Safe and cost effective tyre rotation idea

Ozbfan on 24/11/2021 - 22:02

Hi All,
Had my FWD car in for service recently, front tyres have 20% tread and rear 40%. I asked for them to rotate them front to rear for even wear but they didn’t. I did some digging and turns out for this scenario having older tyres on the front is safer, so I just accepted it. Based upon newer tyres on the back to reduce oversteer while old ones on the front can increase understeer and the general thought is that understeer is better/less dangerous than oversteer.

Seems the old school of thought in rotating tyres front to back for even wear is flawed, perhaps its more about saving money than safety. Lets face it tyres are pretty cheap, so it seems if we were to optimise tyre replacement for safety, you should not rotate front to back but instead (starting with a new set) wait until the fronts are worn say 20% remaining etc and then move the rear to the front and put 2 new tyres always on the back. This obviously means you have to go to the tyre shop twice as often and only buy 2 tyres, but should be far safer and just as cost effective?

Interested to hear other peoples thoughts on this.

Automotive

Comments

  • Muzeeb on 24/11/2021 - 22:13
    +4

    I follow this pattern on my FWD hatch and I get 90k-100k kms of even wear (90% regional highway driving) on kumho ecowings.

    I rotate every 10k kms when I drop the oil. A trolley jack, 4 Jack stands, an impact driver and a torque wrench and I can do it in less than 15 minutes.

    • [Deactivated] on 25/11/2021 - 17:37

      Mind if i ask what impact driver you use MS Paint? , as its nearly xmas time and family often ask me what i would like for christmas and i'd say thats a pretty useful thing to have.

      P.S pretty brave running eco Kumho tyres on the highway

      • Muzeeb on 25/11/2021 - 19:03

        this

        P.S pretty brave running eco Kumho tyres on the highway

        Why is that?

        I do some spirited driving in the twisty segments and never had a issue in the wet. Road noise is ok and ride is fine.

        I'm on my second set because I was actually impressed by the first.

        • [Deactivated] on 25/11/2021 - 20:17

          if you look at the design of eco tires, you will see that they have less rubber in contact with the ground

          So, if we take two tyres of the same material compound and size, the eco tire will have less contact with the ground, and subsequently less grip and less braking ability.

          Eco tyres are better for the environment (manufacturing process + fuel saving offsets) but when it comes to safety of occupants in a vehicle compared to say using a standard passenger tyre or even a sports tyre , you are trading outright grip and traction in return for better fuel savings (marginal at best) with a slightly deceptive reduced cost at point of sale.

          Each tyre manufacturer will have their "standout" range and each tyre from each manufacturer will often perform either better or worse then their competitors , ultimately it comes down to due diligence for doing some research and choosing the right tyre for your needs and lifestyle.

          Spirited driving and eco tyres don't go hand in hand , nor would i ever recommend someone to use Eco tyres if that was their main preference or style of driving as well.

          But you seem to have found a good tyre suited to your needs and 90k out of a set of touring tyres is brilliant , could get the same out of a set of Bridgestone Turanza serenity plus with regular rotations also and would probably work out cheaper when they have their buy 3 get 1 free deals.

          Thanks for the info on the ratchet , will have to go down and check it out.

          • Muzeeb on 25/11/2021 - 20:53
            +1

            @[Deactivated]:

            Bridgestone Turanza serenity plus

            Had them on my previous car. Great tyres as well. I got 105k out of a set of those. I travel 50k kms per year for reference.

  • Drakesy on 24/11/2021 - 22:37
    +3

    Hmm not sure where you're getting your information from but keeping older tyres on the front is a sure fire way of wearing them out prematurely/losing steering grip. You were originally right in requesting the fronts go to the rear to even up the wear.

    Front wheel drive cars generally won't oversteer (because of the bias no matter what tyres are on it) and you'd want your tyres with more grip (newer ones) on the front as these are the one's that require the most tread and are prone to spinning - especially in the wet. The rear tyres effectively just have to follow.

    I'd stick with your original thought process and rotate them through to wear down the 40% tyres. It's better than ending up with tyres at 40% and 0%

    And both oversteer and understeer are dangerous/hard to correct.
    one you'll catapult off a road sideways
    the other you'll plow straight ahead into an oncoming bus
    Choose your poison

    • apsilon on 25/11/2021 - 08:13
      +1

      And both oversteer and understeer are dangerous/hard to correct.

      Understeer is far easier to deal with for the majority of untrained drivers. The natural reaction to stop accelerating when you're not going where you want goes a long way to correcting it. Neither is ideal and means the driver has stuffed up.

      That said, for a FWD car I'd strongly recommend having the best tyres on the front and for all cars regular rotation, check tyre pressures and wheel alignment.

  • brendanm on 24/11/2021 - 22:41
    +5

    Not sure what on earth you are going on about, but the best thing to do, is buy 4 new tyres. Have them rotated at regular intervals so that wear is even all round. When worn or old, replace all 4 tyres again.

  • spackbace on 24/11/2021 - 22:45
    +2

    Based upon newer tyres on the back to reduce oversteer while old ones on the front can increase understeer and the general thought is that understeer is better/less dangerous than oversteer.

    So… you're looking at the lesser of 2 evils, basically?

    Doesn't sound like good advice

    • Ozbfan on 24/11/2021 - 23:13

      I guess unless you buy new tyres ever service you are always dealing with that. What is the alternative?

      • brendanm on 25/11/2021 - 07:50
        +1

        I've posted it above. It's what normal people do.

  • Euphemistic on 25/11/2021 - 05:39
    +3

    Doesn’t sound like good advice to me. Front wheel drive cars hardly ever oversteer you are better off having more tread/grip on the wheels doing all the work. Front is for steering, accelerating and stopping. The back just follows along.

  • Stuntdriver on 25/11/2021 - 06:04
    +1

    Always rotate your tyres to keep wear equal. If you are only replacing 2 tyres at a time possibly with different brands/types you run higher risk of causing handling issues. Understeer is much bigger problem on FWD cars than oversteer. If you are driving like a flog spinning the wheels at every traffic light then yes understeer will get you in less trouble than oversteer but in general driving conditions going around corners I prefer my car to turn rather than going in a straight line.

    • Muzeeb on 25/11/2021 - 08:18

      Username checks out

  • GordonD on 25/11/2021 - 08:33

    The "official" way of doing it of moving your rear tyres to the front when your front tyres wear out, and putting two new tyres on the rear is probably the safest if you are going to replace your tyres with identical replacements.

    But most people these days don't replace their tyres with the identical brand and model that came on the car new. They go to the tyre shop and buy whatever they have that is a good price that's the same size. And in difficult conditions having a mixture of tyres with different rubber compounds and treads with different characteristics can and does produce unpredictable handling. It also confuses the electronic safety system in the car.

    If you aren't going to replace your tyres with exactly identical replacements the safest strategy is to rotate your tyres - including any spare - regularly so they all wear out at the same time, and when they do replace them with a full set of tyres that are the same brand, model, compound and tread as each other.

  • JIMB0 on 25/11/2021 - 09:58
    +3

    Save money on tyre rotations by driving in reverse half the time.

  • Nugs on 25/11/2021 - 13:14
    -1

    slicks on the front for max grip (in the dry)
    .

  • boomramada on 25/11/2021 - 23:49

    Get costco tyres with unlimited tyre rotation.

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