Running 295/35/24 up front and 305/35/ in rear

[shundal]

Ok, here's the situation. My parent's escalade has Nitto 295/35/24's all around, but I had to take the wheels off after they ignored the TPMS warning, which resulted in the sidewalls of 2 of the tires developing large cracks. They still hold air, but I did not feel safe keeping them on. Instead of spending another $600+ on 2 new tires, I was wondering if I could just put 2 of my Nitto 305/35/24 tires that have about the same thread depth remaining. I know there isn't much of a width difference between the sizes, and I wouldn't need to rotate them for quite some time, as the truck barely gets driver 5,000 miles a year.

Unfortunately I only have 2 of the 305/35's that I kept as backup, if i had a complete set, then it would be easy to just switch all 4 tires on the escalade. Would it be ok if i went this route? I would much rather spend $40 mounting 2 tires than i already have, then spend $600+ on 2 new ones.

 

[NathanJax]

I'm actually running it right now. exact same way. no issues. I'm not AWD, not sure if you are.

 

[shundal]

I'm actually running it right now. exact same way. no issues. I'm not AWD, not sure if you are.

Perfect! Yea ours is an AWD. Would that make a difference? If its taken to the snow, we put the stock 18's on.

 

[NathanJax]

Perfect! Yea ours is an AWD. Would that make a difference? If its taken to the snow, we put the stock 18's on.

The only way it would matter is the overall circumference of the tires. But from what i understand and can tell, it's the same

 

[soulsea]

Perfect! Yea ours is an AWD. Would that make a difference? If its taken to the snow, we put the stock 18's on.

I asked a GM engineer once the same question ... as long as there is less than a 2% difference between the front and rear rotation, the transaxle differential can account for it. Anything greater than that will light your dash up and put the truck in safe mode.

It is generally a bad idea to run a staggered setup on an AWD, in this case you're adding both width and diameter ... I dunno what that computes to percentage wise, but I decided not to take a chance and chose against it.

Plus I have a feeling it will look slightly off with one sidewall smaller than the other ... usually when people run staggered they compensate with the sizes. Meaning in your case you'd run 295/35 up front and 305/30 in the back ... this would minimize the stress on the TAD.

I still wouldn't do it tho, sooner or later it is bound to take its toll on the drivetrain.

 

[Regency]

I asked a GM engineer once the same question ... as long as there is less than a 2% difference between the front and rear rotation, the transaxle differential can account for it. Anything greater than that will light your dash up and put the truck in safe mode.

It is generally a bad idea to run a staggered setup on an AWD, in this case you're adding both width and diameter ... I dunno what that computes to percentage wise, but I decided not to take a chance and chose against it.

Plus I have a feeling it will look slightly off with one sidewall smaller than the other ... usually when people run staggered they compensate with the sizes. Meaning in your case you'd run 295/35 up front and 305/30 in the back ... this would minimize the stress on the TAD.

I still wouldn't do it tho, sooner or later it is bound to take its toll on the drivetrain.

How would it be bad? Because all grand cherokee srt8s are awd and are staggered just wondering

 

[soulsea]

SRT8s are 4X4 not AWD.

 

[Regency]

Haha wanna bet pinkslips? But back to topic they are AWD I swear and how would that be bad?

 

[shundal]

so it's mostly a problem with it being AWD then. I definitely don't want to mess up the drive train. I'll try to put the two tires side by side on friday and see how much of a physical difference there is.

 

[soulsea]

You don't have to do a side by side visual check ... just go to any tire size calculator, input the two different tire sizes, and it should tell you what the percentage difference tween the two is. If it's anything more than 1% I wouldn't even consider it.

Marcus, AWD vehicles have a trans axle differential which allows them to run that way on dry pavement, 4WD vehicles don't have a TAD and therefore will break if you run them on 4WD when there's no slip on the road. The TAD acts like a normal differential allowing the front and back to revolve at different speeds when the truck is turning. There is a % difference that it can cope with ... so if you're running staggered and making a tight turn, there's the chance of exceeding that tolerance, then the computer will shut down the drivetrain before you damage it.

If the SRT8 were AWD, or any other AWD vehicle that's running staggered from factory, that would be designed into the TAD and into the programming ... the Eskys/Nalis aren't designed to run that way.