Never rotate your tires

Seems very odd to me. I'd have thought that if you have more worn tyres on the front, you're more likely to lose control in the first place. Since the front tyres do almost all the work, I'd prefer to keep my best ones at the front...

 

Silly video, but demonstrated why the better tires should be in the rear on any car.

 

Another, more serious video demonstrating the same point: put the better tires in the rear.

 

Why didn't I learn about this "always put new tires in the rear" 15 years ago?

It was winter and I noticed my front tires were pretty worn but the rear ones were just 1/2 worn. So I simply changed 2 new tires in the front feeling pretty safe to take the challenge of the up coming snow storm.

Next day in the heavy snow storm everybody was driving 40 km/h on the freeway. My car fishtailed in a bend (not even a sharp bend since it was in a 100 km/h freeway) even at 40 clicks and ended up facing backwards against traffic. Luckily the car behind was way behind and it took him forever to stop at just 1" before hitting my front bumper.

 

I have two reasons to rotate my tyres about every 10k miles:

First, it preserves my warranty, and second
they tend to wear unevenly across the tire at different positions on the car. Rotating evens out the wear for each tyre, not just wearing the four down at the same rate.

Bought at Costco, so rotations are free. Although I'm thinking of just adding it to my semi-annual DIY maintenance since it so simple, to save time.

 

Think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one. I wouldn't want to be in a car where the driver thinks a front wheel slide is preferable to a rear wheel slide.

 

I have to go along with SageBrush. Some cars show a marked difference in wearing between wheel positions. Rotating the tires evens out the wear, allowing for longer useful life of each tire.

My old Jeep C-J5 was a particularly good example of this. The live front axle and stiff suspension caused the the front tires to cup, rendering them unusable long before they were really worn out.

I suppose new car designs may be more consistent with regard to tire wear, but I wouldn't dismiss the utility of tire rotation out of hand.

Tom

 

Let's look at the big picture here
Tirewrack started pimping new rubber on the rear.
Why? Front tires wear out 1/3 faster than rear tires,
let's say the front tires are worn, you buy two tires because the rears still have tread, new tires go on the rear used tires go on the front, now the front tires wear out "fast", new tires on the rear, used tires on the front, repeat, after buying another set of tires, from guess who.

Not rotating your tires is brilliant, rates right up there with driving a car with tinting on the whole windshield.(illegal in every state)

The evidence given, if the car goes into a slide you want better traction for the rear than the front is moot, stability control won't allow the car to go into a slide, you have to aggressively try to slide a car with stability control.
In a front wheel drive car it seems prudent to have the best traction given to the wheels that provide the "traction".

If you have an older rear wheel drive car without stability control you still want the new tires on the front, the traction provided by the rear tires won't do any good if the front tires can't grip the road enough to turn the car, bottom line, rotate the tires regularly, when you replace the tires replace all 4...
JMHO,YMMV

 

Apples and oranges, or, maybe kumquats. Prius are not track cars, and people don't drive them as such. I think it's straining at a gnat to try to justify this "best tires on rear" approach, personally.
Simple facts are that on front wheel drive vehicles, the rear is pulled around by the front. Ever had a rear tire blow-out in a front puller? I have. Very manageable, even at highway speed. Had a front blow-out? That's a bit scarier.
Keep it simple, these aren't track cars.

 

The garage did just that, after the lease company refused to replace front tyres at 30K km.

I then drove over the alps, including the Stelvio Pass.

 

Under extreme conditions, the best tires should be in the rear. Under normal conditions, the best should be in the front.

The cost of tire rotations (over it's lifetime) should not exceed the price of a new set.

That's my opinion.

 

Don't worry so much your stability control will take care of you!

 

I've seen this arguement (debate) esculate on other forums.

People are stubborn in their personal beliefs. But listen, bottom line almost every major tire installer is now recommending if you replace 2 of 4 put best on the rear.

It makes sense to me only from the standpoint that with front wheel drive vehicles, you do "control" everything as far as driver input from the front. Which means if you go into a slide, you want it to eminate from the wheels inwhich you can adjust. A slide that starts from the rear, leaves you sliding with little or no way to make corrections.

We are talking general public, not trained track driving. You'll notice a front slide quicker, have more control, start braking etc....

A rear slide, you are not likely to notice until the vehicle is way out of control and since it's you inmovable rear tires sliding out....most people aren't trained well enough to know how to adjust.

I'm following recommendation and putting best on rear.

Of course the best answer....and part of the arguement for Rotations is to have good tires all around.

You don't really want to be looking at your vehicle and deciding where you want to put the "crappy" tires, front or back.

 

I see you are in Virginia... This winter go out early one Sunday morning after a good snow fall the evening before (allows for some snow to melt and refreeze on the road surface) and find an empty parking lot. Get up to anout 20 MPH and make a 45 degree right turn like you would going through an intersection. See what happens. Do it again and brake half way through the turn...

Now, as a caveat, this is assuming you have the best tires on the front and tires with 40-50K miles on the rear (using OP's formula for tire replacement).

You will most likely have the rear end break loose and try to swap places with the front end. If you were to swap the front and rear tires so the newer ones are on the back, it might NOT loose traction as quickly because there is more tread. The front tires, even though they may have 40-50K miles of use will still have tread plus the added weight of the engine to provide additional traction.

Having said this, I'm not (nor do I think OP was) referring to having bald tires! Just used tires. This is because the additional weight on the front tires will cause them to wear slightly faster than the rear, and thus will need replacement sooner. Not sure how else to explain it...

Disclaimer: If your front and rear tires both have good tread, this will probably not be an issue! This would only be a consideration if the tread on the front and rear where a different depth.

For the Record: I agree with the others who recommend regular tire rotations and I also agree with replacing all 4 at the same time.

 

Everyone needs to chill. I'm much less concerned with where people put their new tires than I am with people speeding, cutting me off, looking at their cell phone, or not paying attention. That is where the real danger is.

 

Everyone IS going to have their opinion. But think about that statement. That's exactly why you want your best tires on the rear.

Because you want tires to perform in "extreme" or emergency situations. And it's not like most people can predict and swap them around knowing when they will suddenly be in "extreme conditions".

Under normal circumstances...your driving "normal". You might as well have the best in the rear and the worst in the front. Because nothing is happening...(normal)

You should be making this decision based on "What If" I'm suddenly in conditions where a slide out is possible. Not based on what is best when I don't have a problem.

The somewhat annoying Sears Video within this thread illustrated why tires on the rear should be the choice.

But everyone is entitled to their opinon. Their car, their choice.

 

That is a good point, prepare for the worse. Even if the worse occurs, the best tire in the rear may not be good enough since you don't know what is going to happen. The trade-off is a slight better chance of a better outcome.

The front tire wear out faster due to 60:40 weight distribution and the wheel that turn is the front. Sure, tire installers will want you to replace two tires at a time. They would get 2x more business.

The best tire in the front would be better for braking and acceleration among others which you use most of the time in normal conditions. I prefer to focus on 99.99% rather than 0.01%.

Well, that's the way I look at it.

 

Another issue comes into play with 4wd vehicles. With most four-wheel-drive vehicles you need to have the same diameter tires on the front and rear. This has been the case with all of the four-wheel-drives I have owned. Obviously it's not an issue with the Prius, unless the diameter is so far off that it bothers the TC and VSC systems.

Tom

 

I understood everything in your post except the statement above. Can you explain your reasoning?

 

If you put the best tires (with the most tread) in the rear, the front will need replacement first. When you buy two new tires to replace the front, the new tires would go to the rear because they are the best. The rear tires would get moved to the front.

Again, the front would need replacement first, repeating the cycle of changing two tires at a time. Since you are replacing two tires at a time, you'll be doing twice more often than replacing 4 at a time.