I've heard that rotating the wheels every so often helps to ensure even wear of the tyres.

Is this true and if so how often should they be rotated and which wheels should be switched with each other? ie: left to right or back to front or both??

depends on the type of tyre mate,

I do it every 2 months but I do 1600+ a month.

mine are directional so I can just go front to back.

Tyres with inside / outside you go front to back. back to opposite front.

Have a look on Car bibles mate, just google it.

I try keep the set going as long as I can then change all 4 at a time so I keep the best on the front as they wear more but they are all fairly similar.

If you really wanted to be anel you could also take the tyres off and swap them so the outside of the tyre is on the inside of the rim too. personnally I dont bother as its more hassel than its worth.

billy

Thanks for the info Billy.

i don't bother

Many will disagree with me but the only rotation i do is as follows:

Most worn tyres are ALWAYS on the front. When they wear out i get a new set, the part worn rear tyres get swapped to the front, and the new tyres go on the rear.

IMO this is safer because you are more likely to get understeer than oversteer and it is easier for most drivers to contend with.

A small bonus of this method is the tyres on your car are also at their newest, a tyre lasts a max of 3 years approx using this rotation. Those that put new tyres on front and part worn on back will find it takes years to wear out tyres on the rear so can be driving around with very old tyres where the rubber is starting to perish on them - NOT GOOD!

Thanks for your input.

So 1 opinion is keep best tyres on the back and the other says best tyres on the front.

Any more opinions? Let's play best of 5

I do the same new tires on the rear.

New tyres always! go on the rear, no matter what drive the car!

I leave mine to wear on the front and if i need two new ones they get fitted to the front alloys and then swapped with the rears so the new ones end up on the back, correct way to do it!

I dissagree. The whole idea of rotation is to keep all 4 tyres wearing even. I do 20k+ a year and a set of tyres last 18 month and are all evenly worn so there is no telling which is front and which is rear. Down to personal pref really and as I've never had any prob with the way I do it and my entire family has done it this way Ill not be changing to the "propper" way of doing it. Sorry dannyboy!

Bil

New tyres on the front.

The front tyres do all the steering, accelerating and braking. When there's standing water on the road, you want better resistance to aquaplaning at the front. When the roads are covered in snow, you want the tyres with deeper tread at the front.

If you're scared of oversteer then maybe drive a little slower, or develop your driving technique. It's not hard to control the back end of this car.....

New tyres on the front.

The front tyres do all the steering, accelerating and braking. When there's standing water on the road, you want better resistance to aquaplaning at the front. When the roads are covered in snow, you want the tyres with deeper tread at the front.

If you're scared of oversteer then maybe drive a little slower, or develop your driving technique. It's not hard to control the back end of this car.....

Completely wrong, logical, but wrong!

If you want to rotate them so they wear even then fair enough, nothing wrong with that but if you fit two new tyres they ALWAYS go on the rear.

Not going to explain why now but read some books about it, look at the posters in ATS or Kwik fit if you have to but rear is right.

Just because the front does all the steering and most of the braking and provides the drive(also very wrong!) lol doesnt mean you put the new tyres on the front!

I dissagree. The whole idea of rotation is to keep all 4 tyres wearing even. I do 20k+ a year and a set of tyres last 18 month and are all evenly worn so there is no telling which is front and which is rear. Down to personal pref really and as I've never had any prob with the way I do it and my entire family has done it this way Ill not be changing to the "propper" way of doing it. Sorry dannyboy!

Bil

its not proper or otherwise, in fact I think your method is slightly better (cos all tyres are more evenly matched)

new tyres on rear is simpler, and also ensures you have the youngest tyres possible on your car

New tyres on the front.

The front tyres do all the steering, accelerating and braking. When there's standing water on the road, you want better resistance to aquaplaning at the front. When the roads are covered in snow, you want the tyres with deeper tread at the front.

If you're scared of oversteer then maybe drive a little slower, or develop your driving technique. It's not hard to control the back end of this car.....

I aint scared of oversteer, but some of the other people who drive the car would be

also understeer is inherently easier to deal with - just go slower!

New tyres on the front wheels 2 - 3 New tyres on the back wheels

I'm going to the tyre place on Saturday to have my front left alloy swappesd with my spare as it's scuffed so will ask them for an opinion and report back.

Completely wrong, logical, but wrong!

If you want to rotate them so they wear even then fair enough, nothing wrong with that but if you fit two new tyres they ALWAYS go on the rear.

Not going to explain why now but read some books about it, look at the posters in ATS or Kwik fit if you have to but rear is right.

Just because the front does all the steering and most of the braking and provides the drive(also very wrong!) lol doesnt mean you put the new tyres on the front!

So you're saying I shouldn't put snow chains on the front tyres of my front wheel drive car in heavy snow then, and if I put them on the rear tyres it would offer me much better control?

I've had this discussion down the pub with a friend who totally disagrees with the new tyres to the rear policy. Have a look at this,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5YsQ_a_ijA

It does help explain why some people always put new on the rear. I also remember years ago when Mike Brewer did the same with a Corsa/Nova and had pretty much the same outcomes.

As for snow, I've used Autosocks and yes, they went on the front and did a brilliant job. I guess snow is different and the tyres to the rear system goes out of the window to some extent.

Mind you, snow chains and Autosocks shouldn't always go on the front.

snow is very different - i'd doubt people would drive at 60mph in snow with snowchains for starters!

Firstly, you can't rotate directional tyres without remounting them every time you swap a tyre side to side.

Secondly, the last time I heard of rotating tyres (other than always fitting new tyres to $end_of_car) as a regular maintenance task was about 1969. In this context, I knew someone who did it, and always got poor life compared with other people using $tyre_make on $car_model. The thinking was that the reversal of the rotation direction when the tyres were swapped side to side caused extra wear whilst the sidewalls restressed themselves.

Thirdly, I've seen the "fit new tyres to the back" videos thanks. If I drove a car with no ABS rather than a proper 4-channel system, and made a habit of driving onto flooded roads at excess speed then braking hard, the videos might actually be of relevance to me.

Finally, STSkoda, if you try driving at 60mph with chains on, I think you'll break the chains!

I didn't put the video link up as a definitive answer, merely to say that it helps explain why some people put new tyres on the back. It is a contrived situation and to find yourself in that exact scenario would be rare, so it isn't of relevance for most people's daily driving.

New tyres on the front.

The front tyres do all the steering, accelerating and braking. When there's standing water on the road, you want better resistance to aquaplaning at the front. When the roads are covered in snow, you want the tyres with deeper tread at the front.

If you're scared of oversteer then maybe drive a little slower, or develop your driving technique. It's not hard to control the back end of this car.....

+1

Always have put new ones on the front, never had any problems.

Edited 11 August, 201114 yr by Silver Bullet

Finally, STSkoda, if you try driving at 60mph with chains on, I think you'll break the chains!

I know pal, I was being facetious.

Just meaning in snow etc the relatively low speeds mean traction on the rear axle is less important than at higher speeds, providing the driver is cautious.

in that clip it kind of gives it away when sh says a pair of tyres. the whole idea of rotating your tyres is so you keep them all as evenly worn as pos so you get all the life out of them you can. By rotating the tyres correctly ie front to back back to opposite front, over the life of the tyres they will of been on each corner so will of been subjected to the same wear as the rest. bad thing with new tyres is a lot are directional so to do it correctly you would need to have them swapped over on the rims when you change sides hence why I just go front to back.

http://www.carbibles.com/tyre_bible_pg3.html

check that out, 1/3rd way down.

billy