Tire Rotation, is it needed?

[BBQdave]

Alright, long story - short: Firestone Auto Service screwed me over. Purchased Firestone tires (on sale) from them and part of the deal was they would rotate my tires for free. They may or may not have been doing this. So with such a bad service experience, I decided I will change my own oil and continue doing the other basic services listed in my owners manual.

Tire rotation is recommended, but is it needed? Back in the day, 70's and 80's my family did not rotate tires. And as a young adult (and most of my adult life) I did not rotate my vehicles tires. The vehicles were rear wheel drive (mostly trucks) and as the front tires wore out, I would rotate the rear tires to the front and purchase two new tires for the rear. This spread out the cost of tires and worked well for my trucks and most of my adult life.

Do you rotate tires on your vehicle? How often? Do you purchase two tires at a time and replace the two most worn tires? Is the tire rotation game a marketing gimmick to pull more cash out of us?

 

[Briorick]

Back in the 70s, yes we did rotate our tires to achieve even wear. I don't recall the exact mileage as to when now. Been too many years. LOL. Also when winter hit we would have snow tires installed on the rear. And usually, 2 tires were purchased at a time, depending on your finances at the time. Usually the front ones were replaced more often. Ahh, the 70's. 👍

 

[dbhost]

Tire rotation spreads tire wear more evenly. Front tires take more abuse than rear due to the slight scrubbing they do when turning, and the greater likelihood of alignment issues with the front. I failed to rotate the tires on my truck and more or less ate up a rather expensive set of mud tires. My fault entirely...

 

[kcsa75]

When I was a teenager in the 70s the owner of the local tire store told me to get max wear from your tire you had to rotate them regularly. I've always rotated tires approximately every 5000 miles. I got more than 60,000 miles out of a set of BF Goodrich Radial T/As on my Explorer and close to that on the Goodyears on my F150.

 

[SteveP]

I used to rotate my tires myself, about every 6k miles. Buying two tires is less than buying 4 but you'll be wearing out the fronts faster so that difference in total cost over the years will pretty much balance out. Do what your budget can handle. As I've gotten older I appreciate the free rotation more, regardless of the fact that the cost is built into the purchase price of the tires.

 

[Snow]

I rotate the tires on my truck once, sometimes twice a year that's it, if I rotated them every oil change I'd be rotating them every 5-6 weeks.

 

[xxxapache]

I have multiple vehicles. I rotate the tires based on wear not mileage or time. The most miles I have ever gotten out of a set of tires is 89k miles on a set of BFG AT tires on a compact pickup.

 

[Sjm9911]

Rotating will keep them feom wearing unevenly in the front from turning. This will definitely make your tires last longer. If you cone the front ones, they will not do as well on the rear. So, if you dont rotate them you will be replacing them earlier then needed.

 

[BBOWL10]

I could never get Firestone to rotate the tires properly without insisting they do so. They told me that the tires with the least amount of wear should be on the back to prevent skidding. If that’s the case you would never rotate them because the fronts always wear faster. It seemed like a gimmick to sell tires to me. They have gotten easier to deal with lately. I guess people wised up an complained.
The other school of thought is never rotate the tires and you only have to buy two tires at a time instead of four.
I think all four last longer if they are rotated.

 

[firepit]

Every other oil change i have them rotated....2 oil changes a yr for me is rare as my truck dont get a lot miles put on it.

 

[Snow]

Tires with the least wear should be on the front, so you can maintain control on wet snow, ice covered roads.

 

[Anthony Hitchings]

the drive tires wear faster on 2WD vehicles (or vehicles spending most of their time in 2WD) .

for my Jeep Liberty I bought 5 new matched tires, and I am doing my own 5-tire rotation. I have a diagram that I follow. And I stanped letters A-E on the rims to keep track of such things (and tire damage).

 

[Lug_Nut]

Is this going to end up like tire pressure or oil choice threads where the current poster is the only one doing it correctly and all the prior posters in that thread have it completely wrong?
Tire rotation, if done perfectly, allows all four tires to wear out the tread at the same time. That's handy so as to permit maintaining matched tire construction and tread pattern due to all four tires being manufactured so close together in time. Other than that, ....
My car has a front drive. My car has a slightly heavier front weight than weight on the rear. My car has no spare tire (aerosol goop and inflator). I run directional tread tires for what I have found to be superior hydroplaning resistance. That choice prevents the left-to-right rotation pattern exchange because the tread would run 'backward' and then be more prone to hydroplaning than a bi-directional tread pattern tire.
I rotate my tires front to back once a year, when the snow tires and wheels go on, and then when the summer tires and those wheels go on.
I prefer to put the tire with the greater tread depth on the front, not the rear, for the following reasons:
Front tires encounter more standing water (more snow, slush as well) than the rears which track pretty much in the path the front tires had just squee-geed.
Front tires provide steering.
Front tires provide the majority of braking effort.
For those reasons I put the tires best capable of dealing with those requirements where they are best suited.
Putting the new pair of tires on the rear is (in my opinion) a marketing ploy by the sellers to put the less capable tires up front where they are more likely to be deficient at meeting the greater demands and entice the operator to part with yet more money for two more new tires up front.
Flame-proof suit is on, but I'm not about to be converted from my practice.

 

[tfischer]

Yes tire rotation is still important. I can tell you from experience (I don't always actually get it done) that tires will wear unevenly otherwise.

 

[firepit]

To rotate or not rotate?.....At $200 a tire i am rotating.
Its inexpensive and exends the life of your tires.
All four tires do not wear evenly
even on newer cars.
Too many factors at play when it comes to tire wear.
front end alignment....ball joints...tie rods...etc etc.
Nothing wears the same or wears out at the same rate.

 

[BBQdave]

Thanks all for the thoughts on tire rotation

I'm still deciding (and figuring) whether to tire rotate or not. If I do as the service stores recommend, I would be spending close to $600 for rotation over the life of my set of 4 tires.

As said before, Firestone and others add in the free tire rotation to the price of a set of 4 tires - so not really a good deal. And with Firestone, you will not receive the free tire rotation, unless you spend multiple hours waiting and watching to make sure they do as they should.

Then I think about rotating tires every 10K miles, and paying for that service from a local vendor. Weighing that investment with what I might gain in tire wear.

And finally, do I do as I did In my youth, purchasing 2 tires at a time was reasonable. No tire rotation expense, saved my money for a set of 2 tires. When the time came to replace the two worst worn, good two on the front and new two on the rear

Life was simpler when I was a young adult, no tire rotation, changed my own oil and maintained my vehicle, and bought two tires at a time

 

[xxxapache]

Walmart offers lifetime balance and rotations. I have two vehicles with Walmart tires. I never have a problem getting a balance/rotation done quickly .

 

[TSQ]

Traction control / ABS systems on modern vehicles also work on the assumption that all four tires have more or less the same amount of grip.

I have winter tires (on dedicated rims) so my tires get rotated once a year when I swap tires.

 

[Lug_Nut]

T/C and ABS are effective because of the reality that all four DO NOT have equal grip.
Even four new tires will NOT have the same grip due to their positions on the vehicle, the vehicle's front-rear weight distriibution, effective weight transfer created during braking, standing water-snow-slush, front-rear track width differences.

 

[BBQdave]

Again, I appreciate everyone's experiences with tire rotation service and tire wear.

I'm reading general recommendations of rotating tires at 7,500 miles. I change the oil every 5,000 miles, and was rotating the tires at that time.
Since I'm not able to get reliable service from Firestone, most likely they did not provide free tire rotation in the past service visits, I will rotate the tires with a local service every 10,000 miles and see how the tires perform.

I have Firestone Destination LE3 tires. So far, after 20,000 miles they are wearing fine. They are rated up to 70,000 miles - we will see

I'm reading that in general, rear 2wd vehicles rotate: rear tires move to front, and front tires cross to rear. Is that your experience with rear 2wd vehicles and tire rotation? Is that the standard, or should I make sure to ask for that from my local vendor? Thanks