I was at my Ford dealer on Saturday to have the Tires rotated on my 2013 XLT. While driving the truck onto the changing rack the Ford tech person hit something that was protruding on the rack puncturing the side wall and ruining the tire. They offered me a new tire which they are supposed to get on Monday. The existing tires have 27,000 miles on them. Most OEM tires go 45,000-50,000 miles so original tires are past half way point. The spare, currently on the truck, same model Goodyear Wrangler, stands out pretty clearly tread wise. From what I'm been reading having different tread depths is not recommended as can cause drive train damage due to different tire diameter as rotation speeds w/be different. I have already sent Ford Dealer an e-mail telling them my concerns. Should I push them for 2 new tires, a whole net set or will having one new tire not be problematic? Thanks - BG

 

The difference in height between a full tread and no tread tire is usually less than an inch. This should give you no trouble.

 

I think since it was their mistake I would insist on at least 2 new tires so there is no issues. I don't see how they could argue considering the circumstances.

 

If you had a full time AWD vehicle you would have a better argument. On these trucks it's not likely to hurt anything. Of course it's reccomended to replace in pairs, but good luck getting them to do that. If they are stand up guys they might, but I highly doubt they will.

I replace single tires on our trucks everyday. I'm always going to recommend replacing in pairs but not everybody wants to do that, even if the one we are replacing is being replaced for free. Haven't had any ill effects to date.

 

It took a little arm bending but the dealer put 2 new tires on the truck, we used the spare that came with the truck as the third tire, I bought the 4th. So for about $200 the truck is sitting on new rubber with no mismatches.