Tire Buying Advice

[2ndFord]

Would appreciate opinions on replacing the factory BF Goodrich All Terrain TA/K02 LT 315/70R17 113/11Os on my '18. 44K mostly on-road miles, but wish they had more meat remaining before another Northeast winter.

I plan on going with the same tires. Search of the dealer I ordered the truck from lists these tires at $368 ea. but don't know if that price includes mounting and balancing. Online I've found these tires available for between $301 and $330 with free shipping, and I know I can get them mounted and balanced for $25 apiece at a local tire chain so that saves me $52 to $168 over dealer. I also need to get a purchase price from said local tire chain (who guarantee price match) that would be doing the M&B.

REAL question here that I'd like opinions on is if I can cheap-out and buy just 3 (regardless of source), and use my 2018 factory spare as the 4th new tire? Keep one 2018 OE w/44K as the spare. Obviously would incur more expense to do all of the mounting changeovers to put the running tire on the wheel with the TPMS sensor, and the used tire on the wheel w/o TPMS as the spare.

Thoughts Anyone?

 

[smurfslayer]

Would appreciate opinions on replacing the factory BF Goodrich All Terrain TA/K02 LT 315/70R17 113/11Os on my '18. 44K mostly on-road miles, but wish they had more meat remaining before another Northeast winter.

I plan on going with the same tires. Search of the dealer I ordered the truck from lists these tires at $368 ea. but don't know if that price includes mounting and balancing. Online I've found these tires available for between $301 and $330 with free shipping, and I know I can get them mounted and balanced for $25 apiece at a local tire chain so that saves me $52 to $168 over dealer. I also need to get a purchase price from said local tire chain (who guarantee price match) that would be doing the M&B.

REAL question here that I'd like opinions on is if I can cheap-out and buy just 3 (regardless of source), and use my 2018 factory spare as the 4th new tire? Keep one 2018 OE w/44K as the spare. Obviously would incur more expense to do all of the mounting changeovers to put the running tire on the wheel with the TPMS sensor, and the used tire on the wheel w/o TPMS as the spare.

Thoughts Anyone?

Can you swap in the spare? Yes. Should you? it depends on the condition, age and exposure of the tire. If it’s in good visible condition, you may swap it in, but be cognizant that the spare wheel has no TPMS installed. You will need to purchase one if you want to do 5 tire rotations going forward. It’s reasonably worth it to bring the spare into the rotation because the truck is hard on these KO2’s up front and you need to rotate frequently and keep an eye on pressures to get best performance from them.

FWIW I have a ’17 and just did tires / wheels and alignment, including 6 wheels, 5 tires, 2 new TPMS. So I incorporated my old spare into the rotation with 6 tires now. Local service department asked good questions when I asked if they would do the work, provided good answers to my questions and did commendable work mounting, balancing ,etc. as I’d requested.

The TPMS system reads the moving tires and has given me no static having my spare or spares in the bed with TPMS.
I’m only a couple / few thousand miles in, but so far no issues showing.

 

[2slo4u]

My only comment regarding buying somewhere else and having a shop install the tires to save $50 is to consider how much it might cost you to balance the tires at each rotation. I bought a used Raptor with new General Grabbers ATX. Despite having a great relationship with a tire shop, they would not balance them for free as I did not buy them from that shop. Ended up costing me $70 each time I wanted the tires balanced. I couldn't keep the Grabbers balanced so I offloaded them at 25K miles and bought something from the tire shop.

 

[jamanrr]

Usually the dealers will have the best prices and best service.

 

[smurfslayer]

The dealers began price matching a while back. My local service department offered to right up front. They also answered correctly about not impacting my brand new rims on at full power and checking the torque before the truck left the service bay. Plus, they had the KO2’s faster than the 2 closest discount tires. Easy win for the local service guys at the local stealership.

I know a lot of guys have had good or great luck with their local tire places, and if that’s you too, go for it. But, if you’re interviewing new service providers, I have had some less than stellar engagements with tire places. We’ve had users here who’ve been victimized by tire shops impacting their lug nuts on at full power, stripping the studs and requiring herculean efforts to repair. And to be fair, Dealer service departments are not immune to mistakes but they do stand behind their work.