So I went wheeling recently and tore up my side wall on my driver side rear. Put the brand new spare on with 16/32's and the other side has 8/32's. I have heard that its hard on your rear end if its like this with limited slip or with a locker like I have. Do I need to worry? What should I do?

 

Technically yes, you should worry. If your rearend is locked then both tires turn the same speed all the time, there is never a slip. If the tires are different diameters (tread worn) then the smaller tire is going to have to skip a little to catch up with the larger tire (like when you make a sharp turn on pavement with a locked rear) Its really hard on your axles.

If your in mud or gravel all the time then no biggie. If your making turns on pavement, well its gonna be hard on the axles.

If you had a limited slip rear it would correct this problem by allowing the smaller tire to slip a little but it would work the diff really hard.

Its generally the rule if you put new tires on any vehicle they should be replaced 2 at a time and the new ones on the back.

If it was my rig I would put the new tire up front and make sure the ones in the back were the two best of the older three. It'll take care of you axles while your on the pavement........BUT if your on the highway and you brake hard the tire up front will grab better then the tire on back and you COULD spin out........Will this happen? probably not if you don't drive like an idiot, its not a race car its an jeep.

But it will PROBABLY be ok like it is......depending on how old the axles are how its been driven and whether its your baby or not.

 

She is definitely my baby. I rode like that 3 hours back up to school. I am not driving it at all anymore until I rotate the new one to the front. I feel stupid for driving freeway speeds for 3 hours like it is. Thank you so much for helping out!

 

It's one of those things you do to take care of your baby.......

There's probably thousands of people who throw a junkyard tire on thier rig and roll it and nothin' ever happens. I wouldn't do it to mine, and you sound like you wouldn't do it to yours.

Don't sweat the petty stuff, pet the sweaty stuff.

 

ya i have the same tread depth on the rear and same up front and never put a tire different size on specially in 4wd you will tear up your transfer case

 

X2!!

You can get away with little different tread depth on the front. Your not gonna have the front locked into 4x4 on the pavement so you should be fine but never ever run different tire sizes on 4x4's unlesssssssssss

Your doing truck pulls.....some of those have bigger tires on back but the gears are different so that the tires turn at the right speeds.......

Just puttin' that out there......

 

ya and on gears never put dif gears in the axles stay the same!

 

thanks guys, i appreciate the help!

 

thats why we are here