Tire rotation

I know some of you are tire experts so here goes my question. Can you change the direction of rotation on radial tires or is that still taboo? I know years back that this was an absolute no no. Now I've heard it's Ok! What's the real truth?

 

You can change the direction as long as they're not directional tires

 

no expert but...I would think front to back would work. what would be the reasoning to change the rotation of the font/rear tire?

 

Rotating in an " X " pattern.

 

As long as they're the same size it's fine. Mine would look funny with 255/60's in front and 215/60's on back!

 

This.........

 

No problems with current tires and it is supposed to increase tread life.

and like they said, directional tires excluded of course...

 

Cross rotates work well, especially on 4wd vehicles.

 

On a rear wheel drive you move the rear tires straight forward and the front tires cross to the rear.
Front wheel drive is just the opposite.
All wheel drive cars are rotated as a front wheel drive. Unless they are directional and then they just go from front to back and back to front without crossing over to the other side.
If you are rotating in your spare tire on a rear wheel drive as I do on all my cars and trucks that have the same size tire on them you would put the spare on the right rear, move the rear tires to the front, move the right front tire to the left rear and put the right front to the spare position.
I hope this answers your questions about rotating tires.
Never cross the tires front and back this will only get them into 2 positions on the car. Done correctly they will end up on all positions on the car and last longer.
Front wheel drive and all wheel drive vehicles should be rotated every 3000 miles. Rear wheel drive and 4 wheel drives should be rotated every 5000 miles.

 

Good job... most people dont rotate tires correctly or often enough. Its easy for me being in the trade but its a cost to most people. I had 3 sets of michelin LTX on my cherokees which arent easy on tires. All 3 sets went went 110000-130000 km before replacing. This was with 5-10000km rotates cross switching as above. The tires didnt go out of balance worth mentioning and no scalloping which is so common now. Of course you have to keep up on steering and suspension also for tire life.
Oh and tire pressures....very crucial and not checked often enough.

 

I have noticed that if I cross the tires, the treads "porcupine" up on me, and I get excess road noise.

I have only gone front-back for the past 3 vehicles, and have had better luck.

porcupine=every other bump in the tire pops up about 1/8" and tire no longer feels smooth and flat, but has many of the individual tread bumps sticking up.

 

I want to thank all who have responded to my thread! Now I'm much more at ease about moving tires around! I have different sizes front and rear on the Maverick so I can only do side to side rotation, but I can do all four on the truck. I didn't know they should be rotated as often as some of you have indicated, but times have changed and so have tires!