O.K., I've read all the postings that extoll the importance of matching
tires, but being the half-assed, learn as you go, do it as cheaply as you
can kind of guy, I've never bought four tires at once. Back in the early
seventies, I bought a junker '65 Rambler American 2 door, jacked up the
rear end, put great big fat wide tires back there and kept the front ones
stock (Cragar mags all around). Looked cool, drove cool. The only problem I
had was hitting a patch of glare ice in Gallup, NM. I did a 360, hit
pavement again, straightened up and kept going. I drove that car through
just about every possible situation. The worst situation was taking it off
a 6' cliff at 60 mph. Bent the frame just enough to crimp the doors
permanently shut when the nose hit first. The battery dropped straight
through the engine compartment and rolled away into the dirt. I picked up
the battery, lashed it inside the car, rigged up a battery cable and drove
away. I had to crawl in and out of the window to drive it. Everyone asked
if I had welded the doors shut for racing! Then, when I got married and
traded hot rods for hauling vans, I bought a new 86 GMC Safari Van. This
thing came with oddball Uniroyal tires. They don't sell Uniroyals in
Arizona except for some standard sizes in WalMart. So, when my first set on
the front wore out, I bought cheapo, (there's that word again) closest fit
tires from Discount Tire. These worked on the back, but rubbed the wheel
well in front at full lock. So, I put those cheapo's on the rear and bought
correct size cheapo's on the front. I took this van everywhere under every
condition (caught in a blizzard in Cloudcroft, NM, drove up a jeep trail on
the north side of Mt. Lemmon in Tucson, drove through floods, over ice, in
sand, made three cross country camping trips, lived in it for a month. As
each tire wore out, I replaced only that tire, so there was never a matched
set on it except when I drove it off the car lot new. The point is, I
never came across a problem where a matched set of tires made one iota of
difference. Now, compare those stories with my Spitfire, which has always
had a matched set of tires (I'm very picky about my Spit, all the tires
have to match, dammit), and my Jeep, and my Ramcharger (4X's with identical
sets of tires) and I can tell no difference in handling due to matched
tread patterns.
You don't match tires on a race car, why would you need to on a daily
driver? Optimally, for racing, tires are matched to the type of driving.
Oval track drivers use different tire pressures and tread cuts for "inside"
and "outside" tires, dirt track drivers use any and all combinations, drag
racers use "bike tires" up front and slicks in back. So, speaking from
experience and observation, I was surprised to see so many people insist on
matched sets of tires.
And finally, I never heard anybody say, "Boy, that was a close one, good
thing I had matched treads".
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