Interesting tire rotation pattern from my brother in law

[oilpan49]

Normally the pattern is too bring the rear tires up front then cris cross the front tires to the back.

My brother in law likes to just switch the tires from front the back on both sides of the vehicle. Meaning he'll jack up one side then just swap the front tire to the back and the back to the front. He will do this on both sides of the vehicle. He says this way you don't have to use 2 jacks and he claims that if you do it the per recommended way, this will screw up your alignment. What do you guys think?? Thanks,,,,AR

Edit: If your confused to what I'm talking about, I can make a small video clip if you would like?

 

[CapriRacer]

This is a pattern that used to be the standard in the 1970's - in the early days of radial tires. There's nothing really wrong with the pattern, but the one thing it doesn't do is reverse the direction of travel for an indivdiual tire - which erases some irregular wear patterns better.

Your brother in law is wrong about the recommended pattern screwing up the alignment. I don't even understand how swapping tires around even affects the alignment. Does he think the vehicle has a sensor that indicates what position the new tire came from?

 

[ChrisW]

Directional tires of the same size can only be swapped front to back and vice versa. Even with non directional tires, the inside edge of the tire is always on the inside with criss-crossing etc.

 

[oilpan49]

Thanks guys, so it sounds like I can use his pattern and not hurt anything but the recommended way is better?? Thanks,,,,,AR

 

[Quattro Pete]

There's more than one way to rotate tires:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=43

The front-to-back but not side-to-side rotation is used when you have directional tires. Otherwise, if you put directional tires on the other side without remounting them on the rims (and who would want to do that?), then they'd be running backwards thus negatively affecting their wet traction and possibly causing more noise.

quote:

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He says this way you don't have to use 2 jacks

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Now this part I didn't quite understand. Are you saying he jacks up the whole one side of the car with one jack? That's not very safe and can result in a bent frame. The right way to do this with one jack is to use jack stands. Alternatively you can employ your spare, but that'd be quite a bit of work.

[ August 06, 2005, 03:48 PM: Message edited by: Quattro Pete ]

 

[oilpan49]

Thanks, If you study pattern D that is exactly how my brother in law does it. He owns a 2003 Ford F150 Supercrew 4x4.

Yes, he does jack up the whole one side whether it be passengers side or drivers of the vehicle and rotates his tires according to pattern D,,,,AR

 

[gudmund]

I do the same thing every other 5000mile rotation -front to rear, rear to the front- than next time it's side to side. Yes I'm lazy and can't seem to remember where my owners manuel's are and which says what -x to the rear, straight to the front or was it-x to the front, straight to the rear or is it -front to rear, rear to front?? What I am doing seems to be working in contering the wear patterns and it's easy to do. (the problem I have is I own two Suzuki Swift's -98/01- same cars with two owners manuel's that show two different ways of rotation. The 98 says -front to rear, rear to front- and the 01 says front to rear,X to front.) Oh well.

 

[Mitch Alsup]

quote:

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Originally posted by ChrisW:
Directional tires of the same size can only be swapped front to back and vice versa.

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This depends upon the operating conditions and to some extent the car.

Directional tires are only directional in the sense of wiping water from the tread on wet roads.

Directional tires CAN be swapped axle side to axle side to equlize the wear. This works well down here in Texas during the long summer months when rain does not happen. Just make sure they are pointed in the 'prefered' direction when driving in the rain.

However, if you can get the car corner weighted so that each corner of the car is carrying the same load as tire on the other side, then tire rotation is practically not needed.

My F355B is accurately corner weighted and I don't have to rotate tires for them to all become slicks within a few miles of each other. They wear evenly edge to edge of each tire, and side to side on the same axle, and front to back. The only tire rotation I do is to counnteract the road race tracks I frequent that have high wear on one side of the car (MSR in Granburry Tx) so a simple swap from side to side works well.