Yes of course. But you’ll only see people insisting to put the 2 new tires on the “drive wheels”. So RWD was never an issue.
What about those vehicles that list 10000 mile or 12 months oil changes?
Not true anymore. Not for at least 35 years.
I rotate my tires every 5K miles for best wear, I also check and adjust the alignment at the same time…
On a 10K oil change, you are still recommended to rotate the tires every 5K… Most manufactures recommend a 5K rotate…
Another reason to rotate that has nothing to do with tire wear is that you can easily check the pad wear and on most vehicles remove the drums to check the shoe wear, and knock out a little dust, or at least peak through an inspection hole in the backing plate if available…Plus you can keep the wheels from seizing onto the hubs and what not…
Plus while there, you can inspect the steering and suspension…
Most places other than dealers, do free rotations on any tire they sell (staggard not included), I know Firestone will rotate Firestone and Bridgestone tires for free no matter where they were bought… So you can buy them from Sam’s club etc etc etc and FS will still rotate said tires for free…
If/when a tire is feathering (heal/toe wear) it needs to be crossed to the other side to even the wear on that tire (directional tires not included)…
I basically always cross X rotate my tires at every rotation in order to keep them evenly worn…
Probably the biggest reason for mechanics NOT wanting to cross rotate tires is because it takes longer to roll/carry a tire to the other side of the vehicle vs just moving keeping them on the same side, basically laziness…
Plus as mentioned, when in an emergency maneuver, or just out having a little fun and or wet roads, it is nice to know my tires will all preform about the same…
And tires are recommended to be replaced at 4-5/32 for best wet weather traction, 2/32 is wear DOT says you are unsafe…
All in all, it is your money, your vehicle, your safety and your decision, rotate them or not, it’s up to you… I am going to sleep the same either way… lol
You have heard from a tire engineer, a brake and chassis engineer and a simple guy that retired from the largest automotive tire manufacture in the world after 17 years…
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… Radial ply tires don’t need it as did bias-ply.
It seems to me that the “you must have the better tires on the rear” guys are now arguing with the “you must have all four tires equal” guys who rotate every 5K (I call the latter group the “let’s ruin all four tires equally” group, unless they are also doing the 5K alignment check routine.)
For those who think they are extending tire life, I say:
As you drive, each wheel of your car is grinding off rubber. It makes no difference whether the tire is new or old or rotated or fixed. Also fixed is the total amount of rubber available to wear out on your brand new tires. So your total wear per mile is a fixed number, depending on such things as wheel alignment and how you drive. The “I never rotate” guys will probably discover a single bad wheel alignment sooner, and before the other tires are damaged. The “I rotate every 5K” guys will be masking that problem, shortening the life of all four tires equally, leading them to the Get One Free store sooner. The “I never rotate” guys will be driving with an imbalance in handling, even after the alignment, unless they buy two tires.
My brother on his 2012 or 14 Tacoma pre runner got 105K miles out of the OEM tires and 95K miles out of the set of Destination LE2’s I put on it, rotated every 5K… The LE2’s are/were rated for 60K miles, that is what a little over 60% longer than expected…
His older Tacoma’s tires were never rotated and I had to replace them every year or 2, he figured out tires just last longer when properly rotated…
Ah … Mmmmm … Not exactly.
Ya’ see, if you apply torque to a tire, it wears faster.
Also, if the tire is a steer tire, the shoulders get worn faster than the centers - and for drive tires, it’s the opposite.
If those are different positions (RWD), rotating tires extends the life as different parts of the tire are being worn.
But if those are the same position (FWD), the steer/drive front tires wear much faster than the free rolling rears. I’ve documented that the value is about 2 1/2 times different. In other words, a tire that only goes 20K miles on the front position, gets 50K on the rear.
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I still do the same. They still get rotated several times over the life of the tires.
In regular use, I have not seen the front-to-rear wear discrepancies you describe. If I did see it, I would get the car aligned, and it should be very obvious where the problem is since I don’t rotate. I should also discover it sooner, and I would not be damaging the other tires.
ALSO: I did the math to follow the wear on each tire every 5K when a tire rotation is done. (For instance, at the first 5K, the fronts have worn 25% (using your 20K and 50K numbers) and the rears will be worn just 10%. You will be doing a 4 tire replacement at 27.5K and throwing away a bit (10%) of good tread on the rear pair.
My father had fwd Buick he bought new. Never rotated tires. Always put the new ones on the front. The rears got to 98,000 miles after 9 years. The rear of the car sounded like he was dragging bags of gravel. The tread was still ‘good’ so he didn’t replace them. They were harder than the pavement.
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I’d have to say, then, that you’re just not paying attention. It’s not about alignment. It’s about physics, and @CapriRacer described it well above.
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I have seen minivans wear the front tires down to the wear bars after 25,000 miles, while the rear tires had good tread. The owners wanted new tires for free, believing that this was a defect.
Tires should be rotated to prevent wear patterns (cupping, heel-toe) from developing, more common of a problem on certain vehicles.
I rotate my tires as needed, 10,000 to 15,000 miles.
Tire rotation on an “as needed” basis won’t work for customer’s cars, if the mechanic is allowed to decide if rotation is necessary, very few vehicles would get a tire rotation. The maintenance schedule calls for 5,000 visits, tire rotation occurs on each visit.
One of the forum members has an all-wheel-drive vehicle with staggered tire sizes, 225 front, 255 rear, tire rotation is not required. Can tire rotation really be that critical if vehicles are being manufactured that don’t allow front/rear rotation?
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We rotated the tires on our Odyssey every 7500 miles (oil change). The OEM Michelins lasted over 70,000 miles before we changed them. There was 4/32” tread left front and rear.
Maybe I was misunderstood. Of course I see the front vs rear wear difference. What I don’t see is the more subtle edge-to-edge or edge-to-middle difference caused by steering or drive wear that is discussed. Since my physics has been challenged, I will pose a question. My Mazda 3 FWD sits in the driveway. The front tires were installed there when the tires were new, and the tires now just barely passed inspection. From what has been said, I should be seeing a very significantly different tread depth on one edge vs the other. Quantify that statement: how much difference will I measure there?
This pretty much comes down to being set in your/our ways, nothing anyone says will change anyone’s mind on here…
This thread will go 200+ and no one will change the way they have been doing it for 30-40-50-60 years…
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There probably not a real answer because of turning one way more than the other - variation of tire inflation from one to another - even the road crown can make a difference.
You need tires so buy tires. You don’t want to rotate so find something else to worry about.
I read that UPS and Fedex carefully design delivery routes to minimize left turns. I expect they see wear patterns consistent with that.
FREE ROTATIONS!
I saw a tire dealer discussing his use of free rotations. According to him, they cost about $8 per person entering his business. This far beats the $69 per person that it normally costs him (presumably for advertising). That also implies to me that many customers who come for their free rotation will get upsold into something else. Similarly, I think Buy Three Get One Free is a marketing ploy.
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