Truck camper and tire rotation

Front to back, same side, every 5k. I definitely notice a difference in “driving feel” after rotation. I’m a believer that tires “take a set” when left in position too long. 

Front to back, same side, every 5k. I definitely notice a difference in “driving feel” after rotation. I’m a believer that tires “take a set” when left in position too long. 

Many years ago a tire store told me that steel belted tires after sitting for

a long period will get a "thump"in them and it takes longer for it to go

away then non steel belted tires.

Frank

And I always heard the opposite. Help me google 

Assuming all tires are same size and load-capacity (heavier in rear on trucks used to be a thing), determine whether the tires are directional or not. These used to be confined to certain performance tires but this design overkill has spread elsewhere. Most have an arrow and the word "Rotation" or "Direction" on sidewall. If you have these, front-to-back rotation is the only cost-effective way to rotate tires, as swapping and remounting them onto opposite wheels and rebalancing would be your expensive alternative.

If your tires are not directional, per several industry association guidances, there are various cross-rotation patterns sometimes preferred that you can use depending on whether vehicle is front wheel drive (FWD), rear wheel drive (RWD), or four wheel drive (4WD or 4x4 in US for part-time systems) assuming you actually use 4WD or 4x4 enough to justify whatever difference it was (I can't recall). Full-time 4WD is often called All Wheel Drive (AWD) in US, especially if a light duty system without a 2-speed transfer case that gives you a low range.

In general, RWD rotation patterns are traditionally fronts cross-rotated to rear, and rear rotated straight to front. FWD is often opposite, with rears cross-rotated to front and fronts rotated straight to rear. 4WD usually follows RWD pattern. Including a spare complicates it (check your manual or industry guides, assuming you have real spare and a matching wheel); I have a small sketch showing rotation with spare I give to Costco or draw it myself on work order for our Wrangler. Original Goodyear MTRs vibrated if not cross-rotated frequently and were worse for a while after one did. Replacement Goodrich KO2s seem more forgiving.

Edited by michelle_east_county, 28 January 2023 - 07:28 AM.

Except for most Michelin LT tires....no rotations arrows anymore but they STILL dont like to be reversed...

 

And this despite the installers at Costco where I have bought Michelins for about 30 years now.

Edited by DavidGraves, 29 January 2023 - 01:19 AM.

Except for most Michelin LT tires....no rotations arrows anymore but they STILL dont like to be reversed...

And this despite the installers at Costco where I have bought Michelins for about 30 years now.

I’m curious. What do they do when reversed?

Hi Jon

 

We have our current set rotated at a Costco in Missouri last fall.

 

For our Dodge 2500 2 WD truck with Grandby shell, the tires were rotated rears crossed to front and fronts straight back .

 

We developed an out of balance thumping which worsened mile by mile for the trip home to Oregon.

 

When I got home I changed the rotation to front to rear same side and rebalanced and ride and steering are fine again.

 

This is with new  LT 265 70 17 Michelin defenders at 6K miles.

 

My local Costco said the crossing front to rear was per their instructions.

 

My old time local tire shop said their experience is that Michelins dont like to reverse direction

Edited by DavidGraves, 29 January 2023 - 05:15 PM.

Except for most Michelin LT tires....no rotations arrows anymore but they STILL dont like to be reversed...
And this despite the installers at Costco where I have bought Michelins for about 30 years now.

Agreed! The Defenders in the truck (LR-E) were less effected by this than the p-metrics in the Suburban, which wandered terribly after cross rotation. I keep it simple now with front-to-back.

I always follow the owners manual on OEM and the tire shop on replacements.