Had to get new rear tires.....

There is an allowable difference between front and rear in the spec,
otherwise no one could ever rotate tires for any reason ever, especially on the 35,000 mile tires at discount stores.
A simple $3 tire Guage will tell him if the rears can go up front by the book.

With 5000 mile rotations my fronts are more than 2/32 different than my rears along the edge.
According to some I couldn’t rotate which is utter nonsense , especially on a traction controlled car driving on summer roads.


So in practice on summer roads unless his current tires are almost ready for replacement anyway
it should be a non issue.

Unless he is driving on dirt roads down a mountain without traction control or abs.

Op never did say how much tread or miles are on his fronts, if he is under 10,000 miles on the old set our discussion here is moot.

 

I think if you never rotate, besides faster wear on the front, you'll also have the rears inside edge of tread wearing faster, due to the camber of the rear wheels (splayed out towards the bottom).

Since I'm putting snow tires on every fall, at least for me rotation is just changing up the order with each swap.

 

I'm going with the nearly unanimous, complete, industry wide recommendation that if you buy a pair of new tires, the new tires go on the rear axle.

Since the information was not given, mileage or condition of the original remaining 2, I'm NOT speculating that it "might" be OK to go against that recommendation.

The tires he had to replace were "rear" tires. If he bought the pair at Costco, I'm guessing they slapped the new tires on the rear axle, as they SHOULD.

 

Note to self: NEVER buy just two tires; always get four.

 

Yeah based on misconceptions developed on obsolete bias treads in the 1970’s, similar to the high inflation pressures cause steel bands to expand creating center wear arguments.

It’s also the same logic that keeps directional wheel lugs on military vehicles to this day. (Commercially obsolete in the 1930’s)

https://www.tirebusiness.com/article/20120521/ISSUE/305219965/scrutinizing-lsquonew-tires-on-rearrsquo-axiom-tire-age-debate

“The industry’s position is that if you put two new tires on the front, you are going to die," he said. "The absolutism of this is astounding to me."

“No one has taken a hard look at the "new-tires-in-rear" policy since the 1970s, he claimed, noting that "these things get into an emotional debate. We ought to back them up with cold, hard facts."

“One company put out a memo last month stating that you can’t rotate your tires if there is more than 4/32-inch difference in tread depth between the axles," he noted.

“Yet a statistical analysis of NHTSA data did not indicate an increase in accidents when new tires were on the front of vehicles, Mr. Baldwin said.”

 

Politely I think we are just going to disagree.

There is ample evidence, flat out testing, and demonstration as to why putting the best tread on the rear wheels TODAY is the best choice.

As far as I know, every single major tire supplier, will install following the protocol of putting the best tread on the rear axle.

IMO...they have already sold you the tires. There is no advantage for them to gain by doing the opposite. It simply IS the best, safest, and recommended thing to do.

We have kind of gotten off track, because the OP's primary question was about the tires themselves.
I have no experience with those specific tires.

Once when I was younger I was forced due to budget to buy only two tires. But I quickly saved up...less than a month..and bought the additional exact same two.

And since, my approach is to try to replace entire sets of 4. Thus avoiding the debate.

I realize if you have a really new set of tires, and suffer an accident, that may change the situation.
But if at all possible, I replace entire sets of tires. I don't like running mismatched sets.

 

I agree with this. But again as in the case of OP, if your tires are new-ish (say less than year or 10K) and you have only one unrepairable tire, the it is hard to justify throwing away THREE good tires. I do try to change at the least a pair, but if I can't find a pair of the exactly the same model of tires, then I will end up mismatched sets. At that point, tire rotation becomes meaningless regardless of front or rear the new tires goes on. Two different models of tires will wear at different rate no matter what.

 

I think most of that testing was done on a wet "skid pad" and the conditions are heavily biased toward causing the rear end to break free.
I also think that driving in severe conditions.......like hydroplaning on puddles or driving on ice or packed snow would give different results.
Maybe.
I just don't think it is THAT important.
And pretty much nobody disputes that the front tires on a FWD car wear faster.

P.S. I've been driving for about 55 years now and the last time I had ANY wheels skid out of control during "normal" driving was.......NEVER.

 

Oh?
Which ones?

I do not remember directional tires on any of my M998s (HMMWVs) nor any of our other tan gear.....BUT....I'm a twidget and I've never done a tire swap on a 6x6.
We weren't sexy enough to have MRAPS which (fun fact!) are considered to be "light" tactical vehicles, so our deuces and 5-tons may have had employed this "unnecessary technology" without my being specifically aware of it.
Also....I haven't been to a convoy brief in well over a decade - so the "What to do IF....." part might have been incomplete about needing to pay attention to lug direction....of I might just not remember.
So....
I got curious.
It's what drives us humans, sometimes...
I could find nothing out on the interwebs advising surplus HMMWV owners that they had to buy two types of lug nutz.....NOT meaning the type that go on the wheels and the type dangling from the rear bumper, and while HMMWV's are technically still used "to this day" they're considered to be "old" gear actively being replaced by...JLTVs which are nearly as ugly in the front as the new Priuses are in the back.
I saw nothing that led me to believe that the new JTLVs used directional tires OR lugs.

Everything I could find on directional wheel lugs for green gear is for OLD green gear.

Are directional wheel lugs still a "thing" in the military or are they just used on "heavy" tactical vehicles?

Bonus question!
How the hell do you properly torque down a leftie lug?
We used left-handed torque wrenches in submarines to measure (among other things) break-away torque for fasteners and other fittings, and they HAD TO BE specifically left-handed torque wrenches with a current calibration, (it's probably not PC to call them that, but bubbleheads aren't world renowned for being socially agile)

I've never seen a CCW torque wrench rated for 400ft/lbs, and my spidey-sense tells me that since they have both flavors that there is a reason for it.

Things that make you go hmmmmm......

 

I wish I knew how many miles difference there was between the tires? The op never mentioned it.

 

So if you had a road hazard failure of 1 tire after say 20,000 miles would you replace the other 3 also?

 

If I tell you I have to shoot you

But Every brand new heavy and medium here has them along with 2 special multi spindle reversible torque devices that speed things up in the tire pit.

 

LOL!

Fair enough...
Once you get past "light" tactical, I defer to somebody with more grease under their fingernails.

 

What’s even better is when the trailers with their round featureless axles come with two lefts, two rights or the axle in reverse from the vendor

 

Lowest bidder.....

Your tax dollars at work.

 

My auto shop sells a tire treed depth gauge for about $3 that will show you in a twinkle how deep those groves are. You measure in three spots across the tire, left, right and middle.

Old school you use a coin. A quarter with Washington's head down toward the groove. If his head is partially covered, you are ok. On the very edge of his head, start thinking about buying tires.

 

I think you've just made a good decision of installing new set of tires.