Jaydub

Hello. I am a new Jeep owner and have questions about changing wheel and tires. I have a 2014 Wrangler Sport, totally stock. It has the original 16" steel wheels with 225/75/16 Wrangler tires. I found a set of 18" alloys from a similar Jeep. Same lug pattern etc. I want to install the 18's and wanted opinions about doing this or not. What size tires,,, What I am looking for is to get a more aggressive looking / wider stance. I do not want to do any lifting or any other mods. Can I get what I am going for and not have to worry about clearances? Any and all opinions on this will be welcomed.

Jay2013jk

Welcome to JK Forum. The 18s will work fine. The 18s provide more "inner" clearance on the inside over the rotor and brake calipers; there might be some back space difference putting the tire and wheel out slightly farther. As for the tires here is a good tool for comparisons:
https://tiresize.com/calculator/
A little Google Research revels: Jeep equips the 2018 Wrangler Unlimited Sahara with 255/70R18 tires123. The backspacing on stock JK wheels is 6.25 inches2.
First things first. Jeeps come stock with 3 different tire sizes:
1. 225/75/16 (29”x9”)
2. 255/75/17 (32”x10”)
3. 255/70/18 (32”x10”).
Now all this being posted.. FTIW .. Majority go with 17 in wheels and tires for the increased sidewall height and a much greater selection and offering on tires in that size.

Jaydub

Thanks for the reply. One of the reasons for switching was to widen the stance, so that should do the trick. The 17's and 18's apparently do the same, and the optional tires of 32x10 being the same, either choice would work? Your point about more choices on the 17 inch seems valid and 17's would be cheaper. I may just look for some 17's although I really like the look of the 18's that I am considering. Thanks for the info!

Alanymarce

Bear in mind that for sand, particularly if crossing lots of dunes) the 16 in rims will allow a much better footprint than the 18in rims.

JimWPB

Is there a particular 16" tire size & type that you would recommend for sand?

JimWPB

I removed the 16" rims from my stock 2012 sport when I got it & put on a set of 18" factory rims from a JL with a set of 255/70R18 tires. I had no clearance issues. I made no mechanical changes. It drives well. The new size spare fits on the stock spare tire carrier. These tires do not look particularly wide nor aggressive, but the extra 3" in diameter does make a difference off road.

After the change, my speedometer & odometer were no longer accurate. I needed to reprogram the tire size in the ECM with diagnostic software. I used Jscan, which was a free download to a smart phone, and then a $20ish license fee. I had trouble with the Google play store, but that may have been an isolated incident. An obd2 to blue tooth dongle will also be needed, which is probably another $30-50, depending on which one you get. The ones that work with Apple phones seem to cost a little more than the ones that are Android only. The license fee for Apple was a dollar or two different from the fee for Android. The license is coded to the VIN on the Jeep, so you can move the license from one phone to another if you need to. The higher functions that the license provides will only work on that one VIN, but basic diagnostics will work for any supported Jeep/Ram/Chrysler you plug the dongle into.

Another issue was the tire pressure monitor system. The JL rims came with 433Mhz transmitters & my JK used 315Mhz transmitters. Different years used different sensors. Sometimes, different sensors were used within a single model year. A guy at a tire shop will have a scanner that can determine what you have. The tire shop will probably want to sell you OEM sensors & charge OEM prices for them. I ended up installing programmable universal sensors from Autel. They seem to be working well & they should be reprogramable if I want to move the wheels to a different vehicle. The programming tool is a few hundred bucks. The sensors were like $25 each. 4 were needed. My JK does not monitor pressure in the spare. Some other Jeeps may need sensors in all 5 tires. I was able to use Jscan to see that only 4 were monitored. Have new sensors installed when the new tires first go on, or else it will cost extra to get them dismounted again if you want to put in sensors later. The cost of buying 4 OEM sensors from a tire shop & having them put them in will probably be less than the cost of the scanner & sensors I bought. After the new sensors went in, I needed to drive for about 5 minutes before the system recognized the new sensors. The system on my Jeep is self teaching. I did not need to put it into lean mode like you do on some other cars. (I used the terms sensor & transmitter interchangeably here. It's the same device)

18" rims will give you a little more positive feel on the highway. 17" rims (or 16") will give you a better contact patch when aired down for driving in the soft stuff off-road, assuming that the tire outside diameter is the same. With my current set up, I am able to pull a small boat trailer up a sand ramp. Bigger tires would be even better for that, but what I have is doing the job & I haven't even had to air down yet. ...and I didn't need a lift kit. ...and it's happy on the highway.