Safe to Drive on this to Tire Shop or No?

This evening when I got home, I noticed a pretty decent size crack in the sidewall of my driver-side front tire. The other 3 tires appear fine. Tires are BFG "K-Bro2's", 265/70r16 size. These tires are 2 years old, with 14k miles.

Here's the dilemma. I bought the tires at the local Big O Tires, and the place is run by total shysters (didn't know that until after purchasing the tires). I've been going to the local Discount Tires since, for all rotations and balancing, because of my disdain for Big O Tires here. That being said I feel I should try to see what pro-rated price I can get from Big O for a replacement for the single cracked tire. If they play hard ball with me (since they're shysters), and I have to go to discount, I'll need to drive about 8 miles at highway speed to get to Discount Tire (Big O is 2 miles away, and I can take residential streets at 25 mph the whole way).

Here's my primary question, how unsafe is driving on this tire (see pictures below)? Would it be more wise to put on my spare, or take this tire off the truck and haul it over to Big O or Discount with my wife's RAV4?

 

I’d change it out. Better safe than sorry.

 

Put on the spare

 

Thanks for the input guys, heading out to the garage now to drop the spare. Thought I'd just ask to be sure I wasn't be overly cautious and wasting my time to put on the spare.

 

Can never be to safe.

 

Unless you got a road hazard warranty on them, I doubt Big-O will pro-rate them as it does not appear to be a defect but damage.

 

Sorry to hear about Big-O. As for Discount Tires, I have been seeing them for over 15 years and every location I have visited has been nothing less than stellar. Hope they are able to set you straight. Word of advice, ALWAYS buy the certificate. $100 is a small price to pay for peace of mind, especially when it comes to replacing near $300 tires, no questions asked.

 

Yea I agree, I've always purchased the road hazard protection, and did so on these tires too, so I'm hopeful that Big O does right by me.

And as for Discount Tires, I too have had nothing but positive experiences with the local one here in Prescott, AZ. Real upstanding folks, who I'd not hesitate to recommend to anyone.

 

Just curious when was the last time you really looked at that tire?

Any idea when you might have hit something ?

How many days have you been already driving with that crack?

 

The right answer is put on the spare. Me, 8 miles, I'd probably take it easy & drive it.

 

Me, if the cut is not to the cord I would drive it. If it bothers you change to the spare.

 

This was my take as well.

A nice easy trip to the tire dealer.

Who knows how long it had been cut before the OP took notice.

 

I probably hadn't really looked at the tires for a week or more. I check things closely before and after camping or hunting trips (otherwise I usually give the truck a quick once over at least every other week). I've got this gnarly, steep, long driveway littered with larger rocks on each side, and the careless Amazon drivers tend to hit the rocks and kick them into my driveway. I ran one over last week, because I didn't see it in the dark as I came down the driveway and think that may have been what caused the crack (paid it no mind at the time, besides going back up to move the rocks off the driveway after parking). But that's just an educated guess after the fact.

 

Concrete!! my Driveway would look like a Off Road trail after major improvements !

Fed -Ex ground is good for tossing packages in the driveway saying delivered to the front door 500' away

 

Gotta love those package carriers. The concrete part is it's only redeeming feature. The 10% grade when covered in snow and ice, makes for a butt-puckering slip and slide (especially since it points right at my living room).

 

I have big o tires. Rotated balanced no issues. Had last set for 6 years. Just got a new set and they have a 3 year warranty full replacement. I’d look into yours. At 2 years could be something there.

 

Just left Big O Tires and they're replacing that tire for $100 (that's just mounting/balancing fees, plus the hazard protection on it). They tried to play hard ball at first, and blame me for damaging the tire off-roading, and say the road hazard protection wouldn't apply (he also said initially that since it was still holding air it didn't qualify for replacement). After some back and forth they reluctantly agreed to replace it. Asked them out of curiosity what replacing the other 3 would cost (because I'm OCD AF, and don't want 1 new tire and 3 at 50% life), they quoted me at $1500 for the other 3.

Drove over to Discount Tire and got a quote for the other 3, and it's $1250 for them. I've been to a number of Big O Tires that were good, but this one here (Prescott, AZ) is run by a bunch of shysters. The manager at Big O even tried to convince me his $1500 quote was a smoking deal. He said and I quote, "I checked all the other local tire places and none are selling the KO2's this cheap", bahaha.

 

Yeah I’d take that new one and make it a spare (if your spare is a diff size) like mine and get a new set from Discount. Still have my original spare from 2013 lol. New AT set I just got was $950.00 out the door.

 

Spare was like 8 years old, with not much tread left. So I took one of my other 3 tires (2 year old, 14k mile KO2s) and made it the spare. Paid Big O $100 to replace the cracked tire, and sprung for 3 new KO2s from Discount for $1200. My other 2 serviceable (14k mile KO2s) will be getting mounted on my new to me 3rd Gen 4Runner (as the front tires are bald due to PO driving it out of allignment for several months before selling it).

All in it'll be 1300 total to have a much nicer spare on the Tacoma + 4 new KO2s + 2 newish (and not bald) front tires on my 4Runner. I feel I made the best out of this annoying situation.

 

I did something not far off of that. Discount was willing to put their road hazard on the Big O replacement tire for like $40, so I can avoid ever dealing with this Big O out here again. Stuck with the KO2s though for the new set, as I've been beyond impressed with how well they've handled snow, ice, mud, and daily pavement driving while being quiet and wearing nicely. $900 for a whole set out the door is a smoking deal on your end though