So the spare tire under my pickup is still new. It's a Goodyear and the tires I like and plan on running with the Goodyear are Bridgestone.. same size and all. Ok or bad idea?

Personally I’d say no problem. I’ve done it several times.

No, it’ll never work. Be going just fine and then wonky and BAM in the ditch.

is it AWD or 4WD or 2WD

if 2wd with a standard differential and your running it on a rear probably no issue at all

if your AWD and your a slight bit smaller in diameter your sensor could be trying to power up a wheel or AWD

if your running it on the front make sure you still can get all your alignment good

these are the reasons they usually recommend 2 at a time unless AWD where they recommend 4 at a time all the same.

you hate to mess up AWD stuff over the cost of a single tire

I / we have done all sorts of things when running and older truck 2wd or manual 4wd where your wondering what goes first something major rusts through or I wear out this set of tires

All good info.

One thing to check too , make sure it does not have dry rot. Common on older tires.

How old is the tire? Any tire at about seven years old becomes questionable and you did say it was a Bad Day tire.

I wouldn't do it. Even though they have the same number on the side, they are not the same size tires. You can take the Transfer case out of a vehicle in a hurry my mixing tires. Unfortunately I have done it. Just my two cents. Like everything else, the cost of tires is ridiculous !!

My rule of thumb is if it holds air for at least 24 hours its good.

Get a 3 foot carpenters level. Put the tires side by side touching each other and standing up. Use the level to plumb them. Then lay the level across the top of both tires. If its not level or close, you dont want to go very far on the spare. The same size isnt always the same size manufacturer to manufacturer

If there is a size difference and your a long way from a tire shop, stop every ten minutes or so and let your differential cool down a bit. you should be able to hold your hand on it before you leave again

is this your theme song ?

it's ok if it is , I just put lower trialing control arms in the wife's expedition because they rusted through , broke and then the axel wasn't held from rotating and it broke the Ujoint pulling out of the drive way on the way to thanksgiving dinner,
part of a junk yard drive shaft a new Ujoint , and a set of control arms I had to order new because all the ones at the junk yard were also rusted out or nearly rusted out.
back on the road for 150 in parts and me laying in the snow on the drive way

23 years old but I put new tires on it last year and finding anything else is hard these days it runs good my dad bought it 23 years ago and maintenance ahs always been kept up

Just buy 4 new tires keep the spare were it’s at

it really comes down to , you save say 200 by using this old tire with 3 new ones

but you have 600 in tires and 100 in mounting and balancing 700 in and have the potential for issues or you spend 935 and have 4 new tires maybe even get a discount on 4 tires to take you back to 800.
make sure this one holds air , wipe it down good with armorall and keep it as a spare and no worries about issues or uneven wear , age of the rubber
piece of mind at 80mph with truck on each side of you down the interstate is worth it in most cases.

Both my 2 dr Jeep Wrangler and my 2500 Ram run different tires than the spare. Even if they were the same they are going to have different levels of wear and be of different diameter. All these new cars with tiny spares say you can run short distances at reduced speed with the spare installed. I wouldn't worry about using it as a spare, especially on the rear, in the same manner the tiny spares are used. Other than that it doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

Them yoopers sure have a lot of fun in the winter,lol.

I got the front differential on my old 98 ranger so hot smoke was coming off it from the old grease/oil built up on it. I dont remember now how much difference there was in tire size but it does matter.

there is definitely a difference between 50 miles to a tire shop even 500 miles to get home and trying to put 50K miles on it.

Another thing to consider with any tire , is it's age.

Here is how to find out how old your tires are.

Four digit code
First 2 numbers are the Julian date ( week )
Second 2 numbers are the year

Tire in picture was made the 13th week of 2018

You guys would be amazed at the number of cars on the road with mixed tires. See it every day in my shop.

Yeah pretty much. A couple weeks ago I was bobcat trapping in the UP and northern lower and that song kept coming on the radio. It always gave me a chuckle because it described my truck perfectly. I hit an owl on the way up and destroyed half my windshield. The tailgate no longer stays put so I left that at home. The one bedside was bungee strapped to a crate of traps to keep it from flopping too much on the trails. 4wd only worked the last 2 days and the tires are the worst I,ve ever seen in the snow. Ran out of fuel on my way down from the UP 12 miles from town because none of the gauges work anymore. Other than that it is a decent truck...


This reminds me I need to air up my Jetta tire before I leave work today. It holds air for about 48 hours.

If it's in good shape, you still need to carry a spare, put it back in it's place, and next time ROTATE those tires!!!!!