Truck tire question re replacing

[IvanS]

Oh boy John, 5-6k a year, I can only wish. I'm more like 23k a year. I just sold a set of tires I installed in April 2015 that had 55k miles on them and 5/16 of tread remaining on them - about 60% of new. Those tires will last another 25k with no problem, I wanted to try some new tires. The last truck I had was 13 years old with 250k on it when I sold it and the spare was never used. Come to think of it, I never had a flat in all those miles. Just a couple of slow leaks that I had repaired at my convenience.

I see now that you would only rotate once a year, compared to 4 times a year for me. So the hassle of utilizing the spare is much less so for you. That's why it's good to have all the details in a discussion like this. If 5 tires works for you, then all is good.

As long as the spare holds air I'm happy, don't care how old it is. As I said before, it's only job is to get me to the tire store to get my road tire repaired or replaced. So 4 tires is the right solution for me. Cheers!

 

[scdeerslayer]

If I only buy four tires, at my next tire change, the spare would be about fourteen years old. I don't put a lot of miles on per year, maybe 5-6k. I don't need to buy high mileage tires, 50k tires would be plenty.

That's why when you get your new set of 4 tires you tell the shop to change the spare out with the best of the old 4 tires.

 

[LouNY]

I have found this site to be very good with regards to researching tires,
Tire Size Comparison
As to all the comments, you can put quite the variety of tires on your stock rims 235, 245, 265 is starting to stretch it a bit.
I prefer a narrower tire myself, because of the places and conditions I drive in.
I also never rotate tires at a certain mileage, I run studded snows in the winter so I usually put the best looking tires on the front so
mine get rotated a couple of times a year, my Ram is good in that it recognizes which tire is where for the TPMS.

 

[beowulf]

That's why when you get your new set of 4 tires you tell the shop to change the spare out with the best of the old 4 tires.

Scdeerslayer, I just put on four new tires after getting a flat and taking a hard look at the tread and tire wear on all the tires. The spare I have now has perfect tread - I mean it is like a new tire - but I don't know how old it is. I know I can check that on the tire - just did not do so before I cranked it back up. The tires I replaced had decent tread but no where near the tread depth of the like-new spare. Should I still change out the spare - assuming it is good but old - and assuming one of the four tires being replaced is newer but does not have nearly the same tread depth? I kept the tires to use for setting farm implements on and other uses around the ranch. Just wondering. I bought the 2010 F150 as a used one owner vehicle in March 2013 (which was sold to the prior owner in August 2010). I don't know how long the existing spare was the "spare", but it is likely not older than 7 years old assuming it was the original spare when the truck was first sold.

 

[John Fitzgerald]

My solution:
I found a great deal last week on a matching aluminum alloy wheel with the tire pressure sensor still good. This week, I bought a set of five matching tires in 265/70/17 AT, which is the largest size that came optional on my model of F150. I put one alum wheel under the truck, and will do a matching 5 wheel/tire rotation when the time comes, and have close to equal wear on all five. The old spare and steel wheel is to be sold, probably CL it.

 

[scdeerslayer]

Scdeerslayer, I just put on four new tires after getting a flat and taking a hard look at the tread and tire wear on all the tires. The spare I have now has perfect tread - I mean it is like a new tire - but I don't know how old it is. I know I can check that on the tire - just did not do so before I cranked it back up. The tires I replaced had decent tread but no where near the tread depth of the like-new spare. Should I still change out the spare - assuming it is good but old - and assuming one of the four tires being replaced is newer but does not have nearly the same tread depth? I kept the tires to use for setting farm implements on and other uses around the ranch. Just wondering. I bought the 2010 F150 as a used one owner vehicle in March 2013 (which was sold to the prior owner in August 2010). I don't know how long the existing spare was the "spare", but it is likely not older than 7 years old assuming it was the original spare when the truck was first sold.

Not really going to tell you what you should do, my point was that instead of buying 5 tires in order to get a good spare, just replace the spare with a good tire that you're taking off. At 7 years you're probably not at that point. My thoughts are that it doesn't really matter how much tread is on that spare if it won't hold air, or you don't trust it to run it on the road due to it's age. A spare should only be required long enough to get the actual tire fixed, most of the time it's only going to be a few miles. Running on a worn tire for a few miles as a spare can't be any worse than running on those donuts for days (or even much longer) like I see some people do.