Just put on the 18 inch wheels and tires I got from Craigslist of a 2017 Sahara to replace the stock 15's. Looks fine to me but some have said it will need a body lift to use those tires.
Looks fine to me. Does the trim need to be restored or is that the natural color of it? I just used some Meguiars Back to Black from WM which seems to work well. Seems much better than the Mother's version. Even though I like Mother's just fine as a company. With the Megs you'll need to wipe off the over spray with some rubbing alcohol per the instructions or tape off the area.
No stability control but how will the speedometer change? New tires 31 inches tall vs. 28 inches. Thats 11% larger. If the speedometer is at 60, am I going 11% fast or slower?
+1 I also think it looks great as is. Nice stance. Also believe if it's not rubbing then why need to lift? Why did they say it needed a lift with those tires?
Do you know what it takes to lift a TJ? You need arms,Panhard bars,drop pitman arm,transfercase drop, Maybe a hack-n-tap to the transfercase, driveshaft to match and maybe cut and turn the knuckles You can't just add spacers or springs..
I went from 30.5 to 31.5 tires on my TJ Sahara. No lift necessary. Funny thing, I compared the speedometer reading to a few of those roadside radar setups and the speedo is spot on. Try Wipe New on the faded trim; it worked wonders on my Clubman.
I'd leave it. It looks fine the way it is and even a 2" lift will make it handle/ride even worse than it does now unless you buy a really expensive suspension lift like Old Man Emu. My Jeep was lifted for 2 years, and I ended up returning it back to stock. I didn't really gain any advantages where I offroaded with the lift (mostly dirt roads/nature trails) and the driving dynamics and MPG went down the toilet.
I keep my TJ around for various chores around the farm. My only suspension tweaks have been a set of Bilstein HDs and a heavy duty steering stabilizer. For me it's perfect.
Looks to me like it needs correctly sized wheels and tires... which it had... and some tires with some sort of tread blocks... you know being a Jeep and all...