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Ford Ranger 4X4 4 new undersized tires.

I bought a used 97 Ford Ranger with 4x4 automatic recently. Unfortunately I did not check the size of the spare. The previous owner had equipped it with 31x10.5R15 floatation tires which is equivalent to a P265/75/15 metric. Last week I had a flat while I was at wpork I put the spare on and it was undersized. I was driving home in the snow and decided to switch on the 4x4.

Then I heard all kinds of noise so I switched it off immediately. I have since been learned that you can not have mismatched tires on a

4x4 without risking serious damage. Yesterday I went to SAM's club to get 4 new tires put on. They did not have any 265/75/15 in stock I could have had them special order some. They had the 31x10.50/R15 flotations but they were all about $100/tire.

Since it supposed to snow again I opted to get 4 of the BFGoodrich P235/75/15 light truck commercial tires. These tires were 66.12 a piece.

Anyway as I am leaving SAM's the truck is making the same horrible sounds it did with the undersized spare. So I pull over after having only driven less than 1 city block. I look under the truck and see nothing obviously wrong. When I start it back up again it drives fine. I was not sure what to think of this but I had a lot of things to do yesterday so I drove home.

This morning at 9:00 it was about 16 degrees outside, I took a short trip to the store. The same noises occurred as I was going down my block. This time I did not pull over because I wanted to see what would happen. After I got to the end of the second block the noises stopped and it was driving normally again.

Has anyone ever heard of anything like this. This is my first 4x4 so there is a lot I do not know about them. I am just wondering if I should run back to SAM's and see if they will exchange them for a set of P265/75/15's. I tried to save a little money and I am worried I screwed myself bigtime. The tires I bought have an outer diameter of

28.87 inches the correct tires are 30.64 inches so I though dropping the truck by 0.88 inches would not be a big deal. Of course it would make my speedometer report a slightly higher speed but other than that I though what's the harm?
Reply to
frankg345
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Your right about the mismatched tires, one smaller tire would be a problem in 4 wheel drive.

Slightly undersized tires ( as long as they all match) however won't hurt the 4X4 use of the truck or cause any odd noises, only affect the speedometer as you mentioned, they shouldn't be a problem at all. Something else is the problem here, you need to get your truck checked out by a mechanic expereinced in 4X4 ford trucks.

hmm one thought..your not driving in 4X4 on dry pavement, are you? 4x4 can only be used when the tires can slip, say on dirt, snow, mud, or at the very least very wet ground ( be careful on that last one, if the traction is too good you can break something)

Reply to
Mikey S.

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