Mis-matched tires

[maniac]

OK, when I bought my F-350 it had Firestone Steeltex AT tires on it, I took the spare and put it in the basement and bought 3 more just like it.

Fast forward to this past May, the original tires wore out and I put the 2nd set on, last week with around 3000 miles on them I had a steel spike go thru one of them, of course Firestone no longer makes the Steeltex tire that I have.

So my only choice is either replace all 4 of them, or replace one with a different tread pattern, I have done this lots of times on my OTR KW's and on OTR trailers, with no problems whatsoever, just never done it on any of my 4 wheel drive pickups, my thought is as long as they are sized the exact same,which they will be, it shouldn't really matter.

So what do you all think?

[Going_Going_Gone]

Tire manufacturers are now recommending that car and light truck tires should not be used if they are more than five years old (which could be a recipe for disaster with Firestone Steeltex's) and also when only replacing two that the newer tires be installed on the rear. If it were me, I would bite the bullet and buy two for the rear, then two more as soon as I could afford them. That way both tires on the rear axle will demonstrate equal traction characteristics until I could put on new fronts.

[SmokeyWren]

Originally Posted by maniac

... my thought is as long as they are sized the exact same,which they will be, it shouldn't really matter.

Agree. And the tread pattern wouldn't have to match exactly, but they should at least be a similar design.

The old Steeltex AT is similar to the new Transforce AT, so I would probably buy one Firestone Transforce AT, and put it on the front. Put the matched pair on the rear axle.
Tire Specs for Firestone Transforce AT

But if you're anal about having matched pairs of tires on each axle, then buy a matched pair instead of only one tire, and put the third Steeltex AT in the spare.