Suspension and tires and gears, oh my.

[Starrfish606]

This is a two-parter. Of the three, what first? I have a 2016 2-door manual, 3.21 gears, 33s. I want to run 35s and possibly 37s. From what I have read I will have to regear unless I want to slow ass Jeep. I am less worried about street performance than off-road performance. What will happen if I run current gears with 35s off road 4-7 rated trails? I have zero problems with any sluggishness with my KO2s. I can use 5th and 6th gears when there is little incline and cruise at 80 or even 90 if I feel like it!

All that said, I imagine I will get advise to regear. So what order do I do these things? I can do one now. Afraid that the lift will make the 33s look small and larger tires will be another 2 years off. Is regearing worth it for off-roading while waiting for larger tires? I have flat fenders and believe 35s would fit but would be tight and if I cannot off-road with those tires and 3.21 gears I may as well be dead. I would appreciate responses to those that have close to my same set up if not identical as that will be more helpful to me. I am new here and have read similar stuff but some answers fail mention what year as I understand the newer JKs have a bit more power with higher gear ratio than their older counter parts.

 

[Desert Rose JK]

You didn't say what size lift your getting or if you have one already... but I have a '13 with an automatic trans and we had a 2.5 inch lift with 33's with stock 4:10 gears and it ran great. We found that we were too limited on some of the rougher stuff at Moab that we like to run so we changed to 37's, 4 inch lift and regeared to 5:13. I did the lift first and it looked fine with the 33's but didn't happen to do any offroading, then went and had the gearing changed and then the new tires but again, I waited to do all of this when I knew I was ready to pull the trigger and it all happen in only about a 30-45 day time frame. Your stock fenders will handle up to the 37's (with a lift kit) but will chatter as you flex enough to rub the underliner and get tired of it (and especially the wife who really told me she was tired of the rubbing noise during flexing) and we went with Bushwacker flat fenders and love them. 35's will probably fit with no or little lift but would rub with any flex. I can't say for your ratios and stick shift but 37 and the 5:13 and our auto trans, it's the right combo. I think your 3:21 and just 35's you would really see the power loss on the road but offroading you can just grab a lower gear. :idontknow: