What makes most sense? Tire time for the minivan

Got a nail in a tire, and it is too close to the sidewall to patch. 

So now we have 3 good tires with about 20k miles on them. Since this was a rear tire, my thought was to swap the front two left to right (which admittedly will do little to nothing) and then replace the damaged tire with the same make and model. With only 20k miles, it shouldn’t be too out of whack with the rest of them, right?

Otherwise I’ll replace two of them, but I’m cheap when it’s safe to be. Thoughts? This is Mrs mtn’s vehicle, so while I’m comfortable pushing limits on my own vehicle, I’m not with one she drives everyday. 

In reply to mtn :

If it isn't AWD you should not have a problem.

How old is the van? If it has a full size spare that's getting up in age you might buy a new pair and have the extra 'good' tire mounted on the spare. I'll take younger rubber over tread depth on a spare any day. 

Vigo said:

How old is the van? If it has a full size spare that's getting up in age you might buy a new pair and have the extra 'good' tire mounted on the spare. I'll take younger rubber over tread depth on a spare any day. 

Donut :(  and the van is a 2017, but we bought it off the showroom floor in June 2018.

That was my first thought as well. I will probably get a pair and keep the extra good tire as a “spare” in case we get another nail. With all the construction going on around here I wouldn’t be surprised if it does happen. 

Vigo said:

How old is the van? If it has a full size spare that's getting up in age you might buy a new pair and have the extra 'good' tire mounted on the spare. I'll take younger rubber over tread depth on a spare any day. 

I also only had the donut spare. This same scenario happened to my wife's car and all I had to do was keep that tire around unmounted for the last 3 or so years to ward off more tire punctures. Maybe I'll have to keep the tire forever?

Destination MT's. Disclaimer- I didnt read your post until after I typed that. Having read your post, I stand by my initial answer 

I've never had a car that didn't have terrible tires stock anyway, my Sedona being no exception, and I can't stand the idea of throwing good money after bad on something sub-par. If you can swing it, this seems like a good excuse to replace all four with something MUCH better...Like Michelin Defender LTX M/S. This is what we did before its first winter with us, and couldn't be happier that we did. The stockers were sketchy enough in the rain at 15k miles, that I couldn't imagine what it would have been like during our "snowpocaplypse" this last winter.

It's close enough to winter as it's getting cold...

Get a set of wheels and put snows on it for the next 6 months. In the spring put just 1 new to replace the damaged one. 
 

The tread difference wont really matter during the nicer weather, and then you can run the factory rubber for several years until you wear out the original 3 and then replace all 4 at that time. 

in my experience (2003 and 2010 odysseys, about 400k combined), minivans berkeleying *kill* front tires unless they're rotated every 5k.  i would buy a pair and put them on the front.   of the three remaining, move the two best to the rear.  bag the third one or just pitch it.  you're talking about less than $200 delta for 25% of what keeps your wife's car connected to the road.

Snows and wheels aren't in the budget right now, and we have really good snow removal here anyways. I went and bought two new tires, should be getting them installed tomorrow. Moving the new tires to the front, front tires to the rear, rear tire will be bagged and put in the basement to ward off any more nails.

^ I think this is the right call.  I've had an Odyssey and a Sienna, and both of them killed tires in less than 30k miles.  You'll probably be replacing the other two before your next rotation.

Best to have the better tires on the rear, snap oversteer is a harsh mistress.

Snap oversteer?...In a minivan??  I should be so lucky.

If the better tires should always be in the rear, then you would never rotate the tires on a FWD vehicle...Which is obviously not correct. Over the years, I have never experienced any of the claimed 'dangers' by running the better tires where they're doing the vast majority of the work on a FWD vehicle, and that's not for a lack of trying on my part.  Like pretty much every other blanket recommendation, the whole 'better tires in the rear' thing is really just to protect people from having to think for themselves.

Driven5 said:

Snap oversteer...In a minivan?

If the better tires should always be in the rear, you would never rotate the tires on a FWD vehicle.

Yeah, I'm aware of the "better tires in the back", but I don't think this is an extreme case. And seeing as I've never had any hint of oversteer in this vehicle, even in the rain on a chip-sealed road, I think we'll be ok.