LR tire picked up a nail at 15k miles, can I replace just the one or do I need to pay for a full set?

[spacepirate]

Title basically tells the story. Left rear tire (OEM Hankook) picked up a nail somewhere yesterday and has dropped to 20psi. It's holding there for now. The nail is about an inch in from the outside so I assume that it's not something a shop would consider repairable.

A lot of guidance says that it's bad to have one new tire on a 4WD. Do I need to replace the whole set of them or would I be able to get away with just replacing the damaged one? I only have about 15k miles on the truck.

Should I compare the tread depth on my current tires to a new OEM Hankook before deciding? If so, what sort of variance is acceptable?

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[RLXXI]

Title basically tells the story. Left rear tire (OEM Hankook) picked up a nail somewhere yesterday and has dropped to 20psi. It's holding there for now. The nail is about an inch in from the outside so I assume that it's not something a shop would consider repairable.

A lot of guidance says that it's bad to have one new tire on a 4WD. Do I need to replace the whole set of them or would I be able to get away with just replacing the damaged one? I only have about 15k miles on the truck.

Should I compare the tread depth on my current tires to a new OEM Hankook before deciding? If so, what sort of variance is acceptable?

No more than ¼" difference between tire diameters has been the Ford standard for decades and in our case, (I cringe to say because I'll have to do the same) all 4 tires will require replacement to avoid awd damage if more than a ¼" difference.

You can get away with just replacing two on the same axle if the ¼" rule is followed. As for the puncture being 1" from the sidewall, that's an automatic toss in the can and replace with new for pretty much all tire shops. If it were mine, I would plug it and keep rolling.

 

[Athrun88]

A proper plug and patch should be ok to be honest and is what I would do as well. Otherwise, it might be a good excuse to ditch the Hankooks (given the reviews I've seen here though my set has been holding up past 22,000 miles) as a whole and upgrade to a new set of shoes depending on the current wear of the OE set if you can afford that. Sorry that happened to you.

 

[K6CCC]

Since on our trucks there is absolutely zero mechanical connection between the front and rear axles, the worst case would be to replace the two tires on that axle.

As for patching it, that is what I would at least try. My local tire shop plugged my right rear a few months ago and the screw was almost right at the edge of the tread. The guy warned me that it may not hold, but if it held for a few days it should be fine. It's been almost six months and holding fine. Note that I am soon planning on replacing all four of the Goodyears all season tires that the truck came with - current plan is the Toyo Open Country AT3s.

 

[jamelski]

Plug or patch it. Any used tire place will patch it. It’s a bunch of BS about safety to plug or patch near the sidewall. On the side wall different story

have done it many times for many years and never an issue. But everyone will give you a different story and say waste money on 2 new tires

 

[RickLightning]

Title basically tells the story. Left rear tire (OEM Hankook) picked up a nail somewhere yesterday and has dropped to 20psi. It's holding there for now. The nail is about an inch in from the outside so I assume that it's not something a shop would consider repairable.

A lot of guidance says that it's bad to have one new tire on a 4WD. Do I need to replace the whole set of them or would I be able to get away with just replacing the damaged one? I only have about 15k miles on the truck.

Should I compare the tread depth on my current tires to a new OEM Hankook before deciding? If so, what sort of variance is acceptable?

If it's on the flat part and not the curved part of the tire, it may in fact be repairable. Post a picture.

You should immediately air it up to 40psi or so unless you want a flat.

https://www.discounttire.com/learn/tire-repair

 

[watts/up]

I've used Tire Rack a couple times and after one install the shop told me that Tire Rack offers a service to shave down replacement tires to match an existing tread depth. I have never used the service (and don't think I would) but it looks like it still exists:

https://www.tirerack.com/upgrade-ga...hs-on-allwheel-drive-fourwheel-drive-vehicles

 

[Dan C]

I bought Michelins from Americas tire on my previous truck. When one went bad they replaced it for free and pro rated the other three

 

[spacepirate]

Thanks everyone for your (sometimes conflicting ) suggestions. Here's a picture after pumping it back up to normal pressure. The nail is in the meaty part of the tread but seems to be angled toward the sidewall rather than straight in

The best approach seems to be to see if a repair place is willing to fix it and if not I guess I'm going to be picking a full set with good road-hazard coverage.

 

[ElectrifyingMe25]

Title basically tells the story. Left rear tire (OEM Hankook) picked up a nail somewhere yesterday and has dropped to 20psi. It's holding there for now. The nail is about an inch in from the outside so I assume that it's not something a shop would consider repairable.

A lot of guidance says that it's bad to have one new tire on a 4WD. Do I need to replace the whole set of them or would I be able to get away with just replacing the damaged one? I only have about 15k miles on the truck.

Should I compare the tread depth on my current tires to a new OEM Hankook before deciding? If so, what sort of variance is acceptable?

Save yourself some money, have a tire shop use a plug/patch and you'll be good to go. People who know tire repair would do the same. Don't let predatory tire shops talk you into a new tire or set of tires. Good luck.

 

[jwrezz]

Yeah, that's right on the line. Need an NFL ref to call that one! I say it's more on the tread.

 

[Dan C]

That is pretty close if it were mine I would take the opportunity to get rid of the hankooks

 

[Joe Dablock]

Plug the tire. If it holds your good to go. If it doesn’t then buy one new tire, or buy four new tires and I will be glad to get rid of all four tires for you free of charge!

 

[RickLightning]

I provided a link to Discount Tire that shows what they would repair, and that's pretty clearly in the "we won't repair" area.

 

[blb228]

That is a pretty tough call considering where the nail is and the stresses that are put on these tires. I have seen those types of nail holes patched from the inside and another 60,000 miles out of them. (I have used Stan's Sealant for these types of things but sealants don't play nice with TPMS) However, I have also seen the tires start to tear/fail from the stresses and what damage the nail/screw/etc did to the actually structure of the tire. If you do decide to patch it, keep a close eye on it initially and make sure the puncture site isn't changing. That's not super close to the sidewall for this, but after seeing my stock Hankook's atrocious wear after 9,000miles, I replaced them at 11,000miles before the snow flew and have been extremely happy with my winter tire setup.

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