Switching to full size spare tire after 30k miles

Bought 5 new Falken WILDPEAK A/T3W 265/70 R16 tires in May of 2022. I've tracked them as "A" through "D" in the order LF, LR, RF, RR at the time of initial install. Usage has been as follows:



Discount Tire has done the two previous plugs shown for C and D. Tire D recently got another nail but this one is too close to the sidewall to be plugged, but like the other nails it has luckily been in the tread block and not the tread void. It's either leaking extremely slowly enough for me to not even have noticed yet, or potentially not leaking at all?

I have the full size spare tire which has never had a nail that I would like to permanently swap with tire D. Quetion: Given the Spare has 25.7k mi less wear than tire D - are there any issues swapping and keeping it in normal use to make tire D the new Spare? Not sure if having 1 of the 4 tires with significantly less wear than the other 3 would cause other issues. Thoughts?

 

It’ll wear quicker than the others and eventually catch up, which isn’t ideal but will work. You’ll have to keep a closer eye on it so you don’t get one-sided wear. The open diff sight different sized tires left/right basically acts as if that tire is turning all the time.

Check out the link in my signature about mismatched spares. Has more info along the same lines

 

Not helpful to your current situation, but did you not have a matching 5th rim? One of the benefits to a matching 5 spare is the 5 wheel rotation so they are all fairly close in size when something like this happens. And the hope of getting 20% more life out of them.

 

Ended up rotating as normal and not using the spare. I couldn't even find the nail in "tire D" even after slowly looking over it 4 times in a row, so maybe the 2nd nail wasn't a full nail or already fell out? Tire pressures remain stable regardless.

 

No matching spare rim, just the "steelie" as they call it. But I've definitely considered buying a proper rim for ongoing 5-tire rotations as you've mentioned.

 

I wouldn’t want a leaky tire for a spare

get a new one for a replacement if you do anything
Get it shaved
https://www.tirerack.com/upgrade-ga...hs-on-allwheel-drive-fourwheel-drive-vehicles

 

I did 5 on mine, and one of them was noticeably more out of balance and louder so I took it out of the 5 tire rotation, but it’s half worn so figure it’s decent as a spare.

Also have a Limited 4Runner that’s full time 4wd and it came with a matching 5 oem, and even has 5 spots on the tire pressure monitor. So I do a 5 tire rotation to keep them close to same size.

My daughter has a awd outback, and they literally want you to swap the full size rear to the front and put the space saver on the rear if you have a front flat. The spare location won’t fit a full size and it’s aggravating.