Do you rotate your tyres?

TripleT said:
Only in the sense that I put the newest tyres on the back...

Fronts wear quicker, when I bought new ones I put them on the back and moved the others to the front. Fronts needs changing soon so I'll probably put new ones on the back and the current backs on the front (if that makes sense...)

When pushing hard I like to know that the backend is as stuck as possible :)
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I'm the opposite, i'd rather have newer tyres on the front (on a fwd car) as i'm much happier losing the rear of the car than I am with losing the front, and I want as much grip as possible on the wheels that the power is going through.
 
TripleT said:
But you can soon scrub off that nasty first layer of rubber ;)
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It's residual release agent used in the moulds, it bleeds into the surface of the tyre & takes a few hot and cold cycles and good old wear and tear to get rid of it.

Evil stuff, second only to over enthusiastic use of tyre dressing.

On cars with equal sizes all round manufacturers state tyre rotation is down as a service item.

For water dispersement - it's a good idea. No good having 15% tread left on one axle and 65% left on another when you hit standing water.

Can't rotate mine because they're different sizes and directional.
 
silane said:
I'm the opposite, i'd rather have newer tyres on the front (on a fwd car) as i'm much happier losing the rear of the car than I am with losing the front, and I want as much grip as possible on the wheels that the power is going through.
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...You'd rather spin than just run a bit wide?
 
[TW]Fox said:
It isnt for economy reasons really though, the reason why it can be good is that when you are due for a tyre change, you can replace all 4 and have a fresh set rather than be stuck in the situation of only ever having 2 properly decent tyres at once...

I would do it but cannot as my rear tyres are wider than the fronts.
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spot on, most cars feel better when all the tyres arent far away from each other, I used to do it on the focus.
On the bike I dont care what anyone says, I will not do 2 fronts to 1 rear. The difference in profile between a part worn tyre and new is massive, so having optimum profile on the back, and 50p on the front isn't great. I always replace the front with the rear when the rear is gone. I suppose that depends on what type of rider you are though, as most people simply wouldnt notice! My dad can't tell the difference between a touring tyre and a supercorsa, so touring tyres are for him, and 2 fronts to one rear is fine, he just dosent push hard enough to know the difference, which is fine as long as they are decent tyres in case something bad happens.

Same with cars, ask my girlfiriend to drive her car with 4 eagles on, then 4 ditchfinders, she will have no idea there is any difference.....until she needs to emergency stop in the wet that is :-)
 
silane said:
I'm the opposite, i'd rather have newer tyres on the front (on a fwd car) as i'm much happier losing the rear of the car than I am with losing the front, and I want as much grip as possible on the wheels that the power is going through.
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Trust me when you loose the rear in the wet one day (when your not trying to :cool: ) your thinking will change dramaticly! It takes more skill to correct a rear slide, than deal with a bit of understeer.

The message here is simple, dont skimp on tyres!!
 
some of us run 4x4 which require tyre rotation every 6k so the transfer box doesnt suffer wind up and break when in 4 wheel drive,some people dont bother especially on volvos and freelanders and it gets very expensive about £2k a time for replacements .
So 4 tyres at a time for us is a good investment
dave
merry xmas and a happy new year
:D :D :D :D
 
I swap my rears for my fronts when they were just over half worn. I may let the fronts wear a little lower then swap again too. I like to try and keep them balanced. I don't think it is false economy at all as I'm sure you will still end up buying the same amount of tyres if you look at the big picture at the end of the day. For example I would get through two fronts in a year = 4 tyres and swapping them over means that all 4 have lasted 1 year (toyo Proxe R's)

Doing this means when I do change I also have the opportunity to try new tyres as I wont have some tyres that are worn and some that are not.
 
I'm planning to as I intend on changing tyre sizes from 205/50/17 to 225/45/17, and don't really want odd size tyres front and rear again.

Actually, would it matter that much? I know that a lot of rear wheel drive cars have wider tyres at the back, but don't know anything about the possible implications of having wider fronts than rears.

I've always thought it best to have the grippiest tyres on the front in FWD format? While the point about understeer being easier to catch than oversteer is valid, it's worth noting that it's a lot easier to break traction with your driven tyres.
 
Gixer said:
I don't think it is false economy at all as I'm sure you will still end up buying the same amount of tyres if you look at the big picture at the end of the day.
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Well no matter how many silly cliches you use ;) I don't agree at the end of the day game of two halves big picture....
 
What's more important is checking the wear patterns on your tyres, I tend to go for the more sporty orientated car and theres nothing worse than throwing away a good tyre that has worn unevenly due to tyre pressuse or poor wheel alignment.

I had to get an alignment check annualy with my 4ws Prelude and its quite an eye opener to see how things can change over a 12 month period with bushes wearing/settling in etc, or the ocassional unavoidable pothole

My current car and my previous car were new ones and I got them checked after 5000 miles, both benefitted from a check and consequent adjustment.

If however you are on a budget, I wouldn't go any further than watching how quickly your front set [rear set if RWD] wears relative to rears [front if FWD] and swap em in good time to let all 4 tyres become end of life at same time.
 
I used to - but I don't really anymore. You save very little in the terms of price/purchasing frequency by rotating them. Sure you do save a bit, but it's not really worth it in the grand scheme of things. Unfortunately I don't get very even wear owing to my driving :o
 
No I don't. My rears last 3-4 times as long as my fronts do. I'm quite agressive with cornering and just wanting to get where I'm going in general, but even then my fronts will last at least a year. Have had the car for 5 years and only changed the rears once, and that was this year. Fronts have changed 3 times. Average mileage per year is about 26k.
 
Dj_Jestar said:
No I don't. My rears last 3-4 times as long as my fronts do. I'm quite agressive with cornering and just wanting to get where I'm going in general, but even then my fronts will last at least a year. Have had the car for 5 years and only changed the rears once, and that was this year. Fronts have changed 3 times. Average mileage per year is about 26k.
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I have always been under the impression that it is best to keep the best tyres on the rear and have the most worn at the front. My rears last around 2x what my fronts do, so (from new) the first time i had the fronts changed i had the rears moved to the front and then the new tyres on the rear. I then did the same when the old rear tyres wore out on the front, had another set of news on the back and had the now slightly worn backs put at the front. Repeat.

Means you always have excellent tyres on the rear of the car.
 
Braking isnt the problem though, ive always found that its cornering that my cars have let me down with a bad set of rears.

Thought it was generally accepted that rears are supposed to be the better set? Maybe i have that wrong :p
 
Jez said:
Braking isnt the problem though, ive always found that its cornering that my cars have let me down with a bad set of rears.

Thought it was generally accepted that rears are supposed to be the better set? Maybe i have that wrong :p
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I'm with you. If I'm pusing on round a bend I'd prefer my fronts to give way than my rear - at least I can then see the lamp post/hedge I'm going to hit :p

Depends on what FWD car you have though. You have to be doing something pretty stupid in mine for it to understeer int he first place. But if it's your avage corsa than I suppose that they're likely to understeer before oversteer (I've had one, I know! :p)
 
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