've been some very good tires, in my opinion;
absolutely no complaints. The only reason I switched
brands was to try something different. BFG's happen to be the favorite
among most others in my Club, and I've never heard anything but praises about
them. I purchased them from a Discount Tire Center here
in Albuquerque. They are mounted on 15" x 8" white steel
wagon wheels (just like my old ones), with 4" backspacing and 5 on
5.5" bolt pattern. Note that this is not the stock TJ
bolt pattern; I converted to the larger, stronger pattern with my new axles.
The rim width was a toss up between 8" and 10" rims. The tire
dealer highly recommended 10" rims, but most trail riders I've talked to
said that they prefer the 8" rims for this tire size. I'm sure
you know who I "listened" to! Below are a couple of shots of
the old vs. new tires:
The tires are perfectly balanced and are super quiet on the highway. Their performance off-road is just
as impressive. And since I purchased the road/trail hazard warranty, I'm
sure to get a very long life out of these tires.
For more information about BF Goodrich Tires, visit their web site at www.bfgoodrichtires.com,
or Discount Tire's site at www.discounttires.com
| Ease of Installation: |
Not Too Bad |
| Product Usefulness: |
Real Glad I Have Them |
The only reason I needed a new spare tire carrier was because of the 5 on
5.5" bolt pattern of my new wheels. Actually, I could have just modified
the stock carrier for the new bolt pattern and hung the spare back on the
tailgate. I purposely bought the 9.5" wide spare (versus the 12.5")
to keep the weight down. But I also wanted the ability to carry spare fuel and
water without taking up any of my precious cab space. I didn’t want to
purchase a new rear bumper, cuz mine was already modified to accommodate my
trail rack (LINK). I was originally gonna make my own spare tire carrier and
Jerry can rack. But after all the work I recently completed during my S2K
build-up (LINK), I just didn’t feel like it. After looking at numerous rear
bumper "systems", the Tomken Swing-Out Spare Tire Carrier was the
only unit that claimed that it could be mounted to a non-Tomken bumper, and
had available an optional dual Jerry can mount.
It wasn’t until after the spare tire carrier arrived, and after I had
removed the rear bumper, did I realize that the Tomken unit wouldn’t
work with a rear Olympic Rock bumper with a receiver!! The receiver on
the Olympic bumper is inside the bumper; on the Tomken bumper,
it’s underneath. Well, there was only one thing for me to do;
further modify my Olympic rear bumper! First thing was to cut off the receiver
that was protruding from the rear of the bumper and weld a plate over the
hole. Then, using a new piece of receiver stock, I welded the new receiver to
the bottom of the bumper. I added a strap underneath for additional strength
and for a place to attach my safety chains. The picture below left was taken
just after I had cut the old receiver off and ground the bottom of the bumper
for a clean welding surface (the bumper is sitting upside-down). On the right
is the finished product, including completely repainted bumper.
Now I was able to install the new spare tire carrier per the instructions
and reinstall the rear bumper/tire carrier assembly to the Jeep. Next came the
dual Jerry can mount. With this kit came a spare tire relocate bracket, which
moved the spare tire out (back) nearly 6 inches. This was way
too far out for my little 9.5" spare and backspacing combination. But the
real reason that it wouldn’t work, is that it also raised the
spare tire about 2 inches, which wouldn’t fit under my trail rack (LINK)! So
I tossed the Tomken bracket and made my own. I simply bolted a piece of
3"x 3"x 9" steel square tubing to the tire carrier support,
then mounted the spare tire to the new spacer. The tire is now only displaced
rearward by about 3 inches. This worked out to be the exact distance needed
(for my tire and wheel combo) to neatly mount my two Jerry cans. I purchased
two 5-gal Jerry (gas) cans and two 6-gal Water cans. That way, I can carry
either 10 gallons of gas, 12 gallons of water, or half ‘n half of both. It’s
a little more of a hassle to have to open the tire carrier every time I want
to get into the "trunk", but that’s just the way it is for now. In
the future, I plan to modify the tire carrier latch system to make for easier
entry/exit. Meanwhile, here are a couple pictures of the finished
installation. On the left, the Jerry cans are barely visible from the rear.
And as you can see on the right, all of my goals were achieved: Ability to
carry spare tire and 2 Jerry cans outside of the cab and without the weight
being on my tailgate, and access to my trunk with the trail rack installed and
fully loaded.
Click on picture for larger view, then "back"
on your browser to return here.
Update (May 01): Although this set-up
has served me quite well
over the past year, I just finished a complete rebuild of the entire rear
system. Read all about it on my
Bumpers
Page!
For more information about the Tomken gas tank skid plate and other related
products, visit their web site at www.tomken.com
| Ease of Installation: |
Piece of Cake |
| Product Usefulness: |
Couldn't Live Without Them! |
I remember back a couple of years ago when I upgraded to 33's and thinking,
"Man, my Jeep is really big!" That is, until I attended a major event,
where everyone else was running 35's. Well, I'm finally catching up.
Uh . . . not exactly. Cuz now, everyone else is going to 37's! Oh
well. Good thing I've never been one to worry about keeping up with the
Jones'. Actually, I think that 35's are the perfect size tire for a short wheel-base Jeep.
As you can see, I changed brands again. I originally ordered a set of the
new BFG MT KM's (or are the new ones designated KO's?). Anyway, the
35's were backordered for over a month before I got tired of waiting. So I
decided to go with the MTR's. The actual size of the 35-inch MTR's are just a
bit shorter than the 35-inch BFG's, but they are awesome on the rocks! Of
course, I purchased a new set of white steel wagon wheels to compliment my new
meats; 15" x 8" with 3.75" inches of backspacing. At only $35 per rim, it
isn't even worth it to bother using the old ones. I just sold the old
tires and rims as a set.
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