ZachsXJ

Swapping gears is overrated IMO unless you're going to be doing a ton of crawling, I know two different guys who never messed with the gears in their Xjs, one had an auto and daily drove it with 33s and wheeled it with no problems. the other dude has a 93 XJ with 35s and stock 3.55 gears.

nw-xj-scott

edit... lol


35" tires with 3.55s is rediculous.. your acceleration will be extremely poor, your gas mileage will be somewhere around 6-8mpg.. and that puts alot of stress on the transmission.

33s and 3.55s can be done, depends on the person.. im on 33"s and 3.55s and i cannot stand it. the jeep is a pig on the road, and i use 4-Low 95% of the time on the trail now. and my gas mileage is about 12mpg.

ZachsXJ

I never rode in one of the guy's XJ with 33s, but he never seemed to have any issues with it. I haven't rode in the one with 35s, but with 33s it still had plenty of kick

OnlyInMyXJ22

Your knowledge AND personal experience overwhelms me.

ZachsXJ

I'm just saying that swapping gears can get really expensive really quickly. For normal weekend warrior wheeling, I see no problems with 3.55s and 33s. I have 3.07s and 31s and I have no issues with acceleration or inability to put power to the ground. Cruising down the highway is a bit annoying at 55 and 1,500RPM. but on trails going up a 35 degree slope I have no issues. I get tire slip way before I run out of torque. I don't have a ton of experience, but I know at least a half dozen people who are running 32s or bigger on stock gears in 5spd wranglers and don't have any need to swap gears. Most of these guys go wheeling at least once ifnot multiple times a week.

There is no general answer that applies to everyone, so stop being cocky and get over yourself for the sake of everyone. If someone is heavy into wheeling and wants to get into crawling then swapping gears is a must, but for someone who is a casual weekend warrior gears aren't a must. Its expensive and in my opinion that money could be better spent on something else such as a winch and winch bumper.

ZachsXJ

also, I have ridden in the one of the cherokee's with 33s on it. I know two different guys who had XJs with 33s. the first guy sold it before I ever rode it in, the 2nd guy now has it on 35s and I haven't ridden in it since he had 33s on it. I know two guys who have Tjs with 32s and stock gears, again have ridden in both and they don't have any issues with power to the ground or running out of torque. I know another handful of ppl in similar circumstances and NONE of them have swapped gears.