preferred tire rotation pattern

What is the current preferred tire rotation pattern for radial tires?

My Chrysler owners book and Michelin give the traditional X pattern. My tire dealer says definitely front to rear, which he did but that means my sidewalls on the curb side take all the wear.

My tires are about 50% worn. TIA

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Unless you have *directional* tread pattern tires (which would be indicated by a label and arrow showing required direction of rotation on the sidewall), you should either move fronts straight back and move the rears to the opposite side on the front *OR* move the backs straight forward and move the fronts to opposite side on the rear. Choose *one* of those two and do that pattern consistently over the life of a given set of tires. That way, over the series of rotations that you will give them over their life, you maximize the evening out of irregular wear patterns, which is the purpose of rotating them (along with reducing likelihood of their becoming noisy and/or non-optimum handling). (If you think about it, with one of those two patterns, each tire will have at least one turn at every position over its life.)

Your tire dealer is either grossly incompetent *OR* they noticed that your tires have directional rotation tread.

If you've not rotated your tires over the first half of their life, you won't gain optimum tread life by starting to rotate at this late date, but you will gain something. If they rotate them for free, then it's worth doing. If they charge you for it, then it's questionable whether you will have a net savings. To really benefit from rotation, it should be done every 5000 to 7000 miles. For most people who take decent care of their cars, a rule of thumb would be either every oil change or every other oil change depending on what you use for the change interval.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

THX Bill. No my tires aren't directional and I previously have rotated X pattern on a regular basis. I'll now continue with the X rotation you also recommend. The tire dealer obviously confused the directional tire rotation recommendation.

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who

Reply to
Ron Seiden

Hah hah! Great story!

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

As long as you realize it's not an X. Only two get crossed to the other side, the other two go straight to the other end, no crossing.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

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