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Tire recommendations

highhilleer

NAXJA Forum User
Location
West Virginia
Driving - on highway
Concern - decent ride, wet & snow traction
Current - stock size (215/75 R15???)
Three bridgestone duellers (sp?) with very decent tread
One Goodyear Wrangler (looks like original spare - full size) appears new - still has "blue" on the letters but has probably been in the vehicle since 1997.

Questions -
Is there any problem with running different tread patterns e.g. should I try to find an experienced Dueller to match the other three?
Get three Wranglers to match the new tire?
Never trust a seven year old tire?
Replace all four with ????? If replacing all four should I consider larger rims (street car).

The wife does not like the amount of room taken up by the full size spare and I'm not really interested in an external mount. Opinions/problems with using the skinny, stock spare for emergencies?

Thanks in advance.

ps - I did a search on tires and was suprised that I didn't find tire recommendations, hence the post.

ppss - Is asking about better than oem tires a topic that should go into street performance?
 
It is not a good thing to run mismatched radials on any vehicle for normal use.
As for a donut spare, depends, I don't like them but then I have a LSD and if I get a rear flat I'd have to change two tires if I had a donut. With a matched spare you can do a 5 tire rotation.
As for size, I run LT235/75R15 BFG AT/KO's that I bought at BJ's Wholesale for around $105 a tire out the door w/road hazard. P225's work ok as thats what most of the 97+ XJ's came with stock but you can also put 30x9.50's on there if you rear springs are in good shape with no sagging from age, compare with another XJ by measureing from the center of the hub to the bottom of the fender flare.
 
The Wrangler is okay to carry as a spare, but as Rich said, you should not mix tread patterns. Here in Connecticut there's a section of highway dedicated to a police officer who engaged in a pursuit with mismatched tires. He crashed and was killed, and the reconstruction guys determined that the primary cause of the crash was the mis-matched tires.

Tread depth isn't critical as long as they're all decent. It'll be cheaper to buy one Dueller than three Wranglers,even if you have to buy it new, and the Duellers are MUCH better tires.

Oh, yeah -- the spare. Truth is, the "donut" spare sits in the same place and doesn't save a lot of space. They were used to save weight, and they are asking for trouble. I have a bunch that my dealer threw away, that I use just for rolling hulks around the yard. Half of them don't hold air longer than a week, which is not a good recommendation for a spare tire. They don't match the size of the road tires, which causes funny handling, they're not supposed to be driven more than 50 MPH or farther than 50 miles, which limits their usefulness on a vacation. In short -- bad idea.
 
Thanks for the input.
The wife went to our favorite tire store and they ordered up a matching Dueller ~$100 out the door. Their assessment was the existing tires are good enough that there will not be any issuse with using one new tire. It should be here on Monday. They like Duellers on Cherokees.
We are going to keep the full size spare.
The tire store is out of the way but has reasonable prices and GREAT service. How good? Even though the replacement tire will be here on Monday, they insisted on mounting a used tire on our rim so that we will not be without a spare for the weekend. The cost - NOTHING! That's what I call caring about your customers!
 
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