What are the potential problems running different tread patterns front and rear?

After 3 years and 17,000 miles it's time to replace my rear tires. They are BF Goodrich KDW G-Force tires and that tire has been discontinued.

The replacement tire is the BFG Comp-2. I'm sure this tire would work well (although I do prefer the tread pattern on the KDW G-Force).

My front tires are still in great condition and it would be a shame to toss them. It would be a greater shame to have a bad thing happen because I was too cheap to replace all four tires.

Are there tires out there that keep the same tread pattern year after year? I'm running 215/40/17 and 265/35/18.

Thanks for the help,

Matt

I'm not clear on why you prefer one tread pattern over the other. Those are similar enough that it won't be a problem to run them together.

The potential problem with using a different make/model in the front from the rear is that the handling can become unpredictable. Here's how. Let's say the front tire make/model has more grip than the rear tire make/model on dry pavement. That means that there will be a tendency towards oversteer when cornering. Oversteer means that the rear tires lose grip before the front tires do; as a result, the rear end has a tendency to swing out, forcing the car to spin. Now, let's keep going, and let's say that with these same tires, the front tire make/model has LESS grip than the rear tire make/model on WET pavement. That means that there will be a tendency towards understeer when cornering. Understeer means that the front tires lose grip before the rear tires do; as a result, the car has a tendency to "plow" straight ahead, or to turn less than your steering wheel inputs would indicate. So you can actually have a car that oversteers on dry pavement, and then it starts to rain and/or you hit some wet pavement and suddenly it understeers. You can also have the opposite, a set of mismatched tires that tends to understeer on dry pavement and oversteer on wet pavement.

The ideal way to avoid this is to use the same make/model tires on all four corners of the car at all times. However, if you can't get matching tires for the ones you need to replace, and you hate to toss two perfectly good tires with plenty of tread - I sure do - the next best thing is to replace the two tires with ones whose performance characteristics are very close to the two they will be used with. The way to ensure that is to choose tires that are in the same performance category on the Tire Rack website. Both the BFGoodrich g-Force Sport COMP-2 and the BFGoodrich g-Force T/A KDW 2 are in the Tire Rack's "Ultra High Performance Summer Tire" category. So even though their tread pattern is totally different from each other, their performance in most circumstances is similar enough that you should be able to get away with using them together.

Then when it comes time to replace the KDW 2 tires, you can get a pair of the COMP-2 and you'll have four matching tires once again.

HTH

Ken,

Thanks so much for the insight.

The nice man from the Tire Rack said the Comp-2 would be stickier than the the KDW and should be fine on the rear.

I might just go with the Comp-2's all the way around and hope they continue this version for a few more years,

Matt

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jwmelvin said:

I'm not clear on why you prefer one tread pattern over the other. Those are similar enough that it won't be a problem to run them together.

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Hi Jason,

The KDW's have a sort of "flame" tread design that I found very attractive. The
Comp-2's were a little more conservative.

I'm going to play it safe and replace all 4.

Matt

I'm running Yok/S-drives up front and Mich/pilot sports out back. Zero issues. Car feels very confident/turns tight/tracks straight. Of course this was not by choice. I had a trip to make and S-drives were several weeks out so Pilots went in place.

davidf said:

I'm running Yok/S-drives up front and Mich/pilot sports out back. Zero issues. Car feels very confident/turns tight/tracks straight. Of course this was not by choice. I had a trip to make and S-drives were several weeks out so Pilots went in place.

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Waiting for my Yoko S drives now. Should have them on Monday.

Matt Knight said:

Waiting for my Yoko S drives now. Should have them on Monday.

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i have s.drives in the exact sizes you mentioned in the op and am very pleased with them.i wasn't considering them initially after i upsized my wheels because they are only in the uhp class, but their performance is amazing for that class,close to the extreme class bridgestone potenza re-11's i had before.expert mechanic ben,who was working on the car, and honcho on here both recommended them, and that carried a lot of weight with me. they ride firmly but turn in is great and they have a lot of grip.hope you will also like them.