Can You Have Mismatched Tires on a Semi-Truck?

Commercial trucks put a lot of miles on their tires each day, whether the truck is driven locally or nationally. Most trucks start out with new tires that are the same size and brand without any wear. As the truck is driven, tires don’t usually give out at the same time. If you’re replacing tires in the service shop or from a mobile tire service, you may just decide to get any tire that fits the truck to get back on the road. It’s important, however, to match your replacement tire to the tires on your truck. Here’s why you should make sure your tires aren’t mismatched.  

What Happens When Tires Are Mismatched? 

Mismatched tires can mean many different things. It can mean different tires by manufacturers or size, but it can also mean different inflation levels or tread wear patterns. When tires are mismatched, it can cause uneven tread wear, decreased mileage, and shorter tire lifespan. Tires may fail prematurely, costing you even more to replace them. Differences between tires makes one tire do more work, throwing off the future balance of the tires. 

• Tread – When tires are mismatched in tread, the tire with greater tread will wear faster than the other tire. Tires should not be more than 4/32-inch difference in tread. 
• Inflation – The tire that is more inflated will carry more of the load, leading to improper tire wear. 
• Diameter – Tires that have different heights will suffer from multiple problems. The larger tire will have more damage to the sidewalls. It also takes on the greater load, which means it will experience more wear, faster than it should. The smaller tire will need to rotate faster to keep up. It will drag several feet per mile, resulting in excessive tread wear. 
• Types – Pairing radials and bias tires is another type of mismatch that will decrease tire lifespan. The bias tires will take on the bigger load because of how each tire handles the road. 

Mismatched tires on your trucks are like throwing money out the window! Avoid doing this. 

Prevent Mismatched Tires

Ideally, all the tires on a commercial truck would wear at the same pace and need to be replaced at the same time. Since that isn’t likely, the next best thing is to have a strong tire maintenance program in place. Regularly check tires to make sure they’re the same size and show similar patterns of wear. Match tires across the axles. When tires do need to be replaced, put the new tires on the same axle. If you are using used tires, match tread as closely as possible when replacing tires. 

Maintain Commercial Tires with An Efficient Mobile Tire Service 

STTC has a team of OSHA-certified tire technicians that can properly select commercial tires for your trucks to be safe and secure on the road. When you need emergency tire service, we have a broad inventory of tires that will meet your needs and help you avoid mismatched tires. 

Call us now at 610-954-8473 or contact us online to learn more about our mobile tire service.