Harrow and flat tire

I started to drag the harrow around the pastures to break up the cow manure.  Not going well.  I finished the north and NE pastures and started on the middle pasture.  Sunday I discovered a flat tire on the pickup.

Flat

Monday I discovered the flat was not repairable due to the hole being in the sidewall.

The white circle shows the puncture.

I also learned that because my pickup has four-wheel drive all four tires need to be the same.  They need to be more than just the size of P245 75 R16.  I was also told they need to be the same brand and tire pattern to prevent drive train problems.

The ability of four-wheel drive and all-wheel drive vehicles to divide the engine's horsepower between its four tires is especially useful on loose or slippery surfaces such as sand and dirt, as well as on wet, icy or snow-covered roads. However it's important to remember that in order to transfer this extra power, the four-wheel drive and all-wheel drive vehicle's driveline mechanically connects the tires so they work in unison.

Four-wheel drive and all-wheel drive vehicles are equipped with additional differentials and/or viscous couplings that are designed to allow momentary differences in wheel speeds when the vehicle turns a corner or temporarily spins a tire. However, if the differentials or viscous couplings are forced to operate 100% of the time because of mismatched tires, they will experience excessive heat and unwarranted wear until they fail.

This necessitates that four-wheel drive and all-wheel drive vehicles use tires that are very closely matched. This is because different diameter tires roll a different number of times each mile as a result of the variations in their circumferences. Tire diameter variations can be caused by accidentally using different sized tires, tires with different tread designs, tires made by different manufacturers, different inflation pressures or even tires worn to different tread depths.

Okay...

The problem is that Goodyear discontinued their Wrangler ST tires.

I have only 19,000 miles on these tires and I didn't want to buy four new tires.  I drove around to some other tire stores to show them my tire.  No one had a similar tire and tread pattern.  I tried the used tire store.  Nope.  They didn't have one. I called a few salvage yards.  They didn't have a Goodyear Wrangler ST.  Then one tire store mentioned that they heard that a pawn shop supposedly had a lot of used tires.

And surprisingly they had lots of tires.  They no longer had a Wrangler ST but he had another tire in the same size.  I found that the salvage shops and used tires stores said one didn't have to match the tire brand exactly.  Especially since I seldom use four wheel drive and only on loose dirt or snow which already has some slip.

So I got another brand of tire in the same size.  I plan to use this tire as the spare tire and use the current full size spare as an active tire.  The same brand of tire and tread pattern even if this tire has no wear and the current tires are half worn.

It was suggested that it was more important to have exactly matching tires on the front when using four wheel drive.  I hadn't rotated the pickup's tires so now is the time.  Or I should say tomorrow as it started to rain after I got the tire.


I used my four old harrow sections and added the two newer sections I bought last year.  I placed a couple railroad ties on the front two sections to hold them down as I pull the harrow.

I also drug the harrow through part of the corral.

The north pasture is done.