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4 x 4 Tire Sizes

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What they told me...
by: Anonymous

I needed two tires for my 4x4 pick-up. I had two original tires (same manufacturer) with minimal wear. I went to the manufacturer, and the original tires were discontinued. They recommended the replacement model, which they told me was 95% the same. They were quite explicit, on a 4x4 the tires need to match. They also told me the slight difference would be a functional match, and save me the cost of buying 4 new tires.
No Law Likely
by: Anonymous

I'm not aware of any law which obligates you to have all 4 tires on a 4X4 the same, but the practice makes sense.

The law might be different in each locality, just as some states permit the use of studded tires and others don't. You might want to ask the motor vehicle department in your area to see what they say.

There also might be issues with your insurance that you might what to check out by seeing what your policy details state.

The issue arises because different sized tires have a different circumferance and when power is applied to both wheels a different size will cause one to rotate differently from the other.

Even if you only use 2 of the 4 wheels for traction, what happens if you have a flat and put the spare on and it's a different size? Or if you rotate your tires and the person doing the rotation doesn't notice they are different sizes?

You're inviting performance and handling problems because different sized tires might have a different diameter and if you have two different diameter tires on the drive train you will be getting a different force on each wheel.

Because wheels may wear differently, it is important, too, to rotate your 4x4 wheels to ensure that there isn't a change in tire size because of the tire wear.

Your best practice on 4X4's and regular tires is to have the same tires all round unless you have a vehicle which is specifically designed with different sized wheels in different positions.

Hope this helps

TG

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