- This topic has 8 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 10 months ago by
.
-
Topic
-
So lemme get this straight… You should have the most tread on the rear axle for stability, and the front tires wear faster… So why fight nature? I know the technical answer is rotating every couple months makes them wear evenly / last longer. But does that matter? Wouldn’t it be like all four wear out at 30k mi instead of fronts at 20k and rears at 40k? So just let the fronts wear out, put a new pair on the rear and move the rears up front and carry on like that?
-
Replies
-
http://us.coopertire.com/Tire-Safety/Tire-Maintenance/Tire-Rotation.aspx
http://www.rma.org/tire-safety/
Having decent fairly even tread on all 4 wheels does help the car/truck handle in a more safe and less erratic fashion.
Case in point is having brand new tires on the rear of a front wheel drive car–and then having severely worn out tires on the front….and hitting a corner just a bit fast….little bit of water on the road…… Back end will stick, and the front end will hydro plane.
It throws off the handling. If all the tires are kept rotated, yeah sure–you’ll wind up replacing all 4 tires at the same time–but they last twice as long. So where’s the end result and savings? There is none. Don’t rotate tires on a front wheel drive car—-front tires wear out after let’s say 30,000 miles. Rear tires last about 55-60,000. So you replace the front tires, and rotate the rear tires to the front. (So you’re putting a set of tires on the driving axle that are at least 50% worn out???) But in another 15,000 miles you’ll have to replace the front tires…Why? Because that’s the math and the physics.
Where if you continued to rotate—you’ll get the expected life span of all 4 tires– You’ll catch issues as well with brakes and suspension while it’s being serviced–maybe before something drastic happens. Plus you’re not spending or saving any money in the grand scheme of things.
I know everyone thinks the tire companies love to suck people dry and it’s all greed… That’s wooly thinking. Shops in my area offer free tire rotation. Even if you only purchased two tires. They’ll rotate all 4. At NO cost to you! So what’s the downside? Really none. Long term you’re not saving any $$
S-
Fully agree with Teddy’s post above. All good points.
Rotation and wheel alignment are both important in getting the most from your tires. Even if you are charged 25 or 30 bucks for a rotation it is well worth it. If you have a couple of jacks it is easy enough to do on your own at home.
Fair enough, I appreciate that but I happen to have a RWD car so to me it’s even more important to have the best tires in the rear at all times. Understeer doesn’t scare me but breaking the rear end loose does on a RWD car w/o traction control or stability assist.
And then anytime you rotate the tires, at least for a few thousand miles the fronts will have slightly more tread. My mom gets free oil changes & rotations at the dealership and it seems like by the time the 10k for oil change goes by the diff between front & rears is significant, especially near the end of the tires life. I do my own oil changes and don’t exactly fancy screwing around with a couple jacks and a torque wrench when its 96*F outside. For $20-30 times 4 rotations over 20-40k, ill have paid for the new pair of tires almost.
I’m all toooooo understanding of RWD. That’s my Bronco II (also F150, Plymouth Sport Fury, Ford LTD II….Thunderbird…). It’s usually the drive axle tires that wear the quickest. But having hydro planed more then a few times? I’d like to stack the odds in my favor whenever possible.
First time you get even 2 tires from a shop? The rest of the rotations are normally free of charge. Check around, it’s pretty reasonable. (I just stray away from any shop that charges me an additional “Shop Material Fee”…that’s a whole ‘nother topic…)
S-
This is the story of my little experiment.
I bought a set of tires off of tire rack. Reading the reviews reviewers complained of the tires becoming noisy after rotation. So, I thought, what happens if I don’t rotate, and I set about to find out.
Now, I do my own alignment so I don’t take somebody’s word that the alignment is good or try to figure out a confusing printout from a laser machine. My alignment is good.
Well, off the top of my head I can’t say how long these tires have been mounted. It is into multiple years. They have never been rotated and they all look the same – refusing to wear out and these are soft rubber performance tires. I have the tires I wish to replace them with sitting in the shop getting old. On the other hand these tires are getting noisy like the reviewers reported. So, I have proven that rotating is not the cause of that.
In conclusion I think that tire rotation is a little over rated. However, you rarely get a good alignment. A good alignment is not an alignment that falls within the specified range, a good alignment is dead on. With poor alignment you need to rotate. Also, at least for me and the vehicle I drive, tire rotation is indeed a waste of time. Now, this is not a general statement, vehicles and drivers vary.
I buy my tires from warehouses and places going out of business or craigslist then take them to a dinky little shop where English is not the primary language spoken… They’re dirt cheap and do darn good work, maybe better than the big name places. I did the theoretical math on 45k tires being replaced in pairs, assuming the fronts wear at 30k and rears at 60k, the cost (tires per mile) should be the same. It looks like eventually it evens out to about every 20k you put a new pair on the rear and move up tires with 2/3rd tread life:
Front rear; 100% 100% @ 0k, 0% 50% -> 50% 100% @ 30k, 0% 75% -> 75% 100% @ 45k, 0% 62.5% -> 62.5% 100% @ 67.5k, 0% 68.75% -> 68.75% 100% @ 86.25k, 0% 65.63% -> 65.63% 100% @ 106.89k, 0% 67.19% @ 126.56k, etc…
Well stiv you are obviously so brilliant we should defer to you in future for all our tire issues.
You cannot figure out anything but the dollars and cents of it.
To you there is no other consideration.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.