Hi all
Jeep newbie here (and first post on here). I have been running an 02 Grand Cherokee Overland V8 for a few months now. I am using it for work and as a general run-around/workhorse. My work at the moment is building a fibre optic networks in a rural areas which means I need to be able to do a little bit of mild off-road work. Nothing like I am sure some of you guys get up to. Pulling a trailer (usually with a mini-digger on it) through a muddy farm field is a good example of what I would expect of it.
I am a serial car modifier though and this Jeep is going to be no exception. I want to give it a bit more presence on the road, make it look a bit bigger and more menacing, but not sacrifice the ability to use it for the purposes above or make it a chore to drive as a daily. Keep in mind though that I am used to modifying road cars where the idea is generally to put the biggest diameter and widest wheels that will fit on and get the car as low as possible hence why I am probably asking newbie questions. The whole idea of raising a car up instead of dropping it down is a completely alien concept to me!
I mentioned trailers above and it worth saying that anything I do must not spoil my ability to be able to pull large/heavy trailers eg a car transporter or a medium sized caravan.
So anyway, back to my question: what size wheels and tyres should I be going for that will work ok with stock suspension but not look too small if I decide to raise it at a later date? The size 265x75x16 seems to come up when I have searched. Is that fairly common? There also seems to be a lot of tyre choices available in OR 265x65x17 or 265x70x17.
I am quite happy (in fact I want to!) run 'fender flares' so something that will fill out the arches are needed. Would people suggest going for wider wheels/tyres right from the outset or just using a spacer as/when I get the flares on?
The car only owes me £2k so I am quite happy to take a recip saw to it and I am competent in the workshop (have a ramp, well equipped tool box, etc).
Ideally would like to see some pics of WJ's on bigger wheels with the wheel and tyre size stated for comparison.
Chris