Full Size Jeep Network

Hi all,
I have been lurking around for a bit, and started my build thread, but thought i'm make a post here to discuss some options and advise for said build.

I recently bought a '78 Cherokee S (i think). It is a Narrowtrack, 360, Auto, manual window, power rear, with the tan Levi's interior.
I started a bit of tinkering and since winter beat me to the build, decided to get some parts ordered to await the spring.
i settled on a 4" Skyjacker Lift, and am trying to decide on my wheels and tires.

i have a bit of body work to do around the wheel arches, and on the fence about whether i should get some WT flares, or keep it narrow. I'm bouncing back and forth between the stock slot wheels and 32x11.50s or getting a different wheel and going 33x12.50 and wide track flares.

what backspacing would i need if i got the flares on narrow axles? is it even doable? am i dumb?

looking for input and advice, pictures if you got them.

Most standard 8" wheels for our rigs will be a 3.75" backspacing. I know with my WT I am inside the flares, but again that's on a widetrack. But I assume if you went with flares on an NT, the same backspacing would be fine. With the NT, if you don't start cutting and doing WT flares, I think you are going to get limited out at basically a 31" or maybe 32" due to the wheel opening. There are some on here with NTs that have run a 33x10.50 I think which BFG makes. May look into that.

You can put wide track fenders on the front - they just bolt on. Then you can get some XJ flares for the rear and both trim the steel and bolt on the flares. Search here and on IFSJA for examples, and check the ZJ and WJ forums for more examples. Good wide track flares are not that plentiful - they tend to rust more quickly than the rest of the body. This is assuming that you need the extra width to cover the wider tires and stay legal in your locale. If you don't, you can just trim the fenders for clearance. Any of the TSMs list the track width differences between the available vehicles - look here at the '76 or '77 TSM http://oljeep.com/edge_parts_man.html

i was thinking about the fiberglass rear fares that BJs sells, but how much narrower is the axle width? i am assuming the springs are in the same spot on both, so the space from the flange to the spring should be different, right?

Look up the track width, subtract the narrow track from the wide track value, divide by 2, that's the axle width difference at each wheel.

Some axle specs are also given at Jeeptech.com http://jeeptech.com/axle/index.html

so it looks like the NT axles are 59.5/58.5 inches (f/r) and the WT axles are 66/65 inches. so thats 3.25" wider per side, for anyone else in the same boat as me. i do know that going with WT flares, and NT axles is a good idea. it would take a ton of backspacing to fill the fenders, seems like it would be very hard on wheel bearings.

I would agree with that. There are some nicely done narrow track rigs out there. Just do a search. Just really need to come up with a plan of what you want to do with it and then start building it that way (trust me, having to learn this myself). If it's just to be a looker and a nice around town rig, I would settle on something like 31s or 32s, keep the narrow flares. If you want to wheel it fairly hard, well, then you are looking at axle swaps etc. Although plenty of guys wheel theirs with NT axles and actually prefer it due to the nice narrow overall width of the rig. Getting down the skinny trails with minimal pin stripping is always nice!

i have an 08 wrangler that i used to wheel a lot, but have not had the time to do it in the past few years.
i would like to build the cherokee to basically replace it as a driver. something I can take out camping, or hunting, some offroading, but nothing super extreme. i think 33x10.5 is the way i'm going to go, and if i don't like it, i have a couple of years to decide what to change.

4" lift and some subtle trimming will get you 33x10.50. Look for Dr Marneus' rig on here, white Wagoneer with the same setup.

now i just need to figure out how to get the front passenger wheel off! it is ON there!