Why You Should Rotate Your Car Truck or SUV Tires

Should you rotate your tires? That's what we're going to talk about in this video.

The short answer is, yes, you should rotate your tires. But let's talk about what's going to happen if you don't rotate them. This truck has had these tires on for over 40,000 miles, and they've never been rotated. Now, if you take a ruler, and you take a look at how these have worn, it's very flat, almost concave in the middle. Now, if you go to the front, you can see with the ruler that the edges are very curved. And that's from when the front tires actually turn.

The reason why you get that wear on the edges of the tires on the front wheels is when your vehicle is turned, it's going to be riding on those edges. So, when you turn to the left, the left tire is going to be on the outside edge, the right tire is going to be on the inside edge. And then vice versa. When you turn right, the right side tire is going to be on the outside edge, and this one is going to be on the inside edge.

The reason the rear tires are going to wear flat is because the tires are not doing the turning. They're not leaning or anything. They're going to stay straight up and down. So, that's why on the rear tires, I have more wear right in the middle, and the front tires are worn on the edge. If you check it with a tire depth gauge, on this rear tire we have about 3/32 in that area, 2/32 right in the middle. Now, this could be due to a little bit of tire overinflation, because it's so much in the middle, but it's definitely lack of rotation as well.

Some other types of wear that you can get on your tires is something called cupping or even feathering. This sometimes happens because you have weak shocks or weak suspension, or your alignment is out, or even lack of rotation. So, when you touch the tire one way, it's smooth, kind of like shark skin, and when you go the other way, it grabs you. So, it's uneven wear. And this is worse. On more aggressive tires this can actually make a lot of noise while you're going down the highway. So, you definitely want to rotate your tires. So, the purpose of rotating your tires is so you don't have any of this uneven wear.

Now, all vehicles are different. For the most part, most of the tires are all the same. You can rotate them. But there is certain instances where you cannot rotate the tires. Now, if you have a performance car, sometimes the rear tires are wider than the front tires, or even directional tires. If the vehicle has directional tires, and they're a different width, you can't rotate them at all. If they're directional tires and they're the same size, you can only rotate them front to back. This is a front to rear tire rotation. So, for a four-wheel-drive vehicle and all-wheel-drive vehicle, or a rear-wheel-drive truck, the best method would be crossing the front tires to the back, and taking the back tires and going straight forward. For a smaller front-wheel-drive vehicle, taking the rear tires and crossing them forward, and taking the front tires and coming straight back. And then the last method could work for either. You could cross the rears to the front, and cross the fronts to the back. Sometimes if you had a full-size spare that was the same size tire and the same type of rim, you could rotate that into the mix. Now, you just want to make sure that you don't rotate that into the other tires, and then put that back every time. You want to keep track of where that spare tire is.

Rotating the tires is going to make them last longer. You'll get more life out of them. It's always a good idea to rotate them about every 5,000 miles. An easy way to remember this is every time you change your oil, or check your owner's manual. If you enjoyed this video, make sure you subscribe to our channel, ring that bell, and turn on all notifications, so you don't miss any of our videos.

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