Tyre rotation - To do or not to do

[CasKru]

Found this on Toyotazone - interesting

Most tyre companies advise that car tyres should be rotated from time to time, but I’ve come across one manufacturer and a chain of tyre dealers that disagree. I’m going to give both points of view, and leave the reader to decide.

The case for rotation
Toyota advises that tyres be rotated regularly. It is often done while a car is serviced.

Tyres should be rotated because they seldom wear evenly. On front-wheel-driven cars the front wheels usually carry considerably more mass than the rear wheels. They also have to transmit power as well as swivel, to make cornering possible. Consequently they wear at significantly faster rates than the rear tyres. On rear-wheel-driven cars the rear tyres tend to wear faster than the fronts because they transmit the engine’s power to the road.

In either case a tyre rotation every 8 000 to 10 000 km will spread the wear more evenly, so that eventually you’ll be able to replace all the tyres at the same time. The transmission on some four wheel drive vehicles may be damaged by driving with one or more badly-worn tyres, so that if you own such a vehicle then tyre rotation should not be neglected. If in any doubt consult the owner’s manual.

There are some circumstances when this advice does not apply, such as when front and rear tyre sizes are designed to be different or where a vehicle is designed to have directional tyres at the front and asymmetric at the rear.

Rotation schemes
A typical rotation scheme is to move the back wheels to the front, but swop the front wheels around before fitting them to the back. This means that the left front wheel should end up at the right rear, and the right front wheel should end up at the left rear. If the tyres are uni-directional, they should stay on the same side of the vehicle, but swopped front to rear.

Four wheel drive and specialised vehicles may require their own rotation patterns. These will be spelled out in the owner’s manual.

The case for non-rotation
The proponents of non-rotation say that it is safer to always have the weakest tyres at the front because a front wheel skid is easier for inexperienced drivers to control than a rear wheel skid.

Most modern cars are set up in such a way that fast cornering will result in the front wheels breaking away. As the tyres wear, this tendency will increase. If the tyres are rotated a situation may arise where the worst tyres are fitted at the rear, and this may provoke a rear wheel skid that may result in the car facing the wrong way or even overturning.

Partly worn tyres are also more likely to experience punctures and also more likely to skid in the wet, so that once again these should be at the front where the inevitable slide is more manageable.

If you don’t rotate then you have to keep an eye on the condition of the front tyres, and buy a new pair when these are worn. Fit the new tyres at the rear, and move the rear tyres to the front, so that you always have the best tyres at the rear. This is such a new idea that some tyre dealers will insist on mounting the new tyres on the front wheels.

This scheme also has the advantage that you only have to buy two new tyres instead of four, or even five. If you are replacing a single tyre then this should be paired at the rear with the tyre having the most tread depth.

Conclusion
For maximum tyre life, rotate your tyres regularly; for maximum safety, don’t rotate.

[Stubs]

they also had this pic with the article on FB....

[JEEPIE]

i rotate regulary

[Stubs]

hope we still on the tyre subject

[CasKru]

I don't rotate mine

[Hoppy]

My engine rotates mine

[MOFASA]

My engine rotates mine

[JohanM]

My engine rotates mine

Your's or the Hilux's engine, Allan

[Rianc]

Interresante onderwerp. Jare terug het ek 'n sentra STI (voorwiel aandrywing) gehad. My bande was met 'n diens roteer en wielsporing was gedoen. Die kar het lelik regs getrek! Terug handelaar toe en alles is deur gegaan en my verseker dat alle 100% is op die wielsporing. Gaan toe na 'n TWT en vra vir 'n wielsporing review. Alles 100% volgens hulle masjiene ook? Ek besluit toe om die wiele terug te ruil soos hulle was, en wha-la! die kar loop weer normaal. Sedert die ondervinding het ek belsuit om nie meer te ruil nie. Maar nou die ironie was met my ViGO dc. Die BF's het voor (op 40 000km) so bietjie snaak afgeloop en het die helfte slegter gelyk as die agterbande wat baie goed was. Ek was aangeraai om dit te ruil en het so gedoen, sowat 5000km later het ek waargeneem dat die slegter bande (wat nou agter was) se loopvlak begin beter lyk het, meer gelyk, en toevallig het die voorste beter bande ook mooi gebly.

So ja, lang storie kort, ek dink jy kan ruil en of belsuit om dit nie te doen nie. Hang maar af hoe jou voertuig daaroor voel op die ou end van die dag, ek bedoel dit is sy skoene wat jy rondskuif en hy mag dit dalk nie laaik nie.

[FJCruiser-ZN]

I rotate my trucks STT's every 10000km. The tyres are very noisy after rotating then quieten down after a few 1000km's

Usually get around 80000km's on a set
T

[Thunder02]

Looking at rotating my for the first time,never done it on any of my vehicles in the past.





Thinking of rotating the wife
At what mileage do you think they should be swoped

[Rianc]

Thunde02, I think every 2 years or so, depends on the noise you experience as Legend35-kz experience after rotation!

[ForYota]

Looking at rotating my for the first time,never done it on any of my vehicles in the past.





Thinking of rotating the wife
At what mileage do you think they should be swoped

My vrou praat gewoonlik van ons trou sertifikaat.. ek bly vi ha se dis net n huur kontrak...

[Rianc]

Gelukkig werk jou kort stokkie nou weer!

[ForYota]

Gelukkig werk jou kort stokkie nou weer!

Jy kan dit weer se

[george]

I have always rotated mine.I like even wear.When I change tires I like to change all 4.Try new brands maybe get a bargain on a different make etc.
I put Michelin on the wife's car and not to break the rules of the warranty I have to rotate.They even gave like a service book for the tires.
I am no driving expert but I dont really get there safety explanation.If your tires are worn in front or back it should be replaced.

[Danman]

I rotate tires on all my vehicles. works better for me. do wheel allignment at same time and ballancing.

[Hoppy]

Thinking of rotating the wife
At what mileage do you think they should be swapped

Same rules apply, it depends on wear, noise, inflation, looks, aggression, age, alignment looks and cost.

Swapping a 60 profile for two 30's might look like a good idea at first, but it might turn out to be an expensive choice, rotating to often can be detrimental to your lifespan and you may lose mileage on every swap.

It may be better to stick to the slightly worn and over- inflated ones, they give a more comfortable and longer lasting ride, i would stay away from the mud terrains, they might wear you out a little soon and can be very noisy, the highway terrain ones might be smaller & quieter, but dynamite and free samples comes in small packages. Stick to all terrains, best of both worlds.

Hope this helps with your difficult choice, have a good year,

Dr. Phill Dunlop

[Racing snake]

Nice one Alan. When you are sleeping in the spare room tonight, give me a call. Maybe I can tell you where you went wrong.

[Thunder02]

Thinking of rotating the wife
At what mileage do you think they should be swapped

Same rules apply, it depends on wear, noise, inflation, looks, aggression, age, alignment looks and cost.

Swapping a 60 profile for two 30's might look like a good idea at first, but it might turn out to be an expensive choice, rotating to often can be detrimental to your lifespan and you may lose mileage on every swap.

It may be better to stick to the slightly worn and over- inflated ones, they give a more comfortable and longer lasting ride, i would stay away from the mud terrains, they might wear you out a little soon and can be very noisy, the highway terrain ones might be smaller & quieter, but dynamite and free samples comes in small packages. Stick to all terrains, best of both worlds.

Hope this helps with your difficult choice, have a good year,


Dr. Phill Dunlop

Now that's the funniest thing I've read in ages.
Had to leave the room twice,wife wants to know what's going on....

[pietpetoors]

Good one Alan

[Haboob]

Thinking of rotating the wife
At what mileage do you think they should be swoped

Agree with most of the tyre theories, but what happens when you have a front tyre blow out... that is when most vehicles get rolled. I put the tyres with the least wear on the back. I have had a rear blow out on a car at 160 km/h on a straight ...no problem. I have had a rear blow out on a fully laden 4 x 4 at about 110 km/h on a straight ... no problem. I have had a rear blow out on a fully laden 4 x 2 at about 130 km/h on a long curve... no problem. I think that on all occasions I was very lucky that it was not a front tyre. These tyres all had about 50 % wear, when the blow outs occurred. I am not advocating or blaming fast driving, but those did occur at a much younger age, whilst the 4x4 incident occurred about four years ago in the Caprivi.

[Froll]

[Jaans]

I also rotate my bakkies tyres.

I do not agree with the arguments on not to rotate. If you rotate the tyres on the vehicle when you should all the tyres will be equally worn therefore it does not matter what tyre is on the front and what is on the back. This is how vehicles are designed to have tyres with usual tread.

[Mud Dog]

I still stand by what I have said here in the past. By all means, cross rotate on your car and bakkie if you don't have agressive treads. If you do have agressive treads then switch back to front on each side only (keep LHS on LHS and RHS on RHS)). In other words keep the rolling direction the same. Tread blocks flex a bit and develop a leading edge and a trailing edge when wearing in. If you change the rolling direction this wear pattern has to reverse, leading to faster wear and as mentioned, noisy tyres until they setlle down again. That said, I tend not to rotate at all unless there's been uneven wear like with an alignment problem ..... (of course only after the problem is rectified).

[ChrisF]

CAR - dont rotate "regularly", BUT, when the front ones go under 4mm they go to the back - I want the grip in front so I have maximum steering (I know this contradicts the safety theory, but works for me)


4x4 - was told to rotate to keep the diameter similar ..... not had good experience with this (mostly). Just before our long holiday elders started pulling right - a LOT. Had the allignment done, but it did not help much, had the allignment done again, still not much improvement. now the tireshop did a left-right swop of the front tire - now it PULLED left. front-rear swop and 7 000 km later it is still perfect .... would hate to swop it now, now that it runs true ....

[Mud Dog]

I think the sensitivity to equal diameter wear pertains to permanently AWD vehicles and not to such as the Hilux. There are no visco-couplings that lock up and the diffs will compensate. But ja, Chris, it's just another argument in favour of my theory.

[Tarquin]

Thinking of rotating the wife
At what mileage do you think they should be swoped

Agree with most of the tyre theories, but what happens when you have a front tyre blow out... that is when most vehicles get rolled. I put the tyres with the least wear on the back. I have had a rear blow out on a car at 160 km/h on a straight ...no problem. I have had a rear blow out on a fully laden 4 x 4 at about 110 km/h on a straight ... no problem. I have had a rear blow out on a fully laden 4 x 2 at about 130 km/h on a long curve... no problem. I think that on all occasions I was very lucky that it was not a front tyre. These tyres all had about 50 % wear, when the blow outs occurred. I am not advocating or blaming fast driving, but those did occur at a much younger age, whilst the 4x4 incident occurred about four years ago in the Caprivi.

i agree with you completely, a blow out in the back is much safer than in the front.
also partially worn tyres should go to the back, because the back wears strait. so if
you've had a set on the front for a while you might notice that they are worn on the
side a bit from turning.
New- front
Old -back

[Hoppy]

I agree with the fact that the best tyre should be in front for control and braking, but i disagree a bit with the blow out scenario, it's easier to maintain control with a loaded vehicle with flat tyre in front than at the back. I've had a few blow outs front and rear, once you loose the back end, it takes a lot of skill to catch, but he front stays on track and you can still steer the flat wheel even if it's flat.
The only time a front blow out is more dangerous is when it de-beads, gets caught on the suspension or steering arms and locks up at speed.

[CasKru]

I also think as a rule a front blowout is "safer" than one at the rear. Had one going around a bend doing about 80km/h. The front wheel that burst (outside of turn) just drop a bit and settled right down. I just let the bakkie roll further not applying the brakes. Now if it was a rear wheel (especially the one on the outside of the turn) that blew out... I think I would not have been typing this post.

But think of it this way. You say you put the tyre with the most tread on the front. Only in wet conditions is deeper tread an advantage, the rest of the time, the slicker a tyre the better the grip.

[ThysdJ]

I still stand by what I have said here in the past. By all means, cross rotate on your car and bakkie if you don't have agressive treads. If you do have agressive treads then switch back to front on each side only (keep LHS on LHS and RHS on RHS)). In other words keep the rolling direction the same. Tread blocks flex a bit and develop a leading edge and a trailing edge when wearing in. If you change the rolling direction this wear pattern has to reverse, leading to faster wear and as mentioned, noisy tyres until they setlle down again.

I dont agree with this. In my experience the 33" Goodyear MTR's which I bought new, and that are still on Kaspaas, were cross rotated by my friend Allan the Hoppster at every service (at most 10 000km's) and by the time I sold Kaspaas (almost 2 years ago) they had done in excess of 80 000 km's and still good for another 20 000 kms. Yes they were a bit noisier after the change, but MTR's are noisy, period, and you get used to the extra noise within a few km's.

The only tyres with aggressive knobbly tread I would not cross rotate are those with directional tread, like the Kumho KL71's..

[ForYota]

I still stand by what I have said here in the past. By all means, cross rotate on your car and bakkie if you don't have agressive treads. If you do have agressive treads then switch back to front on each side only (keep LHS on LHS and RHS on RHS)). In other words keep the rolling direction the same. Tread blocks flex a bit and develop a leading edge and a trailing edge when wearing in. If you change the rolling direction this wear pattern has to reverse, leading to faster wear and as mentioned, noisy tyres until they setlle down again.

I dont agree with this. In my experience the 33" Goodyear MTR's which I bought new, and that are still on Kaspaas, were cross rotated by my friend Allan the Hoppster at every service (at most 10 000km's) and by the time I sold Kaspaas (almost 2 years ago) they had done in excess of 80 000 km's and still good for another 20 000 kms. Yes they were a bit noisier after the change, but MTR's are noisy, period, and you get used to the extra noise within a few km's.

The only tyres with aggressive knobbly tread I would not cross rotate are those with directional tread, like the Kumho KL71's..

So Thys if i understand you correctly here I shouldn't cross rotate these?

[CasKru]

Hennie...watse Maxxis is daai? Is dit dit Trepador?

[ThysdJ]

I am not saying anything, I am stating what worked for me.

If they are not directional treads,then you can cross rotate them. If they are directional (with an arrow on the sidewall pointing in a direction of rotation) then dont cross rotate them. They are designed only to work in one direction.

[CasKru]

Hennie... as daai die Trepador is kan jy net back to front ruil en nie rotate nie:

Features And Benefits

Aggressive directional tread design provides excellent dry and wet handling stability on all types of terrain
Multi-curve tread siping improves traction on loose dirt while enhancing braking and driving performance
Nylon belt reinforced tyre construction improves puncture resistance and prolongs tread life

[ForYota]

Hennie... as daai die Trepador is kan jy net back to front ruil en nie rotate nie:

Features And Benefits

Aggressive directional tread design provides excellent dry and wet handling stability on all types of terrain
Multi-curve tread siping improves traction on loose dirt while enhancing braking and driving performance
Nylon belt reinforced tyre construction improves puncture resistance and prolongs tread life

Dankie Baie

Die eienaar van vaal mall tyres het wel vir my gese as ek eendag duine gaan ry kan ek die bande van links na regs swaai... glo beter grip in die sand met die thread wat nou verkeerde kant toe sal wys.. nie dat ek glo ek ooit in daai wereld sal beland nie!

[Hoppy]

Directional tyres should be rotated back to front every 5000 km and not 10 000 km to prevent heal and toe wear. If you have severe heal and toe wear on directionals, you can cross rotate them, they work just as good running the opposite direction.

The only reason why you should not rotate on a 4x4 is if you want to change your tyres two at a time and not all four, i prefer to change all four at once, a worn tyre can be 16mm or more lower than the new one, this is not good for some 4x4 systems and it can negatively affect handling.

[Die$eL]

I've done 80 000kms since getting my car. The previous owner had fitted the tyres so i dont know how much mileage he did with them before i got the car.

I rotate and balance + do alignment regularly.

They are Michelin. And this is with doing burnouts, playing on track as well as on the skidpan. Excellent wear!

[ThysdJ]

van vaal mall tyres het wel vir my gese as ek eendag duine gaan ry kan ek die bande van links na regs swaai... glo beter grip in die sand met die thread wat nou verkeerde kant toe sal wys.. nie dat ek glo ek ooit in daai wereld sal beland nie!

That statement does not make sense to me. These are offroad tyres, they are designed to deliver max traction in one direction. Why would it then provide better traction (off-road in sand) in the "wrong" direction? Or am I missing the boat??

[ForYota]

van vaal mall tyres het wel vir my gese as ek eendag duine gaan ry kan ek die bande van links na regs swaai... glo beter grip in die sand met die thread wat nou verkeerde kant toe sal wys.. nie dat ek glo ek ooit in daai wereld sal beland nie!

That statement does not make sense to me. These are offroad tyres, they are designed to deliver max traction in one direction. Why would it then provide better traction (off-road in sand) in the "wrong" direction? Or am I missing the boat??

No idea... just repeating what the guy told me

[CasKru]

Thys ek dink in daai verkoopman het in sy kop die prentjie dat daai v shape dan soos 'n trekker se "paddles" gaan werk (inverted V).

[Mud Dog]

I think what he's thinking is that the "inverted V" as Cassie calls it is going to pull sand in under the tyre and provide a bit more flotation rather than throw it out to the side and dig down. There may be a small amount of theoretical merit to such a line of thought, but in reality I don't think it will make much (if any) difference.

[Haboob]

"Only in wet conditions is deeper tread an advantage, the rest of the time, the slicker a tyre the better the grip."

I think that this only applies to racing & F1 vehicles where the tyre really becomes hot & sticky for grip. IN F1 when the safty car comes out, which is a big V8 which is going as fast as it can, the tyres on the F1 cool off so much that they lose their grip. I very much doubt that this apples to a fully laden 4x4 doing 100 - 120 km/h.

Also a blowout on the front outer wheel has the tyre fold in under the rim & over she goes. I have seen this plenty with a front wheel blow out, though it has not happened to me personally, & I thank my lucky stars for that. I don't mean a flat wheel, where pressure is lost until you feel the roll of the tyre before bringing the vehicle to a stop, I mean bang & you are on the rim.

[ForYota]

I think what he's thinking is that the "inverted V" as Cassie calls it is going to pull sand in under the tyre and provide a bit more flotation rather than throw it out to the side and dig down. There may be a small amount of theoretical merit to such a line of thought, but in reality I don't think it will make much (if any) difference.

Thanks oom Andy, thats how its descibed to me coming to think of it.. anyhow I didn' buy these tyres for "that" reason anyway.. It does brilliant in mudd, havent been able to test it on wet tar but i'd be very carefull anyway!!

[CasKru]

On dry... the more tyre in contact with the road, the better the grip. So the slicker the tyre the more the grip.

[Danman]

Directional tyres should be rotated back to front every 5000 km and not 10 000 km to prevent heal and toe wear. If you have severe heal and toe wear on directionals, you can cross rotate them, they work just as good running the opposite direction.

The only reason why you should not rotate on a 4x4 is if you want to change your tyres two at a time and not all four, i prefer to change all four at once, a worn tyre can be 16mm or more lower than the new one, this is not good for some 4x4 systems and it can negatively affect handling.

Exactly the reason why I rotate the tires of my vehicles