My truck is out of alignment and has made the front tires wear badly and they need to be replaced. All the websites say I need to replace all four or it will cause the differential to go bad. At $700 for 4 tires, how much is a new differential to replace? How little difference can there be that I dont have to buy 4 tires? Thank you very much!!
As far as I know you may do it in two parts, replace the rear ones and then the front in a month or so, just be very careful not to use the 4x4 since that is where the problem with traction and offset of pulling grab due to different tread designs and manufacturers may wreck the differential or the transfer gear box. You may find a better deal buying your tires at www.tirerack.com. Good luck ( I rebuilt the rear diff on my Dodge for $1200, they are cheap).
I assume your truck is 4 wheel drive and not all wheel drive. If it is 4 wheel drive the only time it should be in 4 wheel is when plowing or in snow or dirt at slow speeds.Or pulling a boat up a slippery ramp. Since you will be spending 90+ % of your time in 2 wheel drive you don’t have to match front and rear tires.
Let’s see, $350 additional cost to protect the differential which would cost ??? Not to mention, if you are like me, the worry about possibly damaging it, even if you don’t, would be worth the additional $350.
I am going to disagree. It only takes one good tug to ruin a transfer case.