single tire replacement...

[Safado]

Thanks Rick,

So maybe I just need some schooling. Any good tech reads on the VC? What it is, what it does, where it is? That kind of stuff, thanks.

 

[landtank]

You could search and get a ton of stuff . The land cruiser normally is a 1 wheel drive vehicle. Toyota calls it a control coupling. If there is slip at one of the wheels the driveshafts turn at a different rate. The VC (Viscous Coupling) reacts to that difference and creates some resistance to transfer some of the drive to the other axle. Now you have 2 wheel drive, 1 front and 1 rear. Putting 2 new tires at one axle will guarentee that the drive shafts will turn at different rates all the time. 1 on the front and 1 on the rear will help minimize that.

FWIW, I never rotated my tires. They wore nice and even with no issues at all. That included the originals as well as the replacements which now have 68k on them. However I now have a worthless spare as it's diameter is so different that if I were to use it I couldn't go far or at any great speed

 

[MoJ]

So the lesson I'm getting from this.....If you have road hazard protection and damage a tire, it would be a good idea to make sure ALL tires somehow become damaged.

 

[sjcruiser]

All,

Got the tire replaced yesterday finally. It's the new design The service manager explained that since the tread pattern & speed rating are the same, there wouldn't be any (safety) issue, regardless the difference in the treadwear index. Guess I'd have to live with it then.

Thanks all again for your inputs!
Frank.