Question About Tire Rotation

[HSKR R/T]

I'm putting on my FR clothes, too. <\flame on!>

With a straight rear axle, like our trucks, the rear tires should never need rotation. Unless you over or under inflate, which is a different discussion.

The front tires can wear on the edges from steering and caster and camber angles. When that happens, you can swap with the rears to do two things:

1) Move the most evenly worn tires to the front for best steering.

2) Move the weirdly worn tires to the rear where they will be held in a straight path and wear off the high spots to make them more evenly worn over time.

And if the spare is the same size, it can be rotated in to get full use out of the rubber you paid for.

We used to figure on rotating about every 20K miles, expecting more than 60K of useful life. It wasn't uncommon to pull the wheels off junked cars and keep on using them.

Softer rubber and more extreme suspension geometry seems to be in vogue these days, so maybe tires are wearing faster, but I'm not buying 3,000 miles, that's just crazy. Even 6,000 doesn't sound reasonable to me. If my truck was wearing out tires that fast, I'd be looking for ways to fix the problem.

<\flame off>

So your first point said the rear tires should never need rotating then went in to say rotate the fronts to the rear and move the rears up front to even them out from front wear. You can't have both.

 

[vincentw56]

I'm putting on my FR clothes, too.

With a straight rear axle, like our trucks, the rear tires should never need rotation. Unless you over or under inflate, which is a different discussion.

The front tires can wear on the edges from steering and caster and camber angles. When that happens, you can swap with the rears to do two things:

1) Move the most evenly worn tires to the front for best steering.

2) Move the weirdly worn tires to the rear where they will be held in a straight path and wear off the high spots to make them more evenly worn over time.

And if the spare is the same size, it can be rotated in to get full use out of the rubber you paid for.

We used to figure on rotating about every 20K miles, expecting more than 60K of useful life. It wasn't uncommon to pull the wheels off junked cars and keep on using them.

Softer rubber and more extreme suspension geometry seems to be in vogue these days, so maybe tires are wearing faster, but I'm not buying 3,000 miles, that's just crazy. Even 6,000 doesn't sound reasonable to me. If my truck was wearing out tires that fast, I'd be looking for ways to fix the problem.

Who said tires are wearing out at 3,000 or 6,000 miles? The only thing somebody asked is if they should rotate them 3,000 or 6,000 miles.

 

[John Galt]

Who said tires are wearing out at 3,000 or 6,000 miles? The only thing somebody asked is if they should rotate them 3,000 or 6,000 miles.

I guess the answer is “neither”.

 

[Idahoktm]

I rotate my own tires at 5,000 miles or every time I swap to my winter tires and back. Rears straight up to the front and fronts crossed to the rear.

 

[Av1]

Unless you have alignment or suspension problems good quality modern tires don’t really need rotation.

lol

I would think every single tire manufacturer on planet earth would disagree with that assessment.

The trouble with internet forums is folks often have to separate the wheat from the chaff. That can be problematic.

 

[Darksteel165]

The drive axle is naturally going to cause more wear on tires, this isn't opinion.

My trucks tires beg to differ. Are you saying my trucks lying to me?

I check my tires with a digital depth gauge, and the rears are wearing more quickly than the fronts (obviously). A tire rotation every 5,000 miles seems to be perfect to offset the wear so they stay even, also helps catch any alignment issues with the front and balance.

My fronts are wearing way quicker then my rears, I don't even need a gauge to see it and i'm only at 13k miles.
Why try to "keep them even" it's a RWD truck 95% of the time unless you are going offroad and then tread remaining likely doesn't matter as much.



Rotating your tires is not going to get you any more life except line up to replace all 4 at once.

Just use your tires as is and replace in pairs unless you drive with some screwed up psi or have suspension problems imo

 

[SD Rebel]

My trucks tires beg to differ. Are you saying my trucks lying to me?

My fronts are wearing way quicker then my rears, I don't even need a gauge to see it and i'm only at 13k miles.
Why try to "keep them even" it's a RWD truck 95% of the time unless you are going offroad and then tread remaining likely doesn't matter as much.



Rotating your tires is not going to get you any more life except line up to replace all 4 at once.

Just use your tires as is and replace in pairs unless you drive with some screwed up psi or have suspension problems imo

Yeah, not sure what's going on there with your fronts. I want my tires to wear even, anytime I didn't, I would get other issues such as road noise or tire pull.

But you do you, no one is trying to say start rotating your tires if you don't want to.

 

[John Galt]

lol

I would think every single tire manufacturer on planet earth would disagree with that assessment.

The trouble with internet forums is folks often have to separate the wheat from the chaff. That can be problematic.

i always say opinions are like a**holes everybody’s got one and everybody on the internet can’t wait to show you theirs.

 

[HSKR R/T]

I rotate mine every 5k because I do it myself in the driveway, and I change the oil every 10k. Easy to keep track when it's on that schedule. The drive axle is naturally going to cause more wear on tires, this isn't opinion. At the same time the turning axle will also cause more wear on tires, but differently than the drive axle. It's important to rotate your tires.

If I took it to a shop I would probably rotate every 10k to avoid the hassle, but it takes me less than 30 minutes in my driveway with a jack and impact wrench. Because I just use a jack I only lift one side, swap back to front, then move to the other side. I don't cross unless I notice any weird wear patterns, and then I start looking for possible causes. Doing this I'll get more than 50k out of my OEM Duratracs. Doubt that would have happened if I never rotated them.

I find it stra ge that you take better care of your tires with 5k mike tire rotations than you do your engine with doing 10k oil changes. I'm the exact opposite. Oil changes 5k, tire rotations 10k

 

[SD Rebel]

I find it stra ge that you take better care of your tires with 5k mike tire rotations than you do your engine with doing 10k oil changes. I'm the exact opposite. Oil changes 5k, tire rotations 10k

Or both at 5,000 miles

 

[Dewey]

Or both at 5,000 miles

Or both at 10,000 miles.

Been doing that for 20+ years now and somehow never had a single engine failure or any mechanical issues whatsoever. Guess I’m the luckiest SOB around.

 

[PurpleRT]

Discount tire every other oil change. I don’t bother doing my own rotations anymore just extra gear I have to carry in the truck unless I wait till I get off the road and back home. I let them take care of it and rebalance if needed and just make sure the lug nuts are torqued properly after.


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[SD Rebel]

Or both at 10,000 miles.

Been doing that for 20+ years now and somehow never had a single engine failure or any mechanical issues whatsoever. Guess I’m the luckiest SOB around.

Or that too.

 

[Idahoktm]

Discount tire every other oil change. I don’t bother doing my own rotations anymore just extra gear I have to carry in the truck unless I wait till I get off the road and back home. I let them take care of it and rebalance if needed and just make sure the lug nuts are torqued properly after.


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You did roadside tire rotations?

 

[HSKR R/T]

Or both at 10,000 miles.

Been doing that for 20+ years now and somehow never had a single engine failure or any mechanical issues whatsoever. Guess I’m the luckiest SOB around.

I just can't bring myself to do 10k oil changes. I'm going to start doing 7500 mile oil changes since I switched to a custom blend oil. But even the oil manufacturer says the oil is good to at least 10k. They do recommend oil analysis reports to extend beyond 10k though

 

[Dewey]

I just can't bring myself to do 10k oil changes. I'm going to start doing 7500 mile oil changes since I switched to a custom blend oil. But even the oil manufacturer says the oil is good to at least 10k. They do recommend oil analysis reports to extend beyond 10k though

80% of my 25,000 yearly miles are cruising on the highway at 75-80 mph so about as easy as it gets for the motor. I wouldn’t go 10,000 if I drove mostly city.

 

[JohnGow383]

Thanks for all your replies, appreciated.
There doesn't seem to be a general consensus but from what I can gather it is worth doing, but perhaps at a larger milage interval.
Also, most people are saying rear to front and then front criscrossed to rear and a re-check of the balance.
Thanks everyone.

 

[Cbty2050]

Thanks for all your replies, appreciated.
There doesn't seem to be a general consensus but from what I can gather it is worth doing, but perhaps at a larger milage interval.
Also, most people are saying rear to front and then front criscrossed to rear and a re-check of the balance.
Thanks everyone.

Exactly, you will never get a consensus opinion on this forum.

 

[LaxDfns15]

I find it stra ge that you take better care of your tires with 5k mike tire rotations than you do your engine with doing 10k oil changes. I'm the exact opposite. Oil changes 5k, tire rotations 10k

I did a bunch of oil tests on my Titan years ago (over $1000 worth all said and done). Full synthetic oil with a Mobil 1 filter (yeah yeah, everyone has their different brands) had negligible difference at 5k and 10k. Granted this was 10 years ago, but there are guys practicing 40 year old oil techniques on their 2023 trucks. I filter my oil every change to check it, and I ran my Titan over 100k miles on 10k oil changes. I know it's anecdotal, but combined with the MFG recommendation of 10k I don't feel worried. The longest part of my tire rotations is getting the jack and impact wrench out and put away. Oil changes take a little longer.

 

[John Galt]

Exactly, you will never get a consensus opinion on this forum.

May as well ask “what oil should I use?”