Radial rotation, fact or fiction.

I always thought you rotated radial tires front to back. Today, I was told front to back, and rears cross to front. To be clear:
LF to LR
RF to RR
LR to RF
RR to LF
FACT or FICTION???

big2bird said:

I always thought you rotated radial tires front to back. Today, I was told front to back, and rears cross to front. To be clear:
LF to LR
RF to RR
LR to RF
RR to LF
FACT or FICTION???

Click to expand...

Thats what the owners manual says to do, :quote:

I've always heard that was correct- front to back. When you cross them, they spin the opposite direction from what they were broken in with and the possiblity of throwing a belt increases. Supposedly they take a "set".

TimAT said:

I've always heard that was correct- front to back. When you cross them, they spin the opposite direction from what they were broken in with and the possiblity of throwing a belt increases. Supposedly they take a "set".

Click to expand...

YEP, that is what the thinking was since the Radial showed up in the late Sixties.:wink:

I dont see why not as long they are taken off the rims and reinstalled on the other side.
I mean as long as the tire direction on the car is the same.

Thats what we do with rear axles big truck tire anyway.

The rear axle always wear faster than the front and I rotate them every 125000miles or every year or so. The rims are reinstalled in the same location but the tires are rotated.
If we dont do this the sidewall belts could separate and when time comes to recap them some wont be recaped and scrapped.

OK let's see how this sounds....

On the rear axle the primary loading on the belts is acceleration but on the front it is braking. Therefor you would want the tires to spin opposite direction on opposite axles to keep the belt "setting" (or "tensioning" or whatever you want to call it) in the same direction relative to the tire.

As the factory calls out.

PS. Motorcycle tires are mounted with the rotation arrow pointed one way for rear mount, the other way for front mount for this reason.

All I know is in the late 60's and early 70's I tried this with both Pirelli and Michelins (deemed about the best at the time), switching between cars etc as well as the "x" rotation and everytime within 500 miles or so the tires started vibrating etc. Especially noticeable at 5mph, felt like someone was rocking the boat.

So ever since, have just done front to back. Maybe just playing safe, but no problems either. I'm sure manufacturing has improved. When the installers, try to tell me it doesn't matter, then I just tell them to do it that way on their cars, not mine.

I have not rotated tires at ALL in DECADES, and see absolutely NO reason to go with some olde tyme bullshit reasons some automotive nitwit comes up with....

the friggin' tires are either wearing correctly or NOT, and if NOT, fix the fucking CAR, it's not the tire's fault, unless you have crappy tires....and that has been found more often recently than years ago.....

and you can guess what/who made them where....

and it's NOT Japan either....

:thumbs:

mrvette said:

I have not rotated tires at ALL in DECADES, and see absolutely NO reason to go with some olde tyme bullshit reasons some automotive nitwit comes up with....

the friggin' tires are either wearing correctly or NOT, and if NOT, fix the fucking CAR, it's not the tire's fault, unless you have crappy tires....and that has been found more often recently than years ago.....

and you can guess what/who made them where....

and it's NOT Japan either....

:thumbs:

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Yea, I got China tires on the T-bird. Real "interesting" tread wear.

Hi

Therefor you would want the tires to spin opposite direction on opposite axles to keep the belt "setting"

And how about tires with a spin direction arrow ?

If at all, front to back same side to keep them spinning same direction.
That's what I got told for radials.

Best is to keep them where they are in order to see any alignment problems.

Rgds. Günther

mrvette said:

I have not rotated tires at ALL in DECADES, and see absolutely NO reason to go with some olde tyme bullshit reasons some automotive nitwit comes up with....

the friggin' tires are either wearing correctly or NOT, and if NOT, fix the fucking CAR, it's not the tire's fault, unless you have crappy tires....and that has been found more often recently than years ago.....

and you can guess what/who made them where....

and it's NOT Japan either....

:thumbs:

Click to expand...

I would suggest there are valid reasons to rotate tires. The loads a tire is subjected to are different front to back. The drive wheels have different stress than the steering wheels. When the drive wheels are the steering wheels they have a different stress than the ones along for the ride in the back. I can tell you the tires on the back of my car get spun up once and a while and I know that puts more stress and wear than the fronts get. When they are the same size ft/back rotating can ballance the overall life of the set tires.
:beer:

Sky65 said:

mrvette said:

I have not rotated tires at ALL in DECADES, and see absolutely NO reason to go with some olde tyme bullshit reasons some automotive nitwit comes up with....

the friggin' tires are either wearing correctly or NOT, and if NOT, fix the fucking CAR, it's not the tire's fault, unless you have crappy tires....and that has been found more often recently than years ago.....

and you can guess what/who made them where....

and it's NOT Japan either....

:thumbs:

Click to expand...

I would suggest there are valid reasons to rotate tires. The loads a tire is subjected to are different front to back. The drive wheels have different stress than the steering wheels. When the drive wheels are the steering wheels they have a different stress than the ones along for the ride in the back. I can tell you the tires on the back of my car get spun up once and a while and I know that puts more stress and wear than the fronts get. When they are the same size ft/back rotating can ballance the overall life of the set tires.
:beer:

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So you beleive in spreading the pain out and taking the hit on 4 tires at once, ME, I rather replace one end at a time,...my '72 here has had tires on each end replaced typically every 4-5 years.....

:bounce:

So you beleive in spreading the pain out and taking the hit on 4 tires at once, ME, I rather replace one end at a time,...my '72 here has had tires on each end replaced typically every 4-5 years.....

:bounce:

Click to expand...

In some situations, you bet. I like to buy tires as a car set. Regular rotation gives you the ability to maximize mileage and then change brands or size if you are so inclined. I can't leave anything alone so this method suits me. :smash: I ordered new wheels for the 65 and I won't be able to rotate them anymore. 17X8 front and 17X9 rear. :bounce:

If it's the same size front/rear I'd definitely rotate the tires front to rear. I like having the same brand on all four wheels and if you do not rotate you might only need two tires and that brand/tire is discontinued or another brand is cheaper/better or maybe you want to change tire size.....

Sometimes they offer buy3 get the 4th free.... or mail in rebate if you buy a set of 4... another reason to rotate :thumbs:

Wheb radials first appeared decades ago the tire manufacturers recomended front to back & back to front rotation only. They insisted that we do not change rotational direction.
Some years later it bacame ok to rotate front to back and side to side including the spare in the rotation, like the old bias ply days to maximize tire economy. Then you were buying 5 tires at a time!
Now with uni-directional tires and different sizes front to rear obviously all that it changed again. We're on our own with tire rotation procedures. I have no problems changing tire side to side with a 1 wheeler diff to maximize my tire economy.