New Drive Tires

Rotate them and pitch in the fall before winter?

 

I replace mine all at once, then keep the old tires for my local trucks. If you don't have local trucks, they are easy to sell to other drivers or ask tire dealer how much he'll give for them on trade.

 

rear drives always wear more; just more scrub back there. I would rotate them and get the most life I can out of them. Some of the best life a tire has is at the back end of if it's lifespan: better wear, better mileage.

 

Far better fuel mileage with tires worn to less than 50%. You can also regroove most tires and the tool is about $110 on Amazon .

 

Exactly what I would do

 

You should have no problem running them until fall if you rotate them. Personally I wouldn't do 4 and then 4 later. If you don't want to rotate see what your tire shop will give you on trade, should be more than just casing credit. I've also done ok putting used tires on Craigslist.

 

Extreme differences in tread depth across a drive axle or tandem unit create extreme differences in spider gear speeds in the differential carriers and or power divider. This results in early component failure. Save some now and pay double latter.

 

True, but a 4/32" difference is not extreme on a 40" tire -- it is a difference of only 1/4" -- or 0.6%

It would be about the limit on a passenger car tire (25") though -- a 1% difference.

 

I think by extreme he may have been talking about knee deep new virgin rubber 30/32's on one drive axle versus worn down (or out) tread 12/32's (or less) on the other. There's no way I'd replace these tires until the wore down to around 5/32's. Rotate the backs to the front so they will wear evenly and run them until this winter or next spring like others say.

 

Move the left rear to the right front. Move the right rear to the left front. This minimizes toe to heel wear if you are using a lug drive tire. Also the right rear tires wear the fastest and you will be moving them to the slowest wearing position. This is per tire dealers and my experience. Do yourself a big favor and replace all eight at the same time and keep them rotated.