Different size tires 2wd

[chip46wis]

My 2005 2wd gmc 1/2 needs rear tires badly and economics have me looking at used. Stock is 245/70/17. Abs is disconnected and truck is overall poor cond. anyone from experience run a different size tire? Again 2wd 265/70/17 tires are all over and cheap. I ask you speak from your own experience. Ty. 99% of truck use is 20 miles or less per trip
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[truckster]

It's not a huge difference - 3.6%. As long as you have the same size tires on each side of your axles, you probably won't even notice it. You'll be going slightly faster than your speedometer indicates.

Make sure you check the date stamp on the tires. Tires can look OK on the outside but if they're more than 6 years old they can fail internally.

[Palf70Step]

265/70 is what I ran on mine. It won't impact anything enuff to worry about, as long as the axle has the same size, as mentioned abouve.

[Tom]

Ummmm the vast majority of lowered trucks use a different size tire front and rear. I run 245/50's front and 275/50's rear.
Don't mix different sized on the same axle otherwise you'll overheat the diff. That's the only catch.

[Dukk]

With your ABS disconnected, I don't see a problem.

ABS, AWD, Stability control - that's where the problems come from.

['63GENIII]

Originally Posted by truckster

It's not a huge difference - 3.6%. As long as you have the same size tires on each side of your axles, you probably won't even notice it. You'll be going slightly faster than your speedometer indicates.

Make sure you check the date stamp on the tires. Tires can look OK on the outside but if they're more than 6 years old they can fail internally.

X2 on checking the manufacture date. This tire was on mine since 2012. They never wore funny or rode weird. One day on the way back home from towing our boat 3 hours through some mountain roads to the lake, this happened. I stopped 3 times and every time this patch landed on the bottom of the tire. I thought I had lost some balancing weights on the rough roads.

Wasn't til i got home that I'd seen what really happened. It was a front tire too. Could have been a bad ending that day!

Tires were made in '95. I bought them in 2011. They looked brand new.

[truckster]

That's a scary picture!

[burnin oil]

I am seconding the date thing. About a year ago I had an old radial blow about a foot of tread and sidewall. It was a spare laying on the trailer bed. I don't know what I up with these newer tires. I never had a problem with old tires before that. I have a few that I know are 20 years old.

[special-K]

I've been told you can go up to 10% difference without affecting anti-loc. My experience with my '92 was it came with dinky 245/75-16s, so I went to 265/75-16 in short time. Then I found out a 285/75-16 would fit if I cranked the torsion bars up some took the bumper end fillers out. That is how I ran the truck the rest of the 22 years I owned it. Except I did also run a couple sets of 255/85-16s as well. No problems with any of those with antilock rear brakes. The funny thing is, going through towns where they read your speed I was always correct, even showed slower than my speedo at times. There must be some form of compensation built into the system.

[chip46wis]

Originally Posted by special-K

I've been told you can go up to 10% difference without affecting anti-loc. My experience with my '92 was it came with dinky 245/75-16s, so I went to 265/75-16 in short time. Then I found out a 285/75-16 would fit if I cranked the torsion bars up some took the bumper end fillers out. That is how I ran the truck the rest of the 22 years I owned it. Except I did also run a couple sets of 255/85-16s as well. No problems with any of those with antilock rear brakes. The funny thing is, going through towns where they read your speed I was always correct, even showed slower than my speedo at times. There must be some form of compensation built into the system.

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[chip46wis]

Originally Posted by chip46wis

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Ty all. I’ve been out of touch with heart issues and now doing ok. Ty. I am looking for 265 70 17 now and my mindset is comfortable with these.
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[68Gold/white]

I see 1/2 ton pickups a lot that have the 265-70R17's on them, and I know they are not original.
My 05 1/2 ton 2WD has the 245's

If you don't know tires that have a LT prefix are heavier duty than the P tire prefixes. Call around. Go to Walmart.com and plug in the tire size you want. They can order anything on the website, and will ship to a store for free, if you didn't know.

Even if you buy the cheapest tire available, it's way better than trying to run on oldies, like post 6...

4-6 years on a set of tires is the max tires SHOULD be run on a vehicle, I will get some opposition to saying this, BUT I work on school buses, my knowledge of tires is pretty big. What a tire looks like, means nothing!!!

[1976gmc20]

Originally Posted by Tom

Don't mix different sized on the same axle otherwise you'll overheat the diff. That's the only catch.

That's what I've always heard. But IFS four wheel drives completely disconnect only one front wheel from the differential

So one side is running 70mph and the other is stopped.

[burnin oil]

With the axle disconnected the spider gears are spinning the same speed. Otherwise one side would try and spin faster due to tire size differance.

[1976gmc20]

Originally Posted by burnin oil

With the axle disconnected the spider gears are spinning the same speed. Otherwise one side would try and spin faster due to tire size differance.

No, the driveshaft is stopped so the other side is spinning frantically in the opposite direction. Has to be if the ring/carrier isn't turning.

[burnin oil]

Edited

Spiders are gonna roll since one side is driven by the road axle and drag. If it was locked in then one side would try to spin Faster internally. Not good.

[lolife99]

A 255/75-17 is a VERY common tire.
They came on most Jeep wranglers prior to 2019.
They should be cheap too, because everyone’s upgrades to bigger tires.