Mixed Signals on Tire Rotation

3748 Views 9 Replies 6 Participants Last post by MonsterSoul, Aug 30, 2021

gregger

Discussion Starter · Aug 23, 2021

Hi all,

I'm getting ready to rotate my (new last fall) Vredestein Quatrac 5 tires. I'm loving these tires...very smooth riding, good grip, and "Three Peak" Snowflake rated.

The tread design is assymetrical but non-directional and so the tire can be rotated to any position on the vehicle so long as it remains mounted on the wheel (ie., "outside to the outside").

The Soul service manual recommends cross-rotation of tires (per the illustration, fronts go to back "same side," and backs go to fronts diagonally).

As you can see in the "Warning," the manual states that assymetric tread pattern tires should not change sides, but be rotated front-back only.

Why is that? The advice runs counter to the tire industry's advice that it's fine to cross-rotate non-directional, assymetric tires.

Who do you think "wins" here...the tire company or the car company?

Or does it really matter? (Lazy me would be fine to rotate front/back only; easier, takes less time, more time for beer

)

Thoughts appreciated. Thanks.

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TosenR

· #3 · Aug 23, 2021

gregger said:
...

Why is that? The advice runs counter to the tire industry's advice that it's fine to cross-rotate non-directional, assymetric tires.

Who do you think "wins" here...the tire company or the car company?

I personally think the tire company "wins" here as they are the one providing (and hopefully willing to stand by) the warranty on the tires. If they say to cross rotate every x number of miles then that's what I'd aim for.

gregger said:
Or does it really matter? (Lazy me would be fine to rotate front/back only; easier, takes less time, more time for beer )

Thoughts appreciated. Thanks.

I once had directional tires and said I'd never again get directional tires. Admittedly I'm not a tire expert. I don't much see the point of rotating tires front-to-back-&-back-to-front when on the very next rotation each tire will be right back where it started.

If the fronts tend to wear more than the rears then yes rotating will "pause" that particular wear pattern but only pause it.

Also will the front-left wear pattern match/equal the front-right wear pattern - in mostly city driving I'm thinking not.

So as the miles rack up the relative disparity of wear for each tire with each of its sibling tires gets worse and worse.

And so to me (again no expert) without 4 tire cross rotation there is no way to keep the relative wear of all the tires in the same ballpark. So again I would do what the tire manufacturer says.

Even though my current all season tires have plenty of life left I'm thinking this fall I may switch to all weather to get better cold weather / winter performance. Not willing to go the route of two separate sets of tires - summer & winter.

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TosenR

· #9 · Aug 28, 2021

GeoSoul said:
If the tire has an arrow indicating the rotation direction, you should stay with that (which means not crossing them to the other side)...

Years ago I had some directional tires purchased from Sam's Club. Went in for a free rotation, but I didn't want the standard same-side-front-to-back rotation.

I asked if they would unmount the tires and re-mount so could go on the other side of the car. The tech said they couldn't do that. I said I would pay for them to do it (it is afterall extra work). She said corporate wouldn't allow them to do it.

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