Include the Spare in tire Rotation?

[odinjunior]

I have a chance to get a matching rim so I wonder if including the spare is worth it?
Truck is a single rear wheel 3500.

 

[AH64ID]

With the caveat of matching wheel and tire. So yes on my Jeep and not right now on my Ram.

Don’t forget a TPMS sensor.

 

[seafish]

IMHO including the spare in a tire rotation schedule made much more sense with Bias ply tires since they could be rotated not only from front to back but side to side as well, thus keeping the spare wearing evenly with the rest of the set. (Now you know that Im at least 60 years old ...LOL)

With radial tires only going from front to back and the need to keep them on the same side of the truck, the spare will only wear ay half the rate of the rest of the set. That, as well as the sheer cost of these truck tires, makes me think that you will not necessarily get your moneys worth out of utilizing the spare in an ongoing rotation schedule.

Plus the fact that you will screw up the mileage warranty (assuming that you are not running commercial tires) on your expensive set of tires, makes it NOT worth it to me...I keep the spare as a spare on my truck.

That said, of course I DO have one spare mounted on one rim for both tires sizes that I run at different times.

Just my .02 ... though my assessment may or may not be correct ... Looking to hear others opinions as well !!!

 

[lpennock]

Radials can go side to side these days with the exception of tires with directional tread. So @seafish you are showing your age. And yes I remember bias and radial only doing same side as I'm 60+ also.

I have had vehicles with Detroit lockers in them which hate miss matched tread depth on the same axle so I just got in the habit of leaving the spare out of the mix.

 

[Tuesdak]

I generally don't as it's too much trouble. However if used the tire gets a chance to break in rather than just rotting away under the vehicle. Age kills tires out in our heat so they are cracked up trash at 5-10 years no matter what. I do use the spare on the RV for this reason - just swap the spare only as it's not worth it to rotate the RV tires.

On my 2018 I had a bad radial pull and one tire replaced under warranty. So I used the spare to match up an axle set of new/new tires. I then used the spare again to help with ongoing radial pull problems. Having a spare with "new" tread depth helps you out if you ruin a tire and wind up with one new tire.

The spare will have a different amount of tread depth than a used tire: now you have different revs per mile making the differential work harder all the time.

 

[AH64ID]

I’ve always done the rearward cross on my radials and it’s never been an issue. F to R to F is just a lazy rotation.

 

[Cummins12V98]

DRW I never touch the tears. I move fronts side to side leaving wheels in same place with tire rotation the same. Understand???

 

[AH64ID]

DRW I never touch the tears. I move fronts side to side leaving wheels in same place with tire rotation the same. Understand???

Why?

Is there a benefit to dismounting and mounting for a tire rotation? I would thing that would be hard on the bead of the tire.

Also, why not rotate the rears as described in the owners manual?

 

[NIsaacs]

F to R to F is just a lazy rotation.

Lazy? 4 tires are moved either way. I do both, depending on how the tire wear is.

 

[AH64ID]

Lazy? 4 tires are moved either way. I do both, depending on how the tire wear is.

Lazy on the tire stores part. It takes longer and more thought, so they don’t seem to like it as much.

I have to specify rearward cross, even thou it’s the standard rotation on 4wd vehicles.

 

[HPSimpson]

No I don't use the spare when I rotate tires at five thousand miles.

 

[Cummins12V98]

Why?

Is there a benefit to dismounting and mounting for a tire rotation? I would thing that would be hard on the bead of the tire.

Also, why not rotate the rears as described in the owners manual?

WHY you ask??? Well the front tires will no matter get slightly more outer edge wear and if all you do is move side to side the outer edge is still on the outer edge. To do this they have to separate the tire from the wheel. So it makes sense to leave the wheel where it is for the sensor, yes they supposedly learn when they are but not always.

So the outside now becomes the inside on the fronts and with the 1/64" toe setting I get perfectly even front tire wear. The rears wear perfectly evenly because I air to 30 unloaded and 65 when loaded. The fronts and rears wear out at the same rate.

Another bonus the beautiful ALCOA wheels are not being removed/ dismounted and re mounted on the rears since they will only move side to side if not dismounted and changed with the steel wheels.

I am at 45k on this set with good tread left and same depth front and back.

Spare??? It's the original POS NEXEN that hopefully will never touch the ground.

 

[DHayden]

I use 19.5 commercial tires. I dont carry a spare as it dead weight. I have run two sets in 18 years and replaced the first set because they were old and weather worn, still had plenty of tread.

 

[Ozymandias]

If direction is changed - the tires wear faster.

 

[Cummins12V98]

If direction is changed - the tires wear faster.

So my method meets your approval?

 

[josephc1]

Rotation is rear crossed to front, front straight back to rear and spare replaced with best tire when it's time for a new set

 

[JR]

If direction is changed - the tires wear faster.

How so?

 

[Ozymandias]

So my method meets your approval?

Yes, in the company we did it the same way on the dump trucks.
To many corners on swiss roads so the outside shoulder wears out way to fast.

 

[Ozymandias]

How so?

The tire thread blocks wear in a slight angle. If the direction is changed you drive them on the "high side" and wear them down again till they are back to the place where they want to be.
We lost easy 20-30% of milage that way.
So we stopped doing that.

On the rear duals we also switched outside right to inside left and vice versa for that reason.

 

[Ozymandias]

But to be honest, with today's tire prices one can be lazy and just drive.
As soon as you have to pay someone for rotating the tires it often costs more in the end to do so.