Tire Size = Accelerated Front End Wear?

I notice most of the Jeeps on this site run oversize tires. I tend to like the skinny original size grave diggers plus the fact there is not much in the way of gumbo mud where I live. Way back when I was into jeeps the old ones didn't seem to fair as well with big tires, too much wear and tear on the steering box, drag links, tie rods, etc. or at least that was the common belief and I did see some evidence of it. Are any of you that are driving a lot of miles and heavy into off roading experiencing these problems or are your rigs doing just fine using the larger sizes?

 

I have P/S and run a D30 axle. I also run 35x12.5-15 tires. I see no extra wear on my components, but i also don't do much off road. When i still had the original ross box and stock setup with the D25, it was just about impossible to turn with the Denman Ground Hawgs it came with, so I went to the narrower tires and it all worked much better. I like the large modern radials i run now. They are superior to the old bias ply tires for on road driving for sure. If I were to do a lot of off road 4X4, I would surely upgrade the tie rod and definitely the drag link. I don't see the split adjuster handling a lot of abuse.

 

From my experience, the first parts to wear on a stock setup with bigger tires have always been the knuckle kingpin bearings. It just seams to put too much pressure on the races and they start to get dents and wear prematurely. That's just another reason a D30 front axle is a wise choice as a first or second upgrade (maybe tied for first place with Saginaw steering).

 

When I had the NDT's on it was very sketchy when I'd get up to say 40 and at any speed when wet. I personably feel much better/safer with the Goodyear DuraTrac 215/85's. I'll deal with the other as it wears since I've only put 1,000 miles on it since last fall.