I have about 24000 KM on my tires, do you think a person should rotate as long as they seem to be wearing evenly? I could do it myself as I do have a torque wrench & the book says to torque to 80 lbs.I might sound dumb ,but what does TAGS mean just below were you type in this question?
You’re going to get some differences of opinion on the rotating. I personally think it’s overrated, the every 5000 miles usually recommended is unnecessarily often even for even wear. Many people don’t rotate their tires at all, replacing them in pairs and essentially amortizing the cost. Some even believe rotating tires casn mask uneven wear that could signal a need for maintenance. Others swear by the practice.
Personally, I don’t have a strong opinion in either direction.
how are the tires wearing? you say evenly, but really look at the tread.
front or rear wheel drive?
personally i don’t rotate anymore. at mtb says, i replace tires as needed, in pairs. it “probably” is more economically better to rotate, but personally i don’t see it. tires now usually go for 40K to 60K why rotate?
Front tires wear faster than rear tires. I like to rotate front-to-back for even 4-tire wear so I can replace them in sets of four. I’d never pay for rotation.
Some tire shops advertise free lifetime rotation and balancing for customers. If yours does, take advantage of it. In my case I do it myself in my driveway. I do so once a year in spring. My floor jack lifts a car’s side so I do two at a time. With my breaker bar and speed crank, the operation goes very quickly.
Other folks have different ideas. Some people even insist the best tires must always be in the rear. Such folk can never rotate. You can suit yourself.
Years ago I thought rotating tires was foolish and a waste of time. I’ve revised my opinion and now rotate my tires roughly every 5,000 miles. It’s your vehicle, you can do as you wish. If you rotate the tires, they will probably all wear out at about the same time. If not, you will need two before you need the other two.
Personally, I like having four matching tires on a vehicle if at all possible.
If your vehicle is AWD, you really should rotate to even the wear. Some AWD systems are very sensitive to differences in tire circumference, and having two new tires and two old tires can be hard on the AWD system.
Gotta know what kind of car. I rotate FWD but not RWD. If you hope to collect on a tire wear guarantee you must rotate.
Why FWD but not RWD?
And what’s everyone’s opinion on having the “best” tires on the rear, even in FWD vehicles? Is that the safest?
I have always rotated tires front to back and it has worked for me. As far as to where to put the best tires, I have always beleived that they should be in the front regardless whether is FWD or RWD. This has to do with control of the car in case of a blow out. But then again, you can get a blow out on any tire regardless of tread condition.
I would rather have good traction on my steering wheels.
On a front wheel drive car, even one in perfect alignment, the tires in the front will tend to wear much more heavilly on one edge or another. On a well-aligned rear drive car, the effect becomes more or less negligable. I agree with the posters who said that if you have to pay for rotations, the cost of getting them done will generally exceed savings due to extended tire life. I usually just rotate the tires in the course of changing to or from snow tires.
You always want the tires with the best traction on the back, FWD or RWD, because if a tire in the back loses traction while you’re braking, but the fronts don’t, the back of your car will want to go faster than the front-- which it will, and you will soon be spinning around!
I have always beleived that they should be in the front regardless whether is FWD or RWD. This has to do with control of the car in case of a blow out.
Actually most experts recommend putting the best tyres on the rear. The most common and dangerous situation is loosing control when trying to brake on a slippery (wet or icy) surface. If the rear tyres are not as good as the front, then they may loose traction and you will suddenly find the back end skidding around to the front and you have lost all direction control and can’t even see where you are going.
The best tires should be in the rear because in a typical front wheel drive car with a 60/40 weight distribution the front tires will have 50% more weight on them, giving them a serious traction advantage. That allows the rear to break traction and send you intyo a spin. Having the better tires on the rear helps offset that advantage and keep the car from spinning.
At least that’s the theory…borne out by track testing in wet conditions.