Tire Rotation?

What does your owner's manual say? __ Steve .

I rotate mine twice a year and throw in the spare each rotation.

If I am not running different size tires or planning on changing tire types, my philosophy is leave the spare the spare.

If you never and I mean never are going to change brands or tire type that is ok. But if you put a different type of tire set on and leave the spare because it is the same size you could end up regretting the decision.

Another problem many people will buy the exact tire set and never change out the spare. There is some new info about tire age, the TSA and manufacturers are saying if your tire is six years or older get rid of it even if it looks ok. It has been found that older tires no matter how good they look become unstructurly sound and could fail, I would hate to be off road with two bad tires or traveling down the high way when it blows.

I highly recommend a 5-tire rotation. I rotate all 5 tires every other oil change (every 6000 miles.) Better yet, would be every 3000 miles, but I've had good results with 6000 mile intervals. A 5-tire rotation done regularly, gives you 25% more mileage before the tires need replacing, when compared to a 4-tire rotation. You can use many different rotation patterns as long as you use the same pattern every time. I use the following 5-tire rotation pattern:

Spare to RR RR to RF RF to LR LR to LF LF to Spare

Others on this newsgroup insist that radial tires should not be switched from left side to right side. That may have been true 20 years ago, but modern radials (as long as they are not uni-directional tires) can be rotated in the above pattern with no problems.

Also, ultraviolet rays deteriorate rubber tires. An unused spare, even in not in direct sunlight (as in underneath the vehicle) DOES deteriorate with age.

See tire rotation here:

On vehicles with spare tires enclosed or covered I think they should be safe for many years if kept dry and oil and grease free. Usually I tend to select a tire type and stay with it for a vehicle, but I have had good luck simply selling the unused spare if needed.

Hard offroad use is a different story.

Same here, until the first 4 tire replacement. I keep the best tire as a spare. From that point on, I stay with 4 tire rotations.

I agree, but I consider my spare only a spare, once I've worn 5 highway tires to the replacement point.

My worn spare will only be used as a temporary fix until the damaged tire can be fixed or replaced, with the vehicle driven with that in mind. This is the same thinking as if the spare were a donut. A UV protectant and a cover can slow the effects of UV damage.

Off-road, things are completely different. At that point, extra tires are fully usable, extra tires.

Mabar is right!! if you rotate the 5th you'll get a good 10 to 20K Km more mileage out of them and if they are an offroad tire should be rotated frequently...I rotate every oil change... Jeff 33"Trxus

Thanks, the dealer has been rotating my 4 tires every other oil change. I'll have to see if the spare is in good enough shape to include next time. I once bought a whole set of dry-rotted tires so I know _that_ drill:^(

Seahag

"mabar" wrote:

If your 4 have any significant wear on them, the 5th will now be of a different circumference and then not appropriate to include in the mix. You would need to wait until the next set is bought. Tomes

I was thinking about that after reading all the posts. I'll have to check, may just be too late!

Seahag

Yes, it probably is too late now to start rotating the spare into the mix. I assume it's a Goodyear GSA factory original tire. Your other 4 tires have

15,000 miles which could be approaching 40 to 50% of the useful tread life.. I would guess that Goodyear GSA's have a useful life of about 40,000 miles. That means your un-used spare is a slightly larger diameter than the other 4 tires. It also has more tread, with better traction, which will adversely effect the vehicle handling, and could actually be dangerous.

Probably best to stick with your 4-way rotation for now.

Tom

Guess the spare is a spare then!

Seahag

"mabar" wrote: