Tire Rotation

[Funmart6]

This has to do with any type of vehicle with radial tires. I have a question about tire rotation. I am looking at a manual at this very moment and it shows that you must rotate the Right front to the Right rear, and the Right rear to the Left front and the Left front to the Left rear and the Left rear to the Right front. Doesn't this mess up the belts in the tire when you switch sides, like when the rear tires are rotated to the opposite front sides? Seems like the tires would be going in the reverse direction from what they were before, or do you have to take them off the rims and turn them around? shrug
Or am I just making this harder than what it really is? headbang Never done a tire rotation before, but thought I would do it myself this time. I want to rotate the tires on my wife's Expedition, it is a 4x4 with 17 inch rims and huge Michelin Cross Terrain SUV specific tires.
Thanks for any help on this.

 

[NotSoSlowSHO]

Radial Tires:

Never change physical rotation of tire! Always rotate tires from front to rear.

As in:

Front Right to Rear Right

and

Front Left to Rear Left

Changing what side of the car the tires are on DOES effect the physical characteristics of the tire and I would never do it on my own car.

 

[Funmart6]

Thanks, that is what I thought also, but looking at this manual which is a "Haynes" manual for the Taurus/Sable '86-'95 really confused me. It says:
"Radial tires must be rotated in a specific pattern", (shows illustration as what I described in the original post). This confused me because I always thought that if you changed the rotation direction of a radial tire, it would mess up the balance of the tire becuase the belts have been use to going in one direction.
Thanks for the help. thumb

 

[99V8SHO]

I have Toyo Proxes and they are side-specific. They actually say on the tire whether they go on the right or the left. I make a point to check that when the oil gets changed and the tires get rotated.

 

[Jaxon]

My gen 2 manual says to change front right to rear right, and front left to rear left. But it says if it isn't a sho to cross them. I know that the reason it says this is because the slicers are unidirectional so if you switch the sides they are on wrong. Most rims are nondirectional and you are supposed to change them by crossing them unless you have directional specific tires on them.

Jason

 

[Funmart6]

Thanks everyone for the input thumb , I think that I will just switch the fronts and rears on the same sides just to be safe, it is what I have seen done before, so I will stick to that. Doesn't really seem like "rotating" the tires though, but definetly much easier this way. boink
Thanks

<small>[ June 09, 2003, 05:42 AM: Message edited by: Funmart6 ]</small>

 

[SHOZ123]

Originally when radials first came out side to side rotation caused problems. Now-a-days this is not a problem. I can't seem to find any tires I want that aren't side specific though.