When we talk of the maintenance of a car whether your everyday driver or your classic muscle car in the garage, the first thing that comes to mind is changing the oil. While this may be one of the most important when considering the life of the engine there are many other steps to take in properly maintaining your vehicle both for the vehicle’s long life and for the driver and passenger’s safety. One of the steps I am referring to is the periodic tire rotation.
The first question that many wonders is how often I should rotate my tires. Ironically, I opened this blog talking of the changing of the engine oil. While oil has come a long way over the years and in some cases, may not need to be changed for 5,000 or 10,000 or possibly longer, the old rule of thumb for changing engine oil was around 3,000 miles. (I still like to change my oil between 3,000 and 5,000 miles regardless of what the filter, oil and car manufacture say. To me any more than 5,000 miles just does not seem right.) So, what does this all have to do with rotating tires? The recommended interval for rotating tires is the same as the old rule of thumb on changing engine oil, which is every 3,000 to 5,000 miles even if the tires do not show signs of wear.
Rotating your tires serves many purposes not the least of which it extends the life of your tires overall. Tire rotation helps even out tire wear by allowing each tire to serve in as many of the vehicle’s wheel positions as possible. Remember, tire rotation cannot correct wear problems due to worn mechanical parts or incorrect inflation pressures. While vehicles are typically equipped with four tires, usually the tires on the front axle need to accomplish vastly different tasks than the tires on the rear axle. The tasks encountered on a front wheel drive vehicle are considerably different than those of a rear-wheel drive vehicle. Tire wear experienced on a performance vehicle will usually be more severe than that of a family sedan. Each wheel position can cause different wear rates and different types of tire wear.
Except for the cost of replacing all four tires over just having to replace two, it is an advantage when all four tires wear together because as wear reduces a tire’s tread depth, it.
allows all four tires to respond to the driver’s input more quickly, maintains the handling and helps increase the tire’s cornering traction. When your tires wear out together and you replace tires in sets of four, you will maintain the original handling balance.
So now that we have addressed the benefits and when you should rotate your tires, the next question is how you should rotate your tires. I am not going to get into the mechanics of how to jack up a car and remove a tire, which are the basic skills needed to rotate your tires, but rather next we will discuss the various patterns of tire rotation and which tire should go where. Those questions are answered when we consider the vehicle, the tire types and whether your vehicle is equipped with a full-size spare with matching wheel.
In today’s time most tire rotations will be a four-tire rotation. Meaning that the four tires that are on the vehicle will each be rotated to a new place based on location and wear patterns. The four-tire rotation became necessary when manufactures stopped providing a full-size spare, but rather switched to what has been referred to as the “donut” spare. These “donut” tires are designed for limited speeds and distances and are meant to get you off the side of the road when you have a flat and to a place where you can get your tire repaired. They are also designed to take up less space in the cargo area giving greater versatility to the design and more storage in the vehicle.
The Four Tire Rotation
As you will notice in the above diagrams, there is more than one way to properly initiate a four-tire rotation. The method used will depend on the type of tires you have installed on your vehicle.
There are two types of tires reflected in the above diagrams. A non-directional tire has a tread pattern that is designed to perform equally well regardless of the tires’ rotation. This allows the tires to be placed on either side of the vehicle and allows for the tires to be rotated according to either of the shown rotation patterns. The second type of tire is a directional tire, which are characterized by having a “directional” tread design, that is, a tread pattern design that is best when rotating in a specific direction. In the case of a directional tread design these tires must be placed on either the left or right side of the vehicle depending on the direction of the tread. Therefore, rotation of a directional tire allows you to rotate the tires from front to back, but you must keep the tires on the same side of the vehicle where they are, ensuring the same rotation of the tire.
While non-directional tires are much better about tread wear, directional tires tend to have other benefits over a non-directional tire. These benefits include better wet weather traction as the tread pattern is better designed to channel water away from the center of the tire. Directional tires also tend to perform better regarding braking and handling as they are specifically designed to rotate in a particular direction.
The Five Tire Rotation
If you currently own a vehicle with a full-size spare, typically found on older vehicles, commercial trucks, or Jeeps, then the best option for rotating you tires is a five-tire rotation. Utilizing the spare within the rotation pattern allows for an increased tread wear of 25% as at any given time one tire is not being utilized.
As indicated in the diagram above, there are two different methods for performing a five-tire rotation. The nice thing about either method is you only must jack up one tire at a time. Making the rotation of the tires a little easier and certainly a little safer with only one tire being raised at a time.
The Six Tire Rotation
While both the four and five tire rotations are the most common, especially when talking of classic cars, this post would not be complete without addressing the six-tire rotation. The six-tire rotation, is utilized on trucks, normally referred to as a “dually”. A “dually” is a heavy-duty pickup truck with two rear wheels on each side, allowing more road contact and width for greater stability, balance, and traction while driving. The various options for performing a six-tire rotation are as follows:
If you can re-balance your wheels/tires for your classic car the best time to do it is when you rotate your tires as uneven wear can cause your tires to become unbalanced. You will certainly feel it more with the front tires versus the rear classic car tires.
No matter what type of vehicle you drive or what tire rotation pattern works best for you, the important thing to remember is that the rotation of your tires should be made part of your normal maintenance schedule. Rotating your tires will extend the life of the tires, increase the safety of the vehicle, and keep the vehicle driving as it should for a long time.
Jamie Pappas
