Are tyre rotations necessary?

[Neil_A]

Originally Posted By: mjoekingz28
Some cars use directional tires and on top of that, some cars have different sized fronts as they do rears- so each tire corner is specific- but these are usually sports cars and are rare.


My GXP is this way Front: P255/45R18, rear: P225/50R18
My fronts wear out about 2-2.5x quicker than the rears. I like not having to worry about getting or keeping track of rotations. The cost doesn't really go up since I only replace the rears every 5 years.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: d00df00d
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
CapriRacer says front tires typically wear at 2.5x the rate of rear tires.

Only with front wheel drive, or heavily forward-biased all wheel drive.

Exactly. Wildly platform specific. My sig car only eats the rear tires if driven too enthusiastically. In the nearly two years my wife beat it up in her home health escapades the tires wore almost perfectly evenly.

I do know to check carefully across the full width of the tire, as wide rubber can look really good at the outside and be very worn on the inside from funky alignment and component issues. Seems to be more prevalent on cars with IRS.

 

[FCD]

Ok, i guess i'll start rotating them, the new tyres i'm getting are veeeery expensive so i want to get all the miles i can from them.

 

[Bgallagher]

I mentioned this in a similar post but what I do is check the depth and condition of each tire and move the two best tires to the front of my vehicles. They are on demand AWD so the majority of wear is coming front my front tires. It also gives me a chance to check out the condition of each of the tires as well as give suspension points a shot of lube, check out the brakes etc.

 

[ChrisD46]

I rotate tires every 6,000 miles which coincides with most of my OCI's , so easy to remember .

 

[zeng]

I'd save lots of time and $$ on doing away with tire rotation for decades.......
with no issues of uneven tire wear at end of life.

 

[Ducked]

Short statement:No.

Reasons: Standard recommendation is to have the best tyres on the back, so if you observe that, once you have got some wear (which on a used car is likely to be on first purchase), exchanging front to rear positions is prevented.

Depending on the state of your spare, you could rotate that in through the front or the rear, but mine is a slightly different size anyway so only suitable for use in an emergency.

Conclusion: If front tyres wear out, this implies replacement in pairs to the rear, with the less worn rear tyres moving forward. If the tyres age out, I could replace as a set, but I probably wont bother to rotate the new ones.

 

[Ducked]

I suppose side-to-side rotation might be worthwhile with tyres that are worn more at the front, and its easier to do than the X-patterns as well.

I believe that is side-side is recommended where tyres are different sizes on front and rear, so it presumably does some good, though it can't even out the wear as much.

 

[circuitsmith]

There's a big difference between having slightly more worn tires on front/back vs new tires on one end and several years old on the other.
Rotating FWD tires at a reasonable interval (5-10K miles) will not lead to dangerous oversteer.

 

[SargeBB]

Should you rotate? It depends. On my wife's '15 Forester Turbo, my '96 Camry V-6 & our '15 Diesel Super Duty, I rotate regularly. Particularly on the front-end heavy old Camry, it really balances out the tread wear. However, I also own an '08 Tacoma 4x4. I do NOT rotate the tires on it. The front end on those pickups must have the alignment and wheel balance set precisely to avoid vibrations...when set correctly, those pickups ride as smooth as glass, and after 4 returns to Discount Tire in 4K miles, a 'tech' finally got those 10 ply tires balanced right. I haven't rotated them in over 67,000 miles, because I fear loosing their balance. It's still smooth as glass. I check the tread wear at each oil change. Front 7/32 straight across with sharp tread edges, both right & left tires. Rear tires outside treads 4/32, inside 3/32, both sides. Testimony to correct alignment & air pressure. Pickup travels appx. 50% miles on gravel, dirt and rock and the rest on blacktop. Reason for the E rated Michelins? Far fewer flat tires & the E's last a lot longer. So, should you rotate? It depends on your vehicles and secondarily, on the road surfaces you typically travel on.

 

[Nick1994]

Originally Posted By: SargeBB
Should you rotate? It depends. On my wife's '15 Forester Turbo, my '96 Camry V-6 & our '15 Diesel Super Duty, I rotate regularly. Particularly on the front-end heavy old Camry, it really balances out the tread wear. However, I also own an '08 Tacoma 4x4. I do NOT rotate the tires on it. The front end on those pickups must have the alignment and wheel balance set precisely to avoid vibrations...when set correctly, those pickups ride as smooth as glass, and after 4 returns to Discount Tire in 4K miles, a 'tech' finally got those 10 ply tires balanced right. I haven't rotated them in over 67,000 miles, because I fear loosing their balance. It's still smooth as glass. I check the tread wear at each oil change. Front 7/32 straight across with sharp tread edges, both right & left tires. Rear tires outside treads 4/32, inside 3/32, both sides. Testimony to correct alignment & air pressure. Pickup travels appx. 50% miles on gravel, dirt and rock and the rest on blacktop. Reason for the E rated Michelins? Far fewer flat tires & the E's last a lot longer. So, should you rotate? It depends on your vehicles and secondarily, on the road surfaces you typically travel on.
What tire pressure are you running? My dad has some E rated tires on his FJ Cruiser.

 

[Eddie]

If you must pay for rotating then probably no but, if a lifetime rotation is free by the tire installen then yes. Ed

 

[SargeBB]

Nick: I follow the load & inflation tables. On the Tacoma, the tire placard states 29 PSI F&R for stock P245x75R16 tires. That equates to 2072 lbs. each, divided by 1.1 = 1884. I'm now running LT245x75R16E Michelins. The tables show 40 PSI = 1865 & 45 PSI = 2030, so I run all 4 tires between 40 & 45 lbs. As previously stated, at least half of these miles are over mighty rough roads and trails in our very rural portion of western Texas and the tread wear has been fantastic, not to mention very few flats on the 10-ply rated tires.

 

[supton]

Rough guess, but it'd be worth it paying for rotations, at least for me. If I go 10k without rotations the difference in wear is noticeable. So I stick with 5k (truck sometimes goes 10k). Good time to check brakes, spray Fluid Film, etc I figure.