The way I look at it - how far do you want to go before you realize you lost the "test"? Heck, I'm wondering if having modestly mismatched tires (Ones with 25,000 miles, another with 0 miles) leads to wear and tear on the transfer case and failure 50,000 miles in. My last t-case imploded on the street. Can't prove it, but there's a logic there that it could contribute to the wear over a long time. And saving $300 on a tire to contribute to an early failure of a part like a transfer case or diff isn't a gamble I feel like proving.
Think of it this way - we know that the H3 must be flat towed with all four wheels spinning. It cannot be dolly towed, with only two wheels spinning. That suggests the H3 is mechanically intolerant of the front wheels traveling at a different speed than the rear wheels. Now, I realize something like 70mph front and 0 mph rear is a vast difference, but can you accurately state what the safe difference is? Is it a 10 mph difference, a 1 mph difference, a 5.5% difference, like pairing a 33 with a 35? And are you confident enough in that to run with that setup for 10,000 miles or even 20 miles? Mind if we drain your diffs and t-case at the end, look for metal shavings and/or send the oil in for analysis?
BTW, for those that are saying "deflate the tire" - the circumference of the tire doesn't change when you deflate the tire. It still travels the same distance on each rotation.
