how do YOU rotate?
 

I'm just curious as to how those of you with upgraded tires rotate them? I mean, how often? Do you just swap front/rear, or do you cross sides?

I've never owned truck with large tires before, and just curious as to how others do this.

whenever ive done it ive always crossed the tires like an X, and about ever third oil change

With the stock tires I did a 4 tire, front to back, back to front cross. When I up graded to larger tires on stock rims I bought 5 tires and a matching OEM rim/wheel for the spare. Now I do a 5 tire, cross rotation with the spare every 5K. It is actually easier and quicker because I only have to jackup 1 tire at a time.

Backs to fronts; fronts to backs NOT crossed.

Reason: Crossing keeps the torque going the same direction (Front tires do stopping; rear tires do pushing) -- and if you don't change direction of the torque, you keep the feather-edging or saw-toothing going. I prefer to counter the wear.

By keeping the tire on the same side of the vehicle, the front (braking wear) tire now becomes the rear (driving wear) pattern.

I do understand the alternative theory -- saying I'm increasing the wear rate of my tires by artificially-wearing down the saw-tooth.

I believe I'm reducing the tendency of my tires to develop cup-wear by my method (I have 38K on Goodyear RT/S with very little cupping -- and are 64% worn - relative to the wear bars -- which predicts 59K life when I hit the wear bar point).

If I'm not mistaken the Owner's Manual recommends the cross pattern rotation (not that I've done it).

Y2K 7700 4x4: Good explanation.

Thanks for the input, everyone!

I have deritional tires so front to back..

oh ya there 18/255/55
yokoma AVS/ST

I do it front to back on my HD, and front to back on my 85 F150 but i also get em flipped on the rim when i do the old truck cuz the i beam suspension wear pattern.

o yeah, i do it every 10K miles

Front to back, same side, every 5,000 miles~~~~~

rhdf150, every 5k miles?? Geez, thats pretty often. Just curious for the reason though :rolleyes: . I though you put a decent amount of miles on your HD in a year cuz didn't you already get new tires? I'm just wondering. ;)

I do mine every 10K which is once a year for me, and i change my oil twice a year so every 5k miles on my HD, and for my old truck i change the oil once a year, cuz she only gets around 4k miles a year.

Front to rear every 5000 miles. Free lifetime rotation and balancing came with my BFG AT at Tire Discounters and this is the mileage they recommend so why not. I have had them rotated twice and I had them balanced both times. At first roation I had slight cupping due to bad shocks and front bearings, by second rotation cupping is almost gone. Tire wear in 10-11K miles is very slight, heck I still have some of the little nubbies on them.

I've stuck with front to back and back to front on the same side only. Seemed to be working for me. Got just over 50k miles on the original RT/S hockey pucks but they still had tread left, I just felt a bit unsafe in the rain so got new AT/S rubber.

The change interval I used was long. Perhaps every 15k miles. No uneven wear or anything. Perhaps I'm lucky that my F-150 has an alignment that is spot on or something.

I don't do the X pattern rotation simply because of counteracting the feathering of the tread as was mentioned above.

I do the front to rear and rear to front cross about every 5,000 miles.

I have been under the impression that cross-rotating radial tires can cause the tread to separate.
I have always rotated the tires front to back, same side since the 70s.

Depends on whether you're in the northern or southern hemisphere...