How about rotating tires only 1 once, not more?

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I wonder if we rotate tires too often. My owner's manual calls for every 6K, but I do it every 10K. Why not just rotate tires when the fronts (on a FWD car, say) look to be half-worn? In theory, they should last just as long as the 6K periods. So let's say the fronts show the half point at 35K. Rotate them and the entire set should last to 70K. Assume of course that the alignment is within spec throughout the tires' life. Or never rotate them and just keep replacing the fronts. Most people probably do that anyway.

In any event, no way is it cost effective to pay a shop every 6,000 miles to rotate tires. It would be far cheaper to never rotate them. I guess that was really my point, that people overpay, in the long run, for tire rotations. Not that it applies to most proper BITOGers becasue we are DIYers anyway.
 
It depends on if your towing weight, alighnement and other factors. I do mine anywhere between 6-10k usually close to 10k every 2nd oil change. My tires currently have 62K on them and have about 10k or so until the wear bar. I'll be getting some newbies soon.
 
Don't forget that many chain stores (like Discount Tire) rotate and balance purchased tires for their lifetime. I always pick a slow time of day (never Saturday) and am out and rolling within 10 minutes. I usually can feel the fresh balance immediately.

They usually have the best price on tires as well.
 
I usually wait 'til my tires are 3/4 work in front, then swap them to the back, by the time the fronts need replacing, the rears do too by that time.
 
Prior to the advent of donut spares, I always thought that moving one tire out of service (as a spare) gave more overall mileage. I had a set of high mileage Toyos on the van and quit rotating them when I got pronounced wear. Just moved to Kumho Solus, so it will be interesting hto see how these wear.
 
If you wait too long to rotate you will get alot of extra vibration.. and might as well not rotate at all..

my opinion anyway.
 
Depends on the vehicle-some front wheel drives take forever to wear out the rear tires-but Ford full-size vans & 4WD vehicles need to be rotated regularly or weird wear patterns result, & instead of 55-60K out of a set of tires, they'll be so bumpy at 35K that they'll need replaced, long before the tread is gone.
 
If you have to pay for tire rotation, Walmart charges $10 to rotate 4 tires and it would be economical to rotate once when the fast wearing tires went down to about 50%.

But it still best to rotate every 5-6k miles if you do it yourself or free at tire shops such as Discount Tire.
 
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
If you have to pay for tire rotation, Walmart charges $10 to rotate 4 tires and it would be economical to rotate once when the fast wearing tires went down to about 50%.

But it still best to rotate every 5-6k miles if you do it yourself or free at tire shops such as Discount Tire.


It is 7.50 to balance a tire at Wal-Mart with TPMS.

Thanks Uncle Sam for making it cost 3x the cost of what it used to!
 
I rotate for seasons.That is, I keep the good tires on back for summer and rotate them up front for winter. If you intend to get two good winters out of a set of tires, this is the way to do it.

imo, 50%/50% tread is not ideal, more like 60f / 40r.
 
Originally Posted By: Rand
If you wait too long to rotate you will get alot of extra vibration.. and might as well not rotate at all..

my opinion anyway.


That's the main reason I rotate when it is loud, somehow it is around 4-6k.
 
I swap the tires front to back on our FWDs after I estimate about a third of the expected four wheel tire life has been reached.
I do not reverse the rotation of any tire, directional or not.
This leads to all four tires being pretty evenly worn out when replacement is needed.
I don't rotate the tires on the Aerostar at all, and both ends seem to wear pretty evenly.
I think I see some minor cornering wear on the Subaru's front tires, so I will probably swap the tires front to back before the weather gets really cold.
I will need to use some cribbing, though, since neither my floor jack nor my bottle jack can get high enough to lift the thing without a little boost.
 
I don't rotate at any mileage interval. I rotate when one axle's tread depth is 1/32" different from another one. On my FWD cars, that's about every 5-7k miles. On my RWD truck, it's about every 10k miles. That keeps the tread depth even, front and rear, and keeps any directional/heel-and-toe wear to a minimum.
 
I, like you just do it once a year at inspection time. The wear still evens out over the life of the tire. Rotating every 5,000 or so is too expensive and with too many idiots out there over torquing the bolts why ask for trouble
 
Originally Posted By: Rand
If you wait too long to rotate you will get alot of extra vibration.. and might as well not rotate at all..

my opinion anyway.


this could be just beacuse the person installing the tires actually payed attention and laid the tires out with the best riding ones on the front, which you feel the most. So you just got your new tires, and they ride awesome! go do a tire rotation, and you pick up radial pulls, vibrations, noises... what have you... happens a lot actually


I find it funny guys wonder when is the right mileage to rotate tires

if your paying for it, I guess it makes more sense because you want to be economical

if your doing your own tire rotations, technically the best interval to rotate the tires would be DAILY. The whole purpose of a rotation is to spread the wear on the tires. Given your vehicle has a proper alignment, the sooner you do a tire rotation the better.... If you didn't want to do an alignment, and you know your eating the [censored] out of the left front tire for example, don't do a tire rotation, just let it eat up that one tire. Don't spread that horrible wear pattern onto the other tires.

Even if you get an alignment done later on down the road, once a tire devolps a wear pattern, it will always follow that, no matter what the alignment is

remeber that
 
Originally Posted By: Spector
Rotating every 5,000 or so is too expensive and with too many idiots out there over torquing the bolts why ask for trouble


The only idiot who rotates my tires is me!

Wait...that didn't sound right.
 
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