Age old question: Pair of new tyres, fit on front or rear?

[Combat squirrel]

Age old question: I need a pair of new tyres on my FWD LWB van soon, new ones to go on the front or back ? The 4 on there now were all put on at the same time previously, the front ones have nearly worn out, the rear ones still have plenty of tread left.

Logic says move rear to front and put new tyres on the back....what does the hive mind think ?

 

[Combat squirrel]

The 'pro list' of rear tyres being better is longer than any advantages to them being on the front....but I'm curious of the community response.

Pro's for rear is:

- less chance oversteer (much worse than understeer) for example Lane change on a rainy icy motorway is dangerous if the back slides out.

- you cycle the vans rubber more, I.e. It won't be ages until I put another pair on again....thus I'll always have newer rubber.

- I have direct control over the front tyres and power, if they slip it's easier to handle than the back stepping out.

- I can feel the front wheels coming loose more clearly than the rear, giving more time to react....I.e. I can add IN more steering input as required.

- professionals recommend it.

- tyre manufacturers recommend it.

- if a front tyre blows out, I have some control over that.....if its rear I'm depending purely on the remaining tyres grip......a vehicles 'track' depends on the rear following forwards

New on front pro list:

- I'll less likely understeer

From a pro/con list, yes safety wise, rear seems more sensible.

 

[Combat squirrel]

Why move the rears that are in good shape with plenty of tread left to the fronts and fit new to the rears on an FWD vehicle?

I’ve always avoided tyre rotation on all the regular family cars I’ve owned as the one time I did this on any old Vectra, I ended up having to replace all 4 tyres at once high seemed a false economy.

I made a list of reasons above - I'm going new on rear now.

Sounds like the rear tyres on your vehicle are really old then, which is also dangerous, rubber perishes after a few years & become weathered, if not worn.

Moving the rears to the front means I'll wear them out faster.

Traction isn't 'essential' i.e. starting out / accelerating the vehicle isn't the main aim, safety is - if it was a race car, then yes, traction, its a van and 99% of what I drive on I can accelerate very easily, once in motion, its essential the van keeps its motion predictable and true - i.e. the rears must hold the van steady as I drive.

If I'm on a surface that I cannot move the van from (very deep mud or snow), then a couple of extra mm of tread on the front tyres would not make any difference anyway - id need mud tyres, in my case I carry snow chains anyway if I'm in that situation.

 

[Combat squirrel]

I rarely let my tyres get below 3mm of tread left so am happy to keep doing as I do.

Don't let the tyres get more than a few years old though.

 

[Combat squirrel]

This is ridiculous logic though. Just because you have never heard of it doesn't mean it isn't an occurance. There will be hundreds of road traffic incidents happening every day with cars having accidents / losing control that you wont here of, wont be reported on, and wont make any kind of news. The vast majority of these will be minor incidents with no kind of investigation done into why they occur, but trying to claim that at least some aren't occuring because of poor tyre balance, or a loss of control due to the rear end losing grip isn't happening beause you haven't heard of it is deeply flawed.

It seems like you are arguing this just for the sake of it? The smiple fact is that the vast majority of tyre manufactrures disagree with you, and organisations like the AA disagree with you as well.

https://www.theaa.com/driving-advice/safety/tyre-life-and-age

Simply applying some logic to it shows why this is a good idea as well. All tyre situations in terms of tread depth / fitment / quality etc arent an issue, until the time grip runs out, and they are. In a situation where grip is running out, if you loose grip on the front, most peoples initial reaction will be to lift off the accelerator, brake, or both. When you do this your car slows down, weight shifts forward, and the tyres that were running out of grip suddenly have more weight and thus more grip, hopefully allowing you to control the situation. When your back tyres loose grip, most people will do the same. This then means as the car slows down, weight shifts forward and the tyres loosing grip have even less grip, and you likely end up facing the opposite way round. How badly this ends of course depends on the situation.

Ultimately in an every day situation this is all irrelevant as the tyres wont be at the limit of grip, but ultimately when they exceed their limits most drivers will want them to be as controlable as possible. The simple fact is that having more grip on the rear will create a more asily controlable situation for you when these limits are exceeded.

really good explanation that