Rotating Tyres

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manesan

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Should I rotate the tyres on my car to get longer usage out of them, or just change the front tyres when they are ready to be replaced as they get worn out faster? Which makes more economical sense?
 
manesan said:
Should I rotate the tyres on my car to get longer usage out of them, or just change the front tyres when they are ready to be replaced as they get worn out faster? Which makes more economical sense?
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Depends on the car. Many FWD cars, especially VWs, will wear out back tyres in a very annoying way resulting in sawtooth wear on the tread blocks, which leads to excessive road noise, so I'd recommend rotating these front-to-back every 10000km.

Economics - very little difference...

If your rears are more than 50% or so worn though at the point you're replacing the fronts, I'd put the new tyres on the rear and move the rear tyres to the front. Better tyres at the back is safer as your car is less likely to break into oversteer when you least expect it.
 
I'm about to rotate mines. The back tires are like new so i'm just going to pop them in the front and put the smooth ones at the back. Luckily it hasn't been raining
 
themba990 said:
I'm about to rotate mines. The back tires are like new so i'm just going to pop them in the front and put the smooth ones at the back. Luckily it hasn't been raining
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1) are the "smooth" ones still legal?
2) read what I said about oversteer. Be careful.
 
Sinbad said:
1) are the "smooth" ones still legal?
2) read what I said about oversteer. Be careful.
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I forgot the tread depth for legal... But they are pretty smooth. The spin when i move off on a wet surface, especially when i move off on a hill and it's wet then becomes a bit of a problem...
The car is FWD, I imagine it would only oversteer if i took a corner pretty fast. But since i have no back seats(bakkie), there is less weight on the rear axle which means even less grip...
 
themba990 said:
I forgot the tread depth for legal... But they are pretty smooth. The spin when i move off on a wet surface, especially when i move off on a hill and it's wet then becomes a bit of a problem...
The car is FWD, I imagine it would only oversteer if i took a corner pretty fast. But since i have no back seats(bakkie), there is less weight on the rear axle which means even less grip...
Click to expand...

Get new tyres
 
Keep in mind that on most cars, the front tyres do most of the braking. Most cars have only small brake discs at the rear, or even brake drums. You want your best tyres on the front in this case - this does NOT mean you can have worn or smooth tyres at the back. 2mm is the legal minimum and I believe far too low.

That said, people, please don't wait too long to replace worn tyres. Many accidents had tyre wear or lack of grip as a contributing factor. Take the price of tyres and divide by the km's you drive. It's a few cents a km and it could save your life.
 
Gaz{M} said:
Keep in mind that on most cars, the front tyres do most of the braking. Most cars have only small brake discs at the rear, or even brake drums. You want your best tyres on the front in this case
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Sorry, disagreed. During braking, weight transfers to the front, thus increasing the grip at the front (which is why the front has bigger brakes) - and tyres with less grip will still do OK. Tyres with less grip on the BACK will result in rear lockups which is a lot more dangerous.
 
Sinbad said:
Sorry, disagreed. During braking, weight transfers to the front, thus increasing the grip at the front (which is why the front has bigger brakes) - and tyres with less grip will still do OK. Tyres with less grip on the BACK will result in rear lockups which is a lot more dangerous.
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The only time that the amount of tread makes any difference to the grip is when you're driving in the wet and you start aquaplaning. The rear tyres follow in the tracks of the fronts, which clear the bulk of the water from the road, enabling the rear tyres to grip even though those same tyres may well have aquaplaned if they had been on the front and had to deal with the deeper water.

Either way, if your tyres are bald or you're losing traction, replace them.
 
Colin62 said:
The only time that the amount of tread makes any difference to the grip is when you're driving in the wet and you start aquaplaning. The rear tyres follow in the tracks of the fronts, which clear the bulk of the water from the road, enabling the rear tyres to grip even though those same tyres may well have aquaplaned if they had been on the front and had to deal with the deeper water.

Either way, if your tyres are bald or you're losing traction, replace them.
Click to expand...

Many makes of tyres have a harder compound of rubber near the end of the tread - this has less grip than the normal tread...
 
Sinbad said:
Depends on the car. Many FWD cars, especially VWs, will wear out back tyres in a very annoying way resulting in sawtooth wear on the tread blocks, which leads to excessive road noise, so I'd recommend rotating these front-to-back every 10000km.

Economics - very little difference...

If your rears are more than 50% or so worn though at the point you're replacing the fronts, I'd put the new tyres on the rear and move the rear tyres to the front. Better tyres at the back is safer as your car is less likely to break into oversteer when you least expect it.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Ill try rotating every 10000Km's with this set and see how it goes.
 
b_crazy said:
First of all, are your tyres directional or asymmetric?
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You can still rotate with directional tires. Your front left swaps with the back left - same direction.

Different story if the back and fronts are different sizes.
 
Further to the question on rotating - when you rotate should you do balancing and alignment again?
 
themba990 said:
I forgot the tread depth for legal... But they are pretty smooth. The spin when i move off on a wet surface, especially when i move off on a hill and it's wet then becomes a bit of a problem...
The car is FWD, I imagine it would only oversteer if i took a corner pretty fast. But since i have no back seats(bakkie), there is less weight on the rear axle which means even less grip...
Click to expand...

This is like reading someone's suicide note!! :wtf:

When you read something like this from someone who is "intelligent" enough to operate a computer, but doesn't realise how dangerous it is to drive around with no tread, no wonder SA has one of the highest death rates in the world, due to accidents... :(
 
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