quick question...


I had an oil change done today at the Ford dealership on my '06 F-250 PSD CC 4x4. One thing the service advisor noted for me was that the front tires had 6/32's tread left...and the rears had 9/32's. He cautioned that transfer cases can "blow up" over differences like this.

I kind of chuckled and said "well...it's a good thing that I never drive in 4x4 unless I have to". My real question is... how much legitimate concern should I have about the tread depth difference from front to back? My thinking was that since I only use 4x4 in situations where the surfaces I'm on are slipping (not dry)... there really shouldn't be much concern. Is that right?

I know in fulltime AWD systems, depending on how sophisticated they are, tread depth difference can affect the performance and wear significantly. I guess I did not think this scenario applies to this vehicle.

Since these are the original tires that I use as winter tires (my first winter with them)... I don't need much convincing to pitch them... I didn't think they were quite that worn. They are the original Conti's.

Upgrading the rear diff to a truetrac has moved ahead of stereo upgrade for now, Tires might go to the top though... not sure yet.

 

always avoid 4x4 on dry pavement to prevent binding in turns and tire wear differences. should not hurt your t-case if you do that. if you get pretty good snow in your area i would change the tires. i always listened to my dad. put the good tires up front to steer. the rears can slip a bit but you can't steer out of trouble with bald tires up front. i got a heavy foot and wear rears much faster than fronts. you must push corners pretty hard or you might check the alignment if the wear on the fonts look uneven.

 

I doubt a 3/32" difference is going to " blow up " your t-case. He's probably looking to sell you new tires. Just my .02. You could always put the 9/32 on back and "even" them out, lol.

 

someone is trying to sell you some tires and a load of manure. If you are using the fronts as designed tread depth is a non starter.

It does sound like you need to rotate your tires though.

 

rotating the tires regularily, every 6000 miles for mudders can extend tire life by 10-15k miles. and its easy to do at home

 

Thanks for all the replies...kind of what I was thinking too...he's trying to sell some tires.

I do hate the tires, but I wanted to try them out...they've only been on about 2 months. I wanted to see if I can get thru the winter first..then put some better tires on. The summer set of wheels came with 20" rims and 305 width Toyo tires...which I don't really care for either...so I do have some tire purchases coming next year or sooner ;-)

If I can find a shop that'll put in a a TrueTrac, that may come first though ;-)

 

uh, the general's on mine now are probably about that much different. not that much depth left in them, but the two on the back have worn a LOT more since i put them on, and they've been rotated every 6 to 7k since new... never worried about them too much, and my wife's dodge is going to get a new pair on the back end and keep running what she's got up front for now.