Wheels=rims, if you were to run stock wheels and run 33s/35s you would want wheel adapters (spacers). If not you are going to rub at full steering lock. I say wheel it now, see what you need then go from there. When I got my first jk I thought I wanted 4 inches of lift and 37s, heaps of armor, bumpers and what not. Honestly I don't wheel a whole lot, plenty of times in 4 wheel drive, plenty of times locking the diffs but I don't rock crawl. Not because I don't want to... just the area that I live... The wife's jeep is sitting on 35s with no lift and cut fenders (had to get the spacers) My jeep is sitting on 33s and has a little budget boost lift. Honestly we drive hers more often, I like the stock ride. When we go up in the mountains we take hers as well. The larger tires/ground clearance between the axels is nice. Maybe instead of the lift you go with bigger tires and a gear change. Just my 2 pennies.

 

Only you can answer that. Personally, I think that if you want 35's, you won't be happy with 33's. (we might have seen a 'few' people in that situation who ended up selling them for a loss and buying 35's anyway...)

Maybe you should look at a few pics and see what you think? There are a bunch of huge 'show me' threads down in JK Show & Tell. Use this string in google or whatever search engine, followed by what you want to find.

site:www.jk-forum.com
site:www.jk-forum.com show 2.5" 33's
site:www.jk-forum.com show 2.5" 35's

For what else you might want, it depends. Do you have stock fenders? Chopped or flats? Will you be flexing offroad? Disconnecting? As others have mentioned, you will probably need to move them out, the general recommendation for a 35x12.50 is a 4.5" backspace, or roughly 1.5" further out than stock rims. (Just a rule of thumb, but a good place to shoot for.) If you don't want new rims, a good set of adapters like Spidertrax are the way to go, many of us use them without issue.

 

Thanks for all the info! Appreciate the help!