Tyre Rotation - (tyre maintenace)

[SpannerHombre]

I was reading up online about basic tyre maintenance.
Has anyone ever heard about "Tyre Rotation" ?

I've never heard of it before. It appears to be something you can do to increase the life and safety of your tyres, but it seems like an awful lot of effort.
Does anyone actually do it and have you noticed any benefit from it?

Up to now I've just been looking out for thread deterioration/ and making sure air pressure was good.

Cheers

 

[Diver Fred]

Yes.

Look in most manufactorer supplied handbooks and there will most likely be a reference to it. If you wish to do it make sure you do not have rotational specific tyres (think they will have an arrow mopulded in to show which way they should turn (at speed)) fitted.

Not sure if it's worthwhile unless you change cars regularly as the idea is that all tyres wear out at the same time.

Closest that many people get is (on front wheel drive) to fit new tyres to the front when the back ones wear out putting the worn tyres from the front onto the rear of the car (but apparentlythat is against HSE/EU rules as someone believes that makes the likelihood of the rear of a car becoming unstable and more likey to oversteer or breakaway on slippy surfaces).

Of course if your car has different size tyres front and rear you canot do it...

 

[JohnD]

I'm not sure it is still in fashion.

When you have tyres that wear to a different shape front and back (for example, on some cars the back tyres wear flat at the bottom, and the front round off the shoulders), the first thing that happens when you swap them is that they wear away to shape.

Many modern tyres have a Direction of Rotation so shouldn't swap sides.

 

[Burnerman]

You can see why its advised to have best treads on the back....it will theoretically reduce the chances of a spin on a FWD vehicle.
My own point of view is to get the best treads on the front - I'd sooner have the traction and grip there where its needed, and take the spinning risk if it happens.....fairly unlikely anyway.
If people start checking their tyre pressures occasionally it would be a miracle too.
John

 

[DaveHerns]

I've just had the debate about this on the Peugeot forum and was told strongly that the best tyres should be on the back.

 

[Burnerman]

Fair enough Dave but in the snow or whatever I'd still prefer the best boots on the front.....if you're a bit fast, the car under steers like hell. Lifting off the throttle brings it back into line nicely.
Nice wide radials are hopeless when the grip is poor but brilliant in normal conditions.
John

 

[Peter.N.]

I concur with John and prefer a good grip on the front, another consideration is the ride, a tyre with a good tread will ride better and more quietly. I don't drive fast enough to loose grip on the rear - except perhaps on ice.

Peter

 

[Doggit]

I think you need to be of a certain age to know about tyre rotation, but it was always too time consuming, and then too expensive to replace all the tyres at once. I always have the best tyres on the front, as these are the ones that you steer with, and if these go, you've got no directional control. If the rears go, then you turn into the direction of the spin, but at least you can do this with good tyres on the front.

Is this a debate that been lost in the transition from rear wheel drive to FWD

 

[Astra99]

I am fairly sure that swapping tyres to equalise wear goes back to the days of cross-ply tyres. Anyone under 45 years of age might as well stop reading now (5.60/5.90x14 etcetera). With radial tyres, is there a need? "Shouldering" on a steered axle, especially with power steering, is par for the course. Just replace the tyres on the steered axle, and let the rear tyres look after themselves until they too are worn out. On average, I would suggest two (maybe even three) sets of fronts to one set of rear tyres. However, I am biased. My front and rear tyres *are* different sizes!

For example, the Morris 1000 ran in 520x14 tyres, the Mini on 520x10. The BMC A60 sported 590x14 tyres, and the Vauxhall Viva (HA/HB) 550x12 The equivalent radial tyres, (used as Original Equipemt in later years of the model were Morris 1000, 145X14, Mini, 145x10, A60 165x14 and Viva, 155x12.

IIRC the crossplies were 88% profile, and the radials 80%. This is why the radials are (seemingly) wider than the crossply equivalents.
Crossply sizes are in inches (5.20" etc) and radial are in millimetres (145 etc) 5.2 inches equates to 132mm (to the nearest whole number)

When you think the old Ford "sit up and beg e93A" Popular ran on 4.50 x 17 tyres, how did it stay on the road. Bear in mind of course that it was flat-out at under 60 mph, as was the original Morris Minor.

HTH

 

[Doggit]

Eee ba gum, that takes me back a bit. I had a Triumph Herald convertible that had 13" cross plies all round, and that was just about the time that radials came in, but you couldn't fit radials to the Triumph because the rear wishbone suspension twisted the tyres to a level that the radials with their stiffer sidewalls couldn't stay in contact with the ground. Regrettably, I went round Trafalgar square one rainy night, and the tyres didn't grip on the adverse camber, and I wrote the car off. It was a long time before I had a car that was as much fun as that Triumph was, and I've never had a convertible again.

 

[Brigade77]

Mixing cross ply's with radials was sooo seriously BAD that your guv'mnt spent lots of your moneys on TV adverts to point it out.

Can anyone remember what the dangerous combination actually is?


Dork has always 'rotated' his tyres. It is not some magical thing that gives you more life for the tyres, it is just a thing I have about spreading the wear rates.


P.S. It's the rubber that grips, not the gaps in the tread patterns.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

Mixing cross ply's with radials was sooo seriously BAD that your guv'mnt spent lots of your moneys on TV adverts to point it out.

Can anyone remember what the dangerous combination actually is?


Dork has always 'rotated' his tyres. It is not some magical thing that gives you more life for the tyres, it is just a thing I have about spreading the wear rates.


P.S. It's the rubber that grips, not the gaps in the tread patterns.

I remember it was my first ever offence on a Mini, I bought a used tyre from scrappy for a couple of quid back in 1975, and removed my muffler and had the exhaust straight through and so for that reason noisy exhaust i was stopped, but then the police saw I had a radial and a Xply on the same front axial, and done me for that, though i must admit it made no difference to handling, because if it did, i wouldn't be writing this today, so it was a load of *******s as well.

tyre rotation simply meant swapping rear wheels with fronts, diagonally, and of course when you did this some tyres would now turn the other way.

 

[Brigade77]

I remember it was my first ever offence on a Mini, I bought a used tyre from scrappy for a couple of quid back in 1975, and removed my muffler and had the exhaust straight through and so for that reason noisy exhaust i was stopped, but then the police saw I had a radial and a Xply on the same front axial, and done me for that, though i must admit it made no difference to handling, because if it did, i wouldn't be writing this today, so it was a load of *******s as well.

tyre rotation simply meant swapping rear wheels with fronts, diagonally, not removing them from rims and and refitting them backwards.

Mixing cross ply's with radials on the same axle is sooo incredibly dangerous that in the period when this was likely . . . lots of folk were out there looking for those who did it.

That rozzer probably saved your life, although you cannot die in the crash that you never had . . . you probably came very close a few times.



P.S. Strange that you call it a "muffler", in fact lots of your grammer is strange. You not from London (England) are you Mike?

 

[Mikefromlondon]

LOL! I have always called it a muffler, though you might call it a silencer, its one and the same thing. Oh, and what makes you think i am from Timbuktu?

Another thing back in 70s there were just a handful of cars and we could drive cars mad then, now cars drive us mad!

 

[DaveHerns]

I never said I believed in best tyres on the back ! The theory advanced is that it's better to lose the front end than the rear end. If you hit something front end on it's safer than a side impact. I suppose with no traction you simply don't move so you won't hit anything. Don't ask me because if it snows I stay indoors . One of the benefits of retirement.