4X4 owners - tire rotation...

[CPittman]

How often do you rotate the tires on your 4x4.



My dealer says that rotating every 3K miles is required to keep the machine from pulling to the right. Mine is pulling - I rotated the tires and the pull is less severe but still there.

 

[JohnnyH]

That seems a little excessive. I plan on doing mine around 7500 miles along with the oil and fuel service.

 

[Bertram65]

I do mine every 5k with the oil and filter makes for a couple hour project. I cross rotate driver's front to passenger rear, passenger rear to driver's front and so on. I also use a torque wrench when I put them on, I realized without it I was putting the lugs on too tight.

 

[Cliffman]

How often do you rotate the tires on your 4x4.



My dealer says that rotating every 3K miles is required to keep the machine from pulling to the right. Mine is pulling - I rotated the tires and the pull is less severe but still there.

That's a pile of bull. It never fales to amaze me what these dealers will say and do to get you in there shop to spend your hard earned money. Just keep an eye on the tread ware. Compare the front ware with the rear ware. I rotate my own tires based on visual inspection. I got 65K out of my last set of Michelins. Don’t believe that 3k crap!

 

[CPittman]

The cross-rotation doesn't cause any problems? I'm running the stock BFG Rugged Trail T/A's.

 

[Jengle]

I follow what Bertram says, every oil change and 5k. Tire dealer at Costco says to rotate every 3k, so it's not just the DC dealers. Mine never pulled, even at 7 or 8k. And I do torque the bolts with a torque wrench. I use the rotation diagram in the owners manual, which has both 4 and 5 wheel rotation patterns for the guys that include the spare. I haven't had any problems with uneven wear or pull going by this. I now have 23k on the truck. Oh, BTW, I have the stock Michelins.

 

[Matt400]

I do every 7500 and re-balance the two going to the front so each tire gets a re-balance every 15K. Rears go straight forward and the fronts are crossed going to the back.



Tires can cause what is known as a "radial pull" but usually its a defective tire that does it. The condition is not from tread wear and is internal to the tires construction.



The Dealer is off base IMO on this one.



Try this test:

Truck pulls right so move the right side tires to the left and the lefts over to the right side- no front to back changes.



Truck still pulls right you have a truck and not tire problem



Truck now pulls left and you have tire problem.

 

[GSaltzman]

I have been rotating mine every 3500 miles. I'm running some Goodyear MT/R's and did not want to let them get cupped. I have 4500 miles on them since the last rotation and they are still fine but I will rotate them anyway. May go to every 4000 miles. I do keep a close eye on air pressure and currently have 30,000 miles on these tires with lots of tread left.

 

[BRuppel]

it is easy for you guys to tell if you need a rotation. look at both the outside and inside edges of your front tires and compare them to your rear tires. if your rears have more tread left, the rotate. i like to rotate fronts straight back and swap the rears and they go to the front.

 

[mfrost]

Have the General Ameritrac TR and have been lazy with 10000 miles with no rotation. Showing very slight cup on inside fronts. Normally rotate every 7k. Guess what I'll be doing this weekend

 

[Matt400]

I'm running some Goodyear MT/R's currently have 30,000 miles on these tires with lots of tread left.

How is the highway noise at 30k with those MT/R's?

 

[GSaltzman]

Highway noise is not very bad at all. Naturally they are louder than a AT but overall not bad. I did have one set on a 1/2 ton 4x4 that I let get bad before rotating and they growled very loud. That is why I am rotating at 3500-4000 miles.

 

[JHardwick]

I have been rotating mine every 3500 miles. I'm running some Goodyear MT/R's and did not want to let them get cupped. I have 4500 miles on them since the last rotation and they are still fine but I will rotate them anyway. May go to every 4000 miles. I do keep a close eye on air pressure and currently have 30,000 miles on these tires with lots of tread left.

^^is it me or are there some contradictions going on here :-laf



just kiddin

 

[Tony T.]

Rotating

I do the 5K rotate, an keep air pressure adjusted regularly. They look nearly new with little over 20K on the clock. Neighbor has a 03 2wd CTD with around 90K miles, he's on his third set. Stock Michlens like I have.

 

[nickleinonen]

i went about 10k kilometers between tire rotation [just front to rear, no crossing] nd the tire wear on my 315's seems to be real good. i am however, running rather low air pressure compared to many others here [38-40 fronts, 34-36 rear] to keep a flat contact patch [kills the fuel economy though ]

 

[Plazman]

cross rotation

With radial tires a cross rotation is definately not the way to go, front to back ONLY.

As a former Goodyear service manager, I have seen tires fail because of this, a steel radial tire takes a set after just a few thousand miles!

Cross rotation will cause the rubber to separate from the steel, and you know the rest of the story.

If you look closely at the 5 tire rotation, you will notice that they always keep the tires turning the same way, only way to to change that is to demount and turn the tire around so it will be turning the same way it was originaly.

As for mileage for rotaion, it depends alot on your style of driving, IE, the cornering is the most important factor, especialy with the heavy front ends we have, and of course the loads you carry.

Once you get a wear patern on the fronts, it usually won't just go away by switching them around, remember the tire is making contact all the way across the tread.

Of course you can just lite them up and flatten them out!!!

Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[HOCummins04]

I always rotate with a pattern of crossing the tires over going TO the power wheels. I think as long as your consistant in your method, there probably is not much difference. My thinking on that is that the power wheels are most likely to smooth out any problems with alignment etc. With my 01 I crossed them over with the Michelin LTX AS and never had any problems with balance or shake. Only problem with those tires was any wet surface or any cold surface. Great on dry pavement, awful in wet grass, snow, mud. But, that is what 4X4 is for :-laf



I have 7400 miles on the new truck, and usually by now I have rotated. Things been pretty busy, and will get to it soon. I bought a 5th rim from a fellow TDR member and am planning on getting spare mounted on that rim so I can do a 5 tire rotation.



Most of my miles are as a "daily driver" verses some trucks never have less than a 1000 pounds of stuff in the bed, and are always pulling something. Use makes a difference, I am sure

 

[keimmmo]

New tires with deep tread will cup faster than worn tires. When your tires are new, you need to rotate more often. As the tread wears, you can go longer between rotations WITHOUT PROBLEMS!



I rotate as needed based on visual inspection. When the truck was new, I was rotating every 5000-7000 miles. My tires are getting pretty well worn with over 80,000 miles on the original Michalin tires. I ran almost 20,000 miles on the last rotation.



Steve

 

[mfrost]

Just finished my first rotation on my dully. Followed what it showed in the book which changes the direction of all 6 tires on my 4 wheel(and tire) rigs always went front to rear on same side. I see people doing it both ways. Plazman makes alot of sense but why would they put cross rotation in the book



The hardest part of the job was getting the hub covers and wheel skins off without breaking those cheap plastic things. When it says to hold the bar firmly in place when gently prying off the wheel skins, it means it. I learned from the first one :{ Any good hints on what to use to glue the chrome back tothe plastic?

 

[keimmmo]

The early radials were sensitive to direction of rotation. Some people still worry about that. To change direction on early radials could cause them to fail.

Tire technology has come a long way since then!!! It is now considered perfectly acceptable to change the direction of rotation on a radial tire. Doing so will result in much more even wear! I have run 100s of thousands of miles on radials and have never had one fail due to changing the direction of rotation.



Steve