Ah, the tire companies are wrong, and vehicle manufacturers are right until they prove Mike wrong, then they're both wrong.
The world according to Mike.
So you're saying only tires that are cross rotated suffer separation? Never seen a tire that wasn't cross rotated go "out of round"? Every Firestone that ever set an Explorer on it's lid was cross rotated I bet. LOL
It better freaking not be..... My BFG muds are 6 years old and still have over 60% left. But then I only do a front to back rotation, so I guess I am still safe eh. ;-)
Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's
Cross rotation is consistently recommended by manufacturers of modern bi-directional radial tires as the *best* method for achieving even wear and long life. This is not an industry-wide conspiracy to boost sales by causing premature failures.
There is one caveat though that gets to the heart of this issue: the manufacturer's maximum rotation interval (5,000 - 7,000 miles) *must* be observed when cross-rotating. Crossing tires does not increase risk of tread separation when rotations are frequent. If, however, you run a tire for tens of thousands of miles in one direction, then suddenly cross it over (ßill?), tread separation becomes a significant threat.
So, once you're well down the same-side path with a set of tires, stay with that rotation for the life of the tire. Also, when buying used tires, adopt a same-side rotation unless you are certain that the previous owner cross-rotated within the recommended mileage interval. For a new set, follow the mfr's recommendation and cross-rotate regularly for maximum tread life.
By the way, I use a 5-tire cross-rotation (Spare->RR->RF->LR->LF->Spare) every 5,000 km (3K miles) on my BFG muds. The original tread depth was
19/32 and after 50,000 km I now measure 13/32. At this rate I expect
150,000 km (95K miles) total from the set of five before they retire at
3/32.
Steve
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Mike Roma> It better freaking not be..... My BFG muds are 6 years old and still
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