What are advantages of rotation ?

[GaleHawkins]

Originally Posted By: philipp10
depends upon tire wear. On modern well aligned cars.....I just don't see the point. I rotate every 30k...are you stuck in the 70's?


I stopped rotating years ago for the most part. Light PU trucks that get a lot of slipping on the back may be an exception.

Rotating tires wearing well lessens traction in my mind because the tires have 'seated' to the road surface after a bit of wear.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Another benefit of rotation is you have a chance to inspect the brake system, especially brake pads wear. You like to change brake pads when it goes down to about 2mm, just before brake wear sensor is triggered. Some electronic sensors on some MB vehicles are expensive.

 

[ccap41]

Originally Posted By: GaleHawkins
Originally Posted By: philipp10
depends upon tire wear. On modern well aligned cars.....I just don't see the point. I rotate every 30k...are you stuck in the 70's?


I stopped rotating years ago for the most part. Light PU trucks that get a lot of slipping on the back may be an exception.

Rotating tires wearing well lessens traction in my mind because the tires have 'seated' to the road surface after a bit of wear.


That just means you went way beyond when you should have rotated them.

 

[GaleHawkins]

Originally Posted By: ccap41
Originally Posted By: GaleHawkins
Originally Posted By: philipp10
depends upon tire wear. On modern well aligned cars.....I just don't see the point. I rotate every 30k...are you stuck in the 70's?


I stopped rotating years ago for the most part. Light PU trucks that get a lot of slipping on the back may be an exception.

Rotating tires wearing well lessens traction in my mind because the tires have 'seated' to the road surface after a bit of wear.


That just means you went way beyond when you should have rotated them.


I see your point of view. I just do not like having my tires rotated if they are wearing OK because stick on magnets are hard for the shops to remove and replace. Plus I like to replace by 4/32's on the worse tire so that gives my tire dealer some used tires he can sell.

Most of my flats come after I get about 2/3's to the useful tire life used. With my physical limitations I try to run tires with good tread.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Originally Posted By: Kira
This is how I look at it.

Front tires roll onto and grind down their "shoulders" when turning. You can see that wear pattern on lots of cars.

I rotate at each oil change and check tire pressure and all my family members' tires wear straight, flat across and true.

All this talk about not rotating tires or that it's something from the '70's blows my mind truly.

Cherry on the Sundae Dept: Sis' '99 Cherokee came with a full size spare mounted on a 5th alloy wheel so 5 tire rotations weren't an embarrassment. Those tires wore down such that she didn't have to deal with buying a new set of tires when the time to sell the car approached.
It was a sublime luxury; as in, "It's time to buy a new car while the Jeep's tires still have tread".

A friend from England used to warn me of the "dangers of over-rotation". WHISKEY-TANGO-FOXTROT ? ? ?

I didn't worry too much about rotating tires on the Park Avenue, but they wore as you might expect, being driven in a city with roads of the finest Third World quality. So I ended buying 1 or 2 tires at a time. In contrast, I've had the Regal's tires rotated at each 6-month oil change (at the dealer the rotation is part of the oil change package). The Michelins are 60K mile-rated tires, but I'm at 65K now and still have quite a bit of tread left before I get into replacement territory.

Needless to say, I've been converted back to a belief in regular rotations.

 

[EdwardC]

Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Another benefit of rotation is you have a chance to inspect the brake system, especially brake pads wear. You like to change brake pads when it goes down to about 2mm, just before brake wear sensor is triggered. Some electronic sensors on some MB vehicles are expensive.


Agreed. I rotate my tires when I swap to and from snow tires. At the same time, I take a few minutes to grease the slider pins and make sure the wear is even.

 

[supton]

Yep, great time to check the brakes. I like to pull them apart at least once/year (if not twice) to make sure everything is moving, and that the pads are not delaminating.

I skipped the last 5k rotation on my Camry, and now with 10k since the last rotation there is a 1/32 difference f/r. My Tundra gets quite a bit of shoulder wear but I'm starting to think it's under-tired.

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: GaleHawkins
I see your point of view. I just do not like having my tires rotated if they are wearing OK because stick on magnets are hard for the shops to remove and replace.


you mean the weights, not magnets? If doing just a rotation then the weights should be left alone. No need to keep balancing unless if there is an issue.

Even if a rotation covers a balance they really ought to just spin first and check balance rather than mess with a balanced tire--I'm not a tire mech but it seems they should spin after attaching weights so as to verify actually balanced, so a pre-spin should yield less work for the shop (unless if the customer complains about a vibration).

 

[4WD]

I own full size spares (one at home and one at my camp) partly due to a locker rear end - the rear end and no change of plans worth more than a whole set of tires ...
The secret to tire rotation is the Denny's next to Discount Tire

 

[Scum_Frog]

I don't get it.... on this site folks are very OCD about oil changes, but they don't rotate their tires....baffling.

 

[MuzzleFlash40]

I know with Tire Discounters you have to make an appointment but there appointments are first priority over walk-ins. I'm usually out of there in half an hour or so. Might take an hour if I ask them to rebalance them.

I know on my new Coopers the original price was $237 a tire. They had them on sale for $227 and they price matched a local shop for $209. Plus Cooper has a $70 rebate. All that and still got the lifetime rotation and balancing. Free alignment too, which is about $80-$100 anywhere in town for a 4x4.