[nitricacid]

4x4 frontier. In manual it says to just swap the left rear left front. same on right side. But my auto tech says i should be moving rears to front, and front crisscrossed to rear...

what do i do?

 

[barmato]

I think the manual says to just move front to rear but keep them on the same side of the truck because many tires these days are directional and if you move them to the other side of the car they'll be backwards. I just did what the manual said and after 30k miles the tires are wearing evenly.

 

[ToddG]

The heck with the manual, I'm not running the OEM tires anymore anyway.
I rotate myself and crisscross exactly like your auto tech says to do.

 

[Argo73]

I do front to back. Only would criss-cross if wearing funny. (like a clown funny):laugh::laugh:

 

[ffips]

It boils down to a personal preference thing. Do it however you like to.

As for whether a tire is directional or not, if they are, it would have an arrow (a fairly large arrow) with the word rotation on the sidewall if it is a directional tire. OEM tires ARE NOT directional, and I would venture to guess that the majority of tires you would be looking at for replacements are also NOT directional.

 

[AlAbAmA_MaN]

This is true, when i worked at a tire shop, we crossed them if they were not directional and kept them on the same side and just went back to front/ front to back if they were. The crisscrossing honestly is for those people who never get alignments or balance their tires so that if there is an irregularity in the wear of the tire... they all get it evenly I say just make sure you have all the maintenance up to date and do not worry about which way they are rotated. just my .02 and experiance.

 

[mustard23]

 

[AlAbAmA_MaN]

Yup, thats the way... like i said, as long as you dont keep everything like it should be.. thanks for the visual mustard

 

[mustard23]

I like pictures..

 

[TwoBills]

With my full size spare I do a five tire rotation, putting the spare on the (R) rr, rears straight up, (R) ft to (L) rr, and the (L) ft to the spare. Feels like a new set of tires everytime I rotate, even the last time.

 

[Rusty.gh]

I heard once if you run radials one way you should not then turn and run the other/or criss cross.

Anyone else heard this?

 

[freebird_78]

I do a 5 way on mine (even bought a fifth TPMS) and my OEMs are still around after almost 50k miles.

 

[05N1SM0]

I heard once if you run radials one way you should not then turn and run the other/or criss cross.

Anyone else heard this?

Yes...

 

[Devius1]

I'm "old school" Front to Rear..

"Best" is what the tire manufacturer recommends.

 

[devious1]

I think the manual says to just move front to rear but keep them on the same side of the truck because many tires these days are directional and if you move them to the other side of the car they'll be backwards. I just did what the manual said and after 30k miles the tires are wearing evenly.

X2 and nobody seems to understand this. Even Discount Tire...It says really big on the outside of my tires "This side goes on the outside" so what does the tech do? Puts that side on the inside! I rotate front to back, back to front thats it.

 

[curt7088]

just don't rotate them anymore... drive 'em till they rot off.... or blow off... then replace them... make sure to wheel with them after the wearbar is no longer there and they look like drag slicks...

 

[Irongrave]

Depending on the tire I have on the truck i try to do "c" that mustard posted. it seems to wear the tires the most even if your just going front to back your going to have some weird wear patterns. On directional tires sucks just front to back. Done it on all the trucks jeeps and the auto-x cars I've owned. Hell got 2 years out of falkin RT-615s on a daily driven MR2 auto cross car (most people are lucky to get a season out of them just racing)

 

[AlAbAmA_MaN]

just don't rotate them anymore... drive 'em till they rot off.... or blow off... then replace them... make sure to wheel with them after the wearbar is no longer there and they look like drag slicks...

;-p hahaha... good advice. I will add though that i had the factory tires on my truck for over 50,000 miles and had no problems using the method that i stated earlier.

 

[bmafg]

"A" and "C" are equivalent assuming your tires will last three rotations. Each tire spends one cycle on each corner of the car. I've done "A" forever (40+ years) except for cars where I had different sizes front-rear and or directional tires.

jim

 

[mustard23]

I don't get the 5 tire rotation. I was alway thought to keep the diver and passenger the same ware %..