tires - patterns different L vs R

One of our cars happen to have a flat today. We have mitsubishi + jeep. After taking it to the local shop for a test & mount, I noticed something.

It appears that when they mount the tires on the wheels, the tread pattern is not the same on the left & right.

In other words, let's say the tread "points" to the rear on the left, but it "points" to the front on the right side. I could see where there might be "lettering" only on one side, but on pure blackwalls, it just seemed odd...

I guess the tires are mounted on all wheels the exact same way, and therefore two of them are "reversed" depending upon which side of the car it is mounted...

Reply to
Phil Schuman
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Umm, they are making a ton of performance directional tires these days. It really sounds like one set is on backward.

If you look on the side there will be an arrow if the tires are directional.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Phil Schuman wrote:

Reply to
Mike Romain

Are their arrows on the side of the tires to indicate a direction of travel? I know large trucks use this new type of tire and there is a left and a right tire for the front axle. They are big tires though, 295/75R22.5's.

Reply to
David Rhodes

No Mike. The tires are all the same, but when mounted on the Left, they appear to point frontwards and when mounted on the Right they look like they point backwards. The tires are NOT directional, this is why they don't point the "right" way on both sides of the car.

Reply to
Jeff Strickland

Any tyre that appears to be the same tyre but the treads are facing different directions, is a specific directional tyre. Mainly for high powered vehicles, tho they tend to get less miles from them. As the other guys said, there are arrows on the one side that is the outside of the tyre, they usually face with the forward movement of the car. "Phil Schuman" ALso some directional tyres are ZR and VR rated tyres meaning high speed, HR and SR rated tyres are for the less powerful cars. ANother aspect of tyres is the reducing the number of 13 and 14 inch tyres, 15 inch now seems to be a base size in the future, for example a 205/65 x 15 ratio's down to a 195/75 x 14 or a 185 x 14, all keep well with in the 2% differences ect

Hope this helps

Reply to
Raven

My snow tires are directional, its a pain in that I can only rotate them fore and aft. But they work great.

Snow...

Reply to
Snow

If you drive a Jeep, that is the only 'proper' way to rotate the tires according to both of my owners manuals. They specifically say do not cross them and for a 5 tire rotation, the spare goes to the RR or main drive wheel with the RF going to the spare.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Snow wrote:

Reply to
Mike Romain

LOL!

Ok so which way am I going to drive today then eh? Do I flip the rims because I will mostly be making right turns today or put them on the other way because the route is mostly left turns?

That makes absolutely no sense at all Jeff unless these are oval track tires or something.

How about a brand name for these stupid tires so we all can avoid them?

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Jeff Strickland wrote:

Reply to
Mike Romain

.. and then they changed their minds in the TJ FSM and decided it was a good idea to swap sides :-)

Dave Milne, Scotland '91 Grand Wagoneer, '99 TJ

295/75R22.5's.
Reply to
Dave Milne

Hey Mike, That's not specific to Jeep. The tires both you Jeeps were equipped with from factory (radials) didn't respond well to changes in direction after they were broken in. Today's radials claim to have no memory and can be swapped left to right with no ill effects... so they claim. I still prefer the fore/aft rotation.

-Brian

Reply to
Cherokee-Ltd

I too have been bit 'waaay' too may times to ever cross them. Used to buy used tires and they were a 50/50 crap shoot whether they exploded or not....

A couple years ago I tossed out over a half dozen like that and I have only lived in this house since 91 or so....

Mike

Cherokee-Ltd wrote:

Reply to
Mike Romain

You're not getting it. The tires are not actually different. If they were directional, they would actually have a tread design - body design really - that would demand the tire be on a particular side of the vehicle. But if the tires had a pattern to them, then the pattern would appear to be biased to the front on one side of the car, and biased to the rear on the other side of the car. Directional tires would all be biased to the rear.

Take a look at the factory rims that come on lots of GM products. The rims will have spokes that point to the front on one side and to the rear on the other side. If the rims are switched from one side to the other, they still point the same way because if you laid them all on the ground side by side, you would see they all point the same way. This guy is seeing the same thing in his tire tread.

Reply to
Jeff Strickland

Directional tyres can be rotated side to side as long as you turn them on the rims. If irregular wear is found, turn on the rims and move to other side of car.

Reply to
Raven

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