tyre rotation

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Sun 3 Mar 2002 09:52
tyre rotation - alan
Hi


My car is almost three years old and the front tyres are showing wear to about 2mm above the markers. The rear ones look fine, Is it a good idea to rotate front to back or just to buy two new front ones. Also can you mix brands from front to back

thanks for any help

alan
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Sun 3 Mar 2002 11:52
Re: tyre rotation - Mike H
No reason why you shouldn't - but recent research has shown (can't remember the source) that wear will be drastically increased if you suddenly start making them go the opposite way. That is, if you rotate them, keep them on the same side of the car. In addition, you should always have the best tyres on the back (i.e. those with most tread). Two reasons for this:
- punctures are more likely to occur on back tyres, therefore thickest runbber=less chance of intrusion;
- front wheel skid (excessive understeer) is safer than losing the back end.

IMHO, there is also another good reason. I've found on most of my cars, which have all been front wheel drive, that rears wear very slowly, and a life of 100,000 miles would not be unexpected......but think of how old they would be at this mileage!! I'm not aware of any research into tyre aging, but my gut feeling is that even if they still have good tread, they can't be safe at speed with more than 5 years life behind them, particularly as they take the greatest load when you stack the boot...

So consider moving the rear tyres to the front, keeping them on the same side, and have the new ones on the rear.

I'm sure someone else will have some comments, but I hope this helps.
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Sun 3 Mar 2002 12:16
Re: tyre rotation - Roger K.
Yes, you can mix brands front to back.

One disadvantage to rotating tyres it that you could be faced with replacing 4 tyres at the same time in the future.
Personally, I would replace the tyres as they wear.
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Sun 3 Mar 2002 13:24
Re: tyre rotation - steve paterson
Mike,
Why are rear tyres more likely to be punctured?
I work for a truck / van rental company, we hire out all sorts of commercial vehicles from Caddy van's to Iveco 7.5 tonners. Front and rear wheel drive, single and twin rear wheels. Rear tyre punctures are a daily occurrance - front tyre - almost never.
Steve
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Sun 3 Mar 2002 17:32
Re: tyre rotation - Mike H
It's just one of those things that you "know" to be true - as Brian says (see next post on this thread) it's apparently all to do with the front tyres flipping nails up. Brian's experience bears it out.
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Sun 3 Mar 2002 13:44
Re: tyre rotation - Brian
If you go over e.g. a nail laying in the road, it is laying flat when the front wheel goes over it and no damage occurs.
However, the front wheel flips it up, just in time to meet the rear tyre.
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Sun 3 Mar 2002 17:44
Re: tyre rotation - Pete W
So the Gillette MACH 3 does work then ?
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