When replacing just 2 tires

From what I understand this is a newer discussion since year 2000 ish. For hundred year people been putting best tread tires up front, then some lawsuit after plaintiff spin out. Your thoughts?

Different for fwd vs rwd?

 

Another weird thing is that when you have a fwd vehicle your front always wears faster so at some point when you rotate those to the back... haven’t you just gone against what they’re saying

 

I'd put them on the back where the drive wheels are

 

What about FWD, put them where the drive wheels are as well?

 

Yep, at least to start. And then rotate from there as needed

 

The front steers the truck and maintains control... I put that as 1st priority on my vehicle. If you're worried about traction at any point, put it in 4wd.

 

If you're spinning out because of "slick" tires on the rear, an average jury wouldn't know, but it's totally because your rear tires are beyond reasonable replacement. Gained plenty a clench time steering bald tires aggressively as a youngster. Gonna have the real rubber on the front.

 

I learned about "understeer" at a very irresponsible age by almost taking out a solid cross-tie corner post making a right turn too fast on a dirt road. If your front tires don't grip in a turn, either because of too little tread or too much speed, your vehicle becomes a projectile following Newton's laws.

The real answer depends on the driver's skills and the road conditions; i.e. paved vs dirt/gravel, wet vs dry, ice, cold vs hot, etc. Since none of those are known ahead of time by the tire store, my opinion is if it's important to award someone millions for being stupid, they should only sell tires in matched sets of four. Personally, since I've been an adult, I've never bought two tires instead of four because I've always had the cash. When I was in high school, it didn't matter which went on the front, they were all bald.

Here's more than anyone ever wanted to know about "understeer" and "oversteer", the conditions that effect both and the ways to combat both, delivered in an annoying British accent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwmDdMzzDjY

 

Best scenario is to replace all 4 tires. But if you have to replace only 2 tires they need to be placed on the rear of the vehicle reguardless where the drive wheels are. Front wheel drive vehicles have the weight of the engine on the drive wheels. When it's time to rotate the "New" tires to the front, you should be replacing the 2 going to the back. Now in saying this if your vehicle is a 4x4 you need to replace all 4. It's very hard on the 4x4 system to have your tires turning at different speeds. There are numerious articles that explain this. These are the rules we follow when a vehicle comes into our shop.

 

The discount tire site says rear for better control and handling under wet conditions.

 

I replace all 4 as needed because I do everything I can so they wear evenly... the only time I replaced just two was back when I was burning the tread off the rear tires every few weeks. What to do when replacing a blowout depends on tread depth, I don't want tires that are not nearly the same diameter.