LR4 tyre change

My LR4 has the standard Goodyear Wrangler tyres. The front ones are finished but the rears have many miles left. I am thinking of putting new Michelin XClimate on one axle (front most likely) and leaving the rear as Goodyear. When the rear wear out I can then change them to Michelin too.
Now, the garages tell me this is dangerous and can wreck the transmission though with three differentials I fail to see why. I do not drive at high speed either so ideas that this might cause instability seem far fetched too. I just don' like getting rid of tyres with at least 10K left.

Thoughts?

thanks

My mechanic tells me the same thing about one relatively newer tire on my rear driver side. I trust him and in theory I understand the risk, but I'm due for new tires anyway so I'll have a fully matched set soon. I'm willing to accept the risk. Ideally I would always want a set of tires with similar tread depth.

Lol all nonsense IMO. You'll be fine running new different rubber in the fronts and your semi worn Goodyears in the rear. It's not like the truck will be sitting 2 inches higher in the front or vice versa.

jlach993 said:

Lol all nonsense IMO.

Click to expand...

What's the basis for your opinion?

Right now the front tyres are smaller than the rears since they are worn.
One a single axles it doesn't matter if there are different sized tyres since the differential handles the different speeds.
If the front and rear axles have different sizes the question is whether the central differential can handle this. I would assume so if the difference is minor (like worn tyres) but not if the wheels were completely different. The diff could handle it for a while but might overheat.
The question then is whether the central transfer box is a differential or not and I can't actually find out! In the Disco2 it was but is the Disco4 any different? The workshop manual is not very clear.
If it is a diff then the tyre issue is solved and I not that a lot of the 4x4 diagrams used by garages don't actually show a central differential which might be why this idea has arisen.

Indeed there is a central diff separate from the transfer mechanism. Ergo, tyres sizes are pretty irrelevant?

The only thing that might be a problem (note the word might, I don't think it would be) is that you have computer-controlled stability and traction control (and all the other fancy **** they call it) that could potentially get ****** if the sizes were vastly different. It uses the brakes and a clutch pack with varying degrees of lockup in the transfer case to alter how the tires run in relation to one another. If you had huge tires on the back and little ones on the front I could see it wearing out the clutch pack in the TC trying to figure out what was going on with the different wheel speeds. If you had one big ass tire on the left and a little one on the right I could see accelerated brake wear from it trying to get them to rotate at similar speeds. The difference between worn tires on the rear and new on the front wouldn't be much at all, I don't imagine it would be a problem. I put a single new tire on the wife's RRS after she ripped a sidewall out - old tires had about 35k on them, a single new one, they all ran together to 50k when I replaced them all. It didn't explode.

Your transfer case is open so no issue with small variation front to back.

I’ve never really agreed with buying 2 tires at a time( personal preference) but in all honesty how much is it really going to save you by running those tires another 10k. For me the hassle of buying tires essentially two times isn’t worth it.i totally understand getting your moneys worth cause tires are expensive but if you buy all 4, keep them rotated every oil change and get your alignment checked then they will usually wear evenly so you’re always replacing 4 instead of 2 then another 2 in a few months. Like I said that’s just me, you do you.

On my 06 Range Rover full sized I popped a tire while in the mountains and all I had was the full size spare that was 255 50 r 20 instead of the tires that were on the car 275 65 r20. Drove it 4 hours back to town and didn’t have any issues. The whole time Paranoid about overheating or burning out clutches so just for piece of mind I’ll never do that again