I never took mine off. I ran stock wheels and 265 winters and 285s in the summer on stock wheels. Looked and performed fine. I kept my spacers on all the time.

 

I ran my 08 Rubicon with flat flares, 2.5" coil spacers and a 1.25" body lift. It had plenty of room for 35s but drove like crap. I ended up taking the body lift and coil spacers off after a few years. It drove much better with just the flat flares. I think a leveling kit and flat flares would be perfect.

 

If you used some sort of caster correction it would have been a different story all together. That's the big issue with lifts. you cannot just toss 2.5" spacers in your springs and expect proper handling. Did you have track bar brackets etc?