Tire Rotation Pattern Theory -- Why?

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Originally Posted By: CapriRacer
There are ... The net effect is more life.


Note that I did not want to reprint the entire post, as your point is valid, IF YOUR CAR HAS ISSUES.

But the fact is that I own several rides. Not all of them require this. The ones that don't will gain nothing from rotation, period. It is simply a waste of time.

You are making a blanket statement that does not apply to many vehicles that wear their tires evenly.
 
What about dismounting the tires to put the insides onto the outside edges? I'm seeing some more wear on the outsides of my tires at 35k than the inside, and it's less than $10 to have them re-mounted with the insides becoming the outsides. Had the car aligned not too long ago.

This is more of a concern for directional tires like TripleTreads, but could it help regular, bi-directional tires?
 
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Originally Posted By: CapriRacer
There are ... The net effect is more life.


Note that I did not want to reprint the entire post, as your point is valid, IF YOUR CAR HAS ISSUES.


No, not only if the car has "issues". Alignment can be completely "correct" and the tires may still show wear patterns. All of my personal cars will feather the outside edges of the front tires (some more than others). Every vehicle we have at work, which ranges from Ford Tauruses to Ford F-150s to Dodge Rams to Dodge Caravans, also does it. The alignment is "right". It's just the way the geometry is set up. Every suspension setup and alignment specification is a compromise of some sort. There is no such thing as "perfect" here.

If you don't discern any wear patterns and don't rotate your tires, that's fine. But the recommendation for regular tire rotations is an excellent one for most vehicles. In most cases, wear patterns will set in, even if the alignment is exactly where it should be, simply due to the forces at play (like tread block squirm, etc).
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete


It's not like you magically get more life by rotating the tires (in total). All you're doing is equalizing the wear among all of them.


I am sure that you would agree that a 5-wheel rotation will increase the total life if the car has 5 matching wheels and tires.
 
Originally Posted By: Carbon
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete


It's not like you magically get more life by rotating the tires (in total). All you're doing is equalizing the wear among all of them.


I am sure that you would agree that a 5-wheel rotation will increase the total life if the car has 5 matching wheels and tires.


It would increase life, but also replacement cost. Because after all 5 are wore down, you've got to buy 5 instead of 4.
 
Originally Posted By: Jason Adcock
Originally Posted By: Carbon
I am sure that you would agree that a 5-wheel rotation will increase the total life if the car has 5 matching wheels and tires.


It would increase life, but also replacement cost. Because after all 5 are wore down, you've got to buy 5 instead of 4.

What I did was replace four and keep the best one as the new spare. Then I switched to a 4-wheel rotation.
 
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR


For optimal performance and handling, you want 4 tires of the same brand and model. If 2 wore out faster and are needed to be replaced, you need to buy 2 of the same brand/model with the remaining 2. Few years later the remaining 2 wore out and you buy 2 same brand/model again ...

If you rotate, all 4 wore out evenly then you can buy the same brand/model if you are happy with it. If not, then you can buy any brand/model of your choice.


Sometimes that's exactly what you want: 2 new tires that replace road hazard damaged tires or internal damaged tires to wear out faster, on the front, so that they will be replaced with the older tires in the rear at the same time.
 
No, not only if the car has "issues".

If you don't discern any wear patterns and don't rotate your tires, that's fine. But the recommendation for regular tire rotations is an excellent one for most vehicles. In most cases, wear patterns will set in, even if the alignment is exactly where it should be, simply due to the forces at play (like tread block squirm, etc). [/quote]



Thanks for that. Exactly my point.

"For MOST vehicles, In MOST cases!

Currently have way too many in my personal stable and a fleet of trucks as well. And rotation is not going to give you anything unless you have some sort of need to do it. It's an 'old school' type of thought that simply doesn't apply to everyone.
 
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