different tires front/rear

[brother rat]

I was wondering if anyone has used different types of tire front/rear on their 2WD (I'm sure someone, somewhere has done so). Either street tires up front and A/T's on the back, or A/T's on the front and M/T's on the back, or any other combination.
I'm just curious to see what options anyone has chosen and how the results were.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

You might check out the street truck of the month gallery, I know a couple of winners have taken that approach.

 

[RonD]

Not an issue with 2wd, rwd street racers do it all the time.
It can lead to cornering and stopping issues but with an empty P/U truck you have those issues even with 4 of the same tires, lol.

 

[wildbill23c]

I've seen it done on quite a few 2WD trucks, usually they have their normal tires on the front and end up putting more aggressive tires on the back for hunting season and winter.

 

[Captain Ledd]

We ran Kelly Chargers up front with Bridgestone Dueler A/T's on the rear. This was when I was running the old 225/??r14 tires. It did alright.

I don't think it makes too much of a difference. It will if you're wearing a labcoat and a pocket protector, but most of us will not be able to tell a whole heck of a lot of difference in regular driving as long as there's good tread and they're not old and hard. However that does not take into account types of tire, quality of tire, etc. A performance street tire does drive much better on pavement than a mud terrain.

But you might as well maximize traction where you can on a 2wd. I would recommend a good all-season tire up front and a aggressive all-terrain in the back.

If this is the '94 in your signature make sure weather you have the 14" or 15" rims. Normally it'll be 14" but 15" swaps are very popular since there's next to nothing suited for truck duty in a 14" rim, or ANY A/T's except for the one Bridgestone which I think might have been discontinued?.

 

[4cd-air]

Just don't mix bias ply tires with radial tires. That will make you swap ends. I have three trucks and all of them have different tires on the rear than the fronts.

 

[Captain Ledd]

Just don't mix bias ply tires with radial tires. That will make you swap ends. I have three trucks and all of them have different tires on the rear than the fronts.

My buddy ran a J-10 a year or two ago that still had the old wide-ass bias ply's on it, and one radial. Also one of the bias tires had ply separation and was all bulgy. He put 3,000 miles on those tires, I'm not kidding you. And the one radial tire was on the front. Finally after much pleading from me and everyone else he bought some new 31" at's for it. His only say on the matter? "well, it certainly squirms less".

But I doubt bias ply's and radials are that bad. I'd imagine you'd almost have to special order bias tires at this point.

 

[fix_or_repair_daily]

I have studded Goodyear Ultra Grips on the rear and Wally World Goodyear Viva 2 all seasons on the front of my beater 2wd 93 Ranger. Does fine, and I'm surprised where I've been able to go for a 2wd open rear end truck with 14" tires.