I noticed a screw in my tread yesterday and now the tire is losing air. I bought the truck last yearused with 265-75-16's on it. I was hoping to go to 265-70-16 on my next set.

Do you recommend replacing just the one, or do I go ahead and get all four now. Is it a problem to have a brand new tire with four older ones. My best guess is that they have 20k left in them. They are Firestone Wilderness AT. Buy just one or go for four. If that is the case, those of you that have a 2wd 4.6, what do you recommend for size on a 16 wheel for towing. I have 3.55 limited slip and tow a boat which weighs approx. 3000lbs.

 

Can the tire be patched? I have had good luck with patching tires, sometimes even twice on one tire. As a general rule, I like to replace tires in pairs, especially with a posi-trac rear end. If one wheel is significantly different in size, they the tires will spin a different speeds and wear out the clutches in the limited slip. I would guess that a half worn tire would be enough different in size than a new one to cause a problem.

 

If the screw is in the tread then it can most likely be repaired. If its in the sidewall or close to it then it probably can't be repaired, or any shop that does will probably not guarantee the work. You can probably have a tire store put a plug in the tire. I worked doing this for 4 years in college and only had a couple plugs come back to me, and ended up having to put a patch in the tire since the holes were so big. If its just a regular screw in the tread it can be plugged in less than 5 min and it will be a permanent fix. Repair cost should be $5-10.

 

If you don't need new tires now, then take it to get it repaired. A patch job should be less than $20 or so and a half hours time if they are busy. A very common repair, and I've never had one give me any trouble.

Otherwise, at a minimum, replace a pair to keep the tire diameters as close as possible to prevent any excessive wear at the diff.

I ended up replacing all four on my '99 earlier than planned when I picked up a screw at the edge of the tread. No way to repair it, and I didn't want to invest in a pair of tires since I hated the Goodyear RTS and I wanted to upsize on my next change, so i ended up doing all 4. Not like the RTS owed me anything, they had 50,000 on em.

 

You really don't want to replace just one tire on an axle. Even if it's the same size and type unless the "old" one is still pretty new and has maybe 90% of it's tread left.....

You really don't want to do it if it's a different size altogether. Handling will suck and it'll just look funny....

If it were me, I'd replace ALL four. No sense trying to get the last bit of tread out of a POS tire to begin with!!

You'll think you have a new truck once you get some new skins for it! You'll actually have traction again, and the ride quality will be 100% better!

 

As mentioned above, I'd try to repair if the screw didn't rip up the "cords". If you do decide to replace it, go with at least two. If you have "ABS", it relies on the tires being the same size (at least on the newer Fords). I went from 255R70X16s (Generals) to 265R70X16s (Coopers) @ 45000 miles on my '02 Screw. They are not that much larger, but I do like them better than the OEMs.
Good luck

 

If you can't patch it, they recommend replacing at least 2 tires.