16" vs 17" wheels for TopEnd trip

[dhard]

Another advantage of going to 16" is getting steel rims. You can mend one with a hammer or weld one if it cracks with a couple of batteries and some jump leads. I the stock alloys get damaged you've got no chance to repair on the side of the road. My choice for this trip would be 285/75 16 in an aggresive all terrain tread such as Cooper st/stt, Mickey thompson MTZ/ATZ or something similar. Proper muddies would be killed by the relentless tarmac kilometres.

[redgp]

Originally Posted by dhard

Another advantage of going to 16" is getting steel rims. You can mend one with a hammer or weld one if it cracks with a couple of batteries and some jump leads. I the stock alloys get damaged you've got no chance to repair on the side of the road. My choice for this trip would be 285/75 16 in an aggresive all terrain tread such as Cooper st/stt, Mickey thompson MTZ/ATZ or something similar. Proper muddies would be killed by the relentless tarmac kilometres.

Totally agree with this post, after 80,000ks we replaced our MT ATZ's with more of the same and at 120,000 they still look new. 285/75/16 on 16"steelies
A mate running a new toyota prado with mag wheels (17") dameged two rims and one tyre at the Cape last year and was laid up for five days waiting for replacements to be shipped up. (very costly excercise) Bent one steelie (on the camper when we slowly rolled the camper on its side on the Jefferies track in Tasi) we spent one hour pounding it back into shape and reinflated the tyre to finish the trip. ( camper was unmarked)
A good tyre repair kit, a patch kit and a inner tube (in case of side wall tear)
a tyre removal set -leavers and bead breaker- and the biggest ,most powerfull compressor you can carry, along with steel rims and good tyres and we haver never had a tyre/rim issue that stopped us more than two hours.

Have a safe trip and we might see you out there.

[jugsy]

Hi,
First post, have been reading for a while and decided to take the plunge, I have just bought a 2009 crd Unlimited Renegade and was wondering if I can run 16" wheels, just been to Opposite Lock and in the Mickey Thompson catalogue they don't make anything in 16" for the JK. Have the brakes been upgrade since 2007 when they came out with 16" or is there another reason for it, I also noticed that AEV have discontinued their 16" Bridger wheels.
Cheers,

[jktom]

Has anyone fitted 16" rims to a 2010 model. I heard that they do not fit as the brakes are larger. I have checked mine, and there is very little clearance between the brake caliper and the rim.
Tom

Originally Posted by redgp

Totally agree with this post, after 80,000ks we replaced our MT ATZ's with more of the same and at 120,000 they still look new. 285/75/16 on 16"steelies
A mate running a new toyota prado with mag wheels (17") dameged two rims and one tyre at the Cape last year and was laid up for five days waiting for replacements to be shipped up. (very costly excercise) Bent one steelie (on the camper when we slowly rolled the camper on its side on the Jefferies track in Tasi) we spent one hour pounding it back into shape and reinflated the tyre to finish the trip. ( camper was unmarked)
A good tyre repair kit, a patch kit and a inner tube (in case of side wall tear)
a tyre removal set -leavers and bead breaker- and the biggest ,most powerfull compressor you can carry, along with steel rims and good tyres and we haver never had a tyre/rim issue that stopped us more than two hours.

Have a safe trip and we might see you out there.

[redgp]

Originally Posted by jugsy

Hi,
First post, have been reading for a while and decided to take the plunge, I have just bought a 2009 crd Unlimited Renegade and was wondering if I can run 16" wheels, just been to Opposite Lock and in the Mickey Thompson catalogue they don't make anything in 16" for the JK. Have the brakes been upgrade since 2007 when they came out with 16" or is there another reason for it, I also noticed that AEV have discontinued their 16" Bridger wheels.
Cheers,

Sorry mate, dont know, mine is an 07 and have had 16"steel wheels on since I bought it. The later years have 17"wheels standard but I would not have thought they had bigger brakes or I would have read that was one of the changes in later year models. Bigger brake calipers would be the only reason the 16"wouldnt fit.... but I am not sure

[redgp]

It appears this old codger is wrong again!!!! The later models have bigger brakes!
So I still say steel wheels are better (no matter what size) in the bush. Our experiences are thate the mag type wheels chip,crack and break and the steelies just bend and can be beaten back with a lump hammer. (one of our repaired ones from the Tasi trip is still in service it just needed to be balanced and its hard to pick where we bashed it into shape)

[Gravel]

Originally Posted by jugsy

Hi,
First post, have been reading for a while and decided to take the plunge, I have just bought a 2009 crd Unlimited Renegade and was wondering if I can run 16" wheels, just been to Opposite Lock and in the Mickey Thompson catalogue they don't make anything in 16" for the JK. Have the brakes been upgrade since 2007 when they came out with 16" or is there another reason for it, I also noticed that AEV have discontinued their 16" Bridger wheels.
Cheers,

There is a huge selection of wheels available for your JK. Check some of the online sellers and even some of the sponsors on here... I run my 285x75R16 MT MTZ on the original 16" wheels on my 07 2 door no problems.

Originally Posted by jktom

Has anyone fitted 16" rims to a 2010 model. I heard that they do not fit as the brakes are larger. I have checked mine, and there is very little clearance between the brake caliper and the rim.
Tom

Not all the wheels will fit but there are some available, The back space (offset) is what you will need to keep an eye on; best @ 4.5"back space but don't quote me on that