While I was on the highway yesterday, my truck all of a sudden had a bad grinding sound from the front passenger wheel-well. I was able to limp down the road to a nearby mechanic, who won't have a chance to look at it until this afternoon. (My guess was wheel bearings, but that's just a guess, since I've never had bearings go bad on me before.)

But, judging from his overall approach in asking about things like how recently the radiator had been flushed, etc, the mechanic strikes me as the kind of guy that is going to try to sell me on a bunch of nice but un-necessary services.

One of the things that he mentioned was that he noticed that my rear tires were more worn than my front tires. In December, I replaced the front tires, which were nearly bald, but left the rear tires, as they still had some life in them. I figured I'd replace the rear tires next winter, which would keep me from having to always shell out for 4 new tires at once. But the mechanic said that having fronts and rears with different wear amounts may cause the 4-wheel drive to bind, since the tires will be slightly different diameters. He's going to price some new tires for the rears, but I'm wondering how necessary it is?

I don't 4-wheel except in the snow and about 1/week during the summer while pulling a boat out of the water. So I would think I could get away without replacing the tires. At the same time, if it's a bigger deal than I realized, I don't want my scrimping to damage my truck. So I thought I'd ask here: how big of a deal is it to have mis-matched tires from the front and rear?

Thanks for your help,
~Dean

 

That little bit is not a big deal, but you could have eliminated that problem by rotating the tires at normal intervals.

 

Agreed, but I bought the truck with the front tires in considerably worse wear than the rears. My initial plan was to replace first the front tires, then next winter rotate the fronts to the rear and put new tires on the front. After that, I'd rotate them in an effort to keep the mismatch wear to a minimum.

That said, does anyone think the tire mismatch that I currently have would make that big of a difference for occasional 4x4 use?

 

No. It won't. 4x4 isn't for use in high traction situations (on pavement....) anyway. And the mere act of turning the steering wheel is going to cause the tires to rotate at different rates. The minor difference from tire wear isn't going to be a problem.

 

And, you should always put the tires with better tread on the rear .

 

Yeah, I was debating about that. On the one hand, it's rear-wheel drive, and since I'm in 2WD 99.99% of the time, I want traction from my driving tires.

But if I'm driving in conditions where I don't have much traction, I can always put it in 4WD. Also, what good is traction in the rear, if my turning wheels are slipping? And doesn't about 80% of breaking power come from the front? With these considerations, I opted for more traction in front. Am I missing something?

(I'm not trying to be argumentative - just explain my thought process and get some feedback.)

 

I would think that given the choice, I'd rather have more traction on my steering (and majority braking) tires than the rears. I have read that different tire wear is bad for an AWD vehicle, but since you don't use 4 wheel unless it is slippery... I don't think it would cause problems.

 

4x4 is ONLY for use with off road situations.
If you use it on pavement it WILL break something eventually.

The rear brakes are pretty sh1tty on these trucks, so yes, most of the braking power comes from the fronts.

As for the tire thing, just rotate your tires and everything will be fine.
If you have something wrong in your axles, I wouldn't rotate them till I got everything fixed.
Hope I helped any.

 

Exactly why you want more traction in the rear, unless you like to watch the rear pass the front.

 

The slight difference in tire height is not going to break anything, were talking max 10/32's.

I have always opted to keep the tires with more tread in the front when my tires start getting low, I do this because I would rather be able to steer and brake then go.....as far as *** coming past me never had a problem with this and have had all 4 tires locked up around 80 in the rain( the abs in these trucks works only when it wants to)