Lift kit, wheels recomendations

I am gathering the parts and pieces for my M38A1 overhaul. I would like to run 33" tires, it has 31" tires on stock 16" wheels and stock springs. I will be adding manual saginaw, dana 27 front and dana 44 rear, disc brakes on both. Looking for recommendations for lift kits, and wheels and tires. Mostly on road driving, but I would like the option of some off-road - no rock crawling, hill climbing, etc. Will a 2 1/2" lift suffice? And if so, which kit? Also, where is a good site to look at wheels and tires?

Thanks,

g

 

Only recomendations I could give is from talking with other jeepers. I knew a ooff road shop owner for a few years and he had a M38A1 with a rancho 2 1/2" lift with 33" and major gearing.. He drove one tire UP a telephone pole(basicly making a RTI ramp out of it) He had to cut his fenders though.. If you are not going to do a lot of off roading in your jeep, I would look at a all-terain tire.. The bigger mud tires like to wander some on the road.

 

2-1/2 will do with 33's, if you get fender rubbing, time to add a small body lift (like 1") or hack outhte fenders some.. haha.. Just watch the offset on the rims or you will rub the front tires on the frame and the rears on the fenderwell in some situations offroad. Spidertrax has a great set of steel rims (very heavy duty) that will fit the 5 on 5.5 pattern and they are offset something like 1.5" so you get the extra frame clearance and the appearance of a wide trac axle. personally I would go with 33 x 9.5 which are kinda rare but they look great on the little jeeps. I think BFG still has the 33 x 9.50.. Otherwise it's the 33 x 12.50 which is the most common. I run the skyjacker 2.5 which was good to me but I am gonna chuck it for wrangler springs eventually. Anyhow as for brand/style of tire, that's all on what you expect from the tire.. for the use you describe, an AT tire would work but I'd go for a mild radial mud tire like the BFG MT or something like it..

 

I have 33 10.5 BFG's on my A1. I have the Black Diamond 3" lift. I bought Eaton 15x8 Rock Crawler wheels. (I had 35 12.5 on 15x10 with minimum backspacing of 3.5, but that is too much tire for that setup) I think the 33 10.5 is the perfect tire size for an early jeep.