Non-matching wheels?

[AjMac]

The math has been done before, and it is no more or less expensive to do 4 or 5 tire rotations. It’s purely a cosmetic thing. You don’t get “more life”, you postpone the tire change and then spend more later. It’s all the same over time.

I’d say keep the spare as a spare.

I see what you are saying, not more life, but longer time before getting to the point of wear and tear that you need to replace. However, a tire sitting as a spare and never getting used is just lost money.

But, that is probably going to be the route I go. I guess keeping my unused tire as a spare will keep me to only buying 4 tires in the future.

Sponsored

 

[toddarama]

Do you want it badly enough to have it shipped from the UK? eBay Link

 

[WILDHOBO]

Personally, I don’t rotate with my spare. I buy the cheapest matching size and call it good. I suppose if I was displaying my spare in the bed I’d want all 5 to be the same. Then I would rotate all 5 of them.
I wonder how many more miles you actually get from adding a 5th tire into the rotation? Is it really worth it if you consider the price of the matching tire, the price of the matching rim, and your time (if you do the rotation yourself)?

20% more tire life. Especially considering that when you replace them, the unused spare either doesn’t match the new tires, or is years old and is no longer viable. Factory spare tires have different rubber compounds to allow for long term storage. These don’t. Not rotating it in is mostly a waste of a tire in my opinion.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Because you are using 5 instead of 4, and then later just tossing away the spare, you end up saving in the end but it depends on if you plan on keeping the truck.
There's a lot of "it depends" involved.

Even Jeep recommends a 5 tire rotation for vehicles with a matching spare - as do the tire companies and tire vendors.

A lot of advantages, such as knowing very 5K miles or so that the spare is actually good and aired up, knowing that if you have a flat you'll be able to get the spare down - it won't be stuck up there by that spare hoist being rusted up or stuck.
I always hated using 4 and throwing away the 5th/spare. When I had my F250 I did only a 4 tire rotation and when those 4 wore down, I now had a spare that didn't match because I wanted different size tires. Plus - after 7 years tire shops won't touch the tires. Liability and all that.

Plus - two times having a fully matching spare saved our butts when we had tires damaged withing 1" of the edge. You go by a tire - trying to find one that matches your older partially worn tires, or you rotate in the spare and use the damaged tire as a spare. I've talked shops into patching tires they'd otherwise never touch by using it as a spare.
We had one vehicle where we had a blown tire and the tires on it were no longer made - had to go with a new tire that didn't match.

If doing a rotation yourself - you can do the 5 tire rotation with only 1 jack because you drop the spare, lift the right rear corner of the truck, swap 'em, and move around the truck, then when you get to the end, put the final tire up as a spare. You've only had to raise one corner at a time instead of two at a time.

But all of that has been hashed to death in several threads here over the last years.

 

[DBravo]

I purchased my wheels a while back, and at the time only bought 4. I can't tell you why I did that, but I did. Well, now my wheels are discontinued, and I have a 5th 37 inch geo sitting on a steelie, that I would like to work into my rotation. So, I want to know what your opinions are on the following:

1) I have 4 gunmetal fuel shok 17x9 -12mm wheels. I cannot find another...but I can get a black one. That mixed matched wheel will be on my Jeep 80% of the time, but I would be using my 5th tire, which isnt cheap. This would be my mark of shame for not buying 5 at a time, a symbol of my lesson learned.

OR

2) I save the money for the 5th wheel, keep my tire as a spare, and consider it a loss.

Thoughts?

ebay. My '20 overland (purchased new from the dealer in '20) came with a 17" plain steel spare mounted under the bed but comes stock with 4 ea 18" wheels (makes no sense to me either). I wanted a full size matching spare as I keep it in the bed under the tonneau in winter and found a brand new one on ebay with brand new tire for $50 + shipping. I seem to recall it was a customizing shop in Texas. They probably offer $25 each to take them off your hands when you upgrade make and people take it cause it's easy, then they sell them and make a few bucks, but still a good deal. Arrived via UPS and shipping was less than $20 (about 18 months ago).

 

[WILDHOBO]

Because you are using 5 instead of 4, and then later just tossing away the spare, you end up saving in the end but it depends on if you plan on keeping the truck.
There's a lot of "it depends" involved.

Even Jeep recommends a 5 tire rotation for vehicles with a matching spare - as do the tire companies and tire vendors.

A lot of advantages, such as knowing very 5K miles or so that the spare is actually good and aired up, knowing that if you have a flat you'll be able to get the spare down - it won't be stuck up there by that spare hoist being rusted up or stuck.
I always hated using 4 and throwing away the 5th/spare. When I had my F250 I did only a 4 tire rotation and when those 4 wore down, I now had a spare that didn't match because I wanted different size tires. Plus - after 7 years tire shops won't touch the tires. Liability and all that.

Plus - two times having a fully matching spare saved our butts when we had tires damaged withing 1" of the edge. You go by a tire - trying to find one that matches your older partially worn tires, or you rotate in the spare and use the damaged tire as a spare. I've talked shops into patching tires they'd otherwise never touch by using it as a spare.
We had one vehicle where we had a blown tire and the tires on it were no longer made - had to go with a new tire that didn't match.

If doing a rotation yourself - you can do the 5 tire rotation with only 1 jack because you drop the spare, lift the right rear corner of the truck, swap 'em, and move around the truck, then when you get to the end, put the final tire up as a spare. You've only had to raise one corner at a time instead of two at a time.

But all of that has been hashed to death in several threads here over the last years.

But it’s all still true.

 

[Vtur]

I like 4 tires rotation. You'll have 2 new matching tires when replaced just a tire. Plus easier to rotate.

 

[Jeeperjamie]

4 tire rotation, not sure how much extra mileage you get out of a 5 tire rotation but I can get 40,000-45,000 miles out of KO2's and Kanati trail hogs on a 4ntirw rotation which seems like a lot of miles to me. No way would I ran a mix matched wheel on my rig

 

[NERokToy]

20% more tire life. Especially considering that when you replace them, the unused spare either doesn’t match the new tires, or is years old and is no longer viable. Factory spare tires have different rubber compounds to allow for long term storage. These don’t. Not rotating it in is mostly a waste of a tire in my opinion.

1. A none matching spare isn't the big issue everyone is letting on

2. Saying once a tire becomes years old it is no longer viable is true, but we are talking 10-20 years easy.

Having a perfect matching spare is just an appearance and convenience item

 

[WILDHOBO]

1. A none matching spare isn't the big issue everyone is letting on

2. Saying once a tire becomes years old it is no longer viable is true, but we are talking 10-20 years easy.

Having a perfect matching spare is just an appearance and convenience item

Running a tire with a different diameter can damage your differential, depending on circumstances. Also, for those of us that take these off road, it’s not cosmetic. Having a different size spare mounted, to get off of a difficult trail, could present some legit problems. And normal tire compounds are not designed to be stored for 10 - 20 years. These aren’t pavement only sedans with front wheel drive.

 

[Terminus33]

The math has been done before, and it is no more or less expensive to do 4 or 5 tire rotations. It’s purely a cosmetic thing. You don’t get “more life”, you postpone the tire change and then spend more later. It’s all the same over time.

I’d say keep the spare as a spare.

I see what you are saying, not more life, but longer time before getting to the point of wear and tear that you need to replace. However, a tire sitting as a spare and never getting used is just lost money.

But, that is probably going to be the route I go. I guess keeping my unused tire as a spare will keep me to only buying 4 tires in the future.

Could always do what I do, not the best but when you're poor it works. I always keep the spare a spare and do the 4 tire rotation but when I replace the tires I only buy 4 and the best condition old tire gets mounted on my steelie as the "new" spare. I never get the old dry rotted spare this way and its still in good enough condition to be a "spare" as I never let the tires get bald anyway. Plus I stick with the same tire, been running Kenda Klever 35x10.5 ever since getting rid of oem.

Just a suggestion.

 

[NERokToy]

Running a tire with a different diameter can damage your differential, depending on circumstances.

If you have to travel hundreds of miles to the nearest tire shop put the wrong size tire on on the passenger front and then put the passenger front in place of the tire that went flat.

Having a different size spare mounted, to get off of a difficult trail, could present some legit problems.

A bias ply 35 is going to have similar loaded radius to a radial 37 at the same pressure. the bias tire is cheaper and less likely to be the source of another flat. You can also very the air pressure to get similar performance, especially at low speeds.

And normal tire compounds are not designed to be stored for 10 - 20 years.

Design parameters and real world application are two different things

Is having a matching spare ideal, if you need it yes. Is the cost associated with it justified? Not always. Maybe I'm careful, probably I am just lucky, but the number of flats I have suffered is painfully low. On top of that most of them could be fixed with a plug and not even removing the tire/wheel from the vehicle

 

[Free2roam]

https://ballerzinc.shop/shop/17x9-5...ok-gunmetal-1-offset-71-5-hub-d66517907550us/
Like this one?

 

[Erievon]

The math has been done before, and it is no more or less expensive to do 4 or 5 tire rotations. It’s purely a cosmetic thing. You don’t get “more life”, you postpone the tire change and then spend more later. It’s all the same over time.

I’d say keep the spare as a spare.

Agreed. The rim costs as much as letting that spare tire go unused. As long as you don't go to a different tire size on the next set of tires, that spare will probably survive 2 sets, so you break even not having to buy 5 next time. Just my opinion.

 

[AjMac]

https://ballerzinc.shop/shop/17x9-5...ok-gunmetal-1-offset-71-5-hub-d66517907550us/
Like this one?

No, -12, but thanks.

Even the places that have them advertised dont actually have them. I have gone through this with a few different places so far, where it says they have it. I place the order, they call a few days later after they try to order it from the actual supplier, and tell me is discontinued.

I think the spare is just gonna be the spare. Next time I order wheels, I will get 5 lol

Sponsored