I'm running the OEM All season continentals on my All4 that's racked up about 13K miles and has 6/32" tread depth.

Last week, I picked up a nail that's too close to the sidewall to replace. Local tire shops informed me that since the vehicle is AWD, I'd need to, at a minimum, make sure that 2 tires on an axle were close in diameter to prevent damage to the drivetrain. Some recommended all 4 tires be replaced. I was looking at a $1200 nail. Ouch.

I know many have replaced RFTs with non-RFT and I'm not going to debate that here, but that was an option to save ~$300-$400. All I know is that I have 3 good tires and 1 bad one, and that I didn't want to pay for 4 new tires, when 3 were perfectly fine.

I discovered Tire Rack's shaving service. They were are able to shave down a new matching tire to match the 6/32" that my other 3 tires have. Repair cost reduced from $1200 to ~$250 installed. I did have to call to speak to a sales rep to have it done. Interestingly, it was done widely in the 70s when circular tires were hit/miss and it's near impossible to find anyone local that does it, or has the know how.

Hopefully someone may benefit from having this info if they find themselves in the same situation someday. I don't have $1200 laying around to drop on tires. Maybe when these tires are completely worn, I can consider moving to non-RFTs, but the security of being able to get to a 'safe' location is important to my wife.

 

Good to know. I was wondering about that myself.

 

I've had 2 tires punctured by screws on separate occasions. The dealer only needed to replace the 1 tire each time. When I asked if they needed to be replaced in pairs or even all 4 at once (I have an ALL4), they told me that replacing just the one was fine unless the tires were extremely worn.