Tire Rotation, From Sport to Scam

"Wobbles the Mind" (wobblesthemind) 07/05/2016 at 20:17 • Filed to: Tires

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You may not know this, but your tires rotate as you drive. Seriously, it’s been scientifically proven! Do you rotate your engine? Do you rotate your drivetrain? Do you rotate your fans, or window motors? Only if your car is B ritish! F or most people though, the answer is “No. ”

You know why we call them brake rotors ? Because they rotate!

The only component that needs to be rotated is the spare tire, so take yours out and roll it around a couple miles. Make it a game! Once upon a time the term sticky tires meant an awesome afternoon activity with your family and friends.

Sticky Tires brings people together! In my neighborhood, you would work your butt off rotating tires for hundreds of miles in the hopes of competing with your school’s junior varsity team. Back when I was a little weeble, I watched my older sister go to Nationals. S he took home first place three years in a row for fastest 500 meters in the Industrial Agrerian Rotation class ( super-heavyweight ).

Number 48 is Jenny “the Run-Flat” Pirelli. That killer look took her all the way to D.C. to win the President’s Choice Award last year.

All around the world children used to dream of representing their country at the Olympics. Not even injuries like R otator’ s S cuff could stop great sportsmen like Howie Chin from a podium finish.

From the 2009 “That’s How I Roll” Spring Olympics in Beijing, Wisconsin.

Now we have gotten so lazy that manufactures stopped offering the spare tire! That was the sport part in Sports Utility Vehicle . You used to wear your spare tire on the back of your SUV as a sign of your skill! Now we wear them around our waists and have an industry of people that say they are rotating your tires but don’t even touch the only tire that doesn’t have self-rotation technology standard! In fact, some of these people have the audacity to flip flop the wheels on your car and call that a tire rotation! Unbelievable!!!

Stop this scam and roll a spare!

Honeybunchesofgoats > Wobbles the Mind 07/05/2016 at 20:24

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Do people actually rotate their spare?

ETA: Aaaaaand I just realized that constantly throwing the tire with the best tread on the spare every time I buy a new set doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Honeybunchesofgoats 07/05/2016 at 20:25

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I assume only first/second gen Rav4 owners, Jeeps, FJ Cruisers, hummm the Discovery II? Anything that boasts its spare on the back. Maybe.

lone_liberal > Honeybunchesofgoats 07/05/2016 at 20:25

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If it’s a full sized spare you’re supposed to include it but not many people have full sized spares anymore if they have a spare at all.

Honeybunchesofgoats > lone_liberal 07/05/2016 at 20:27

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I do on both of my cars, but that never even occurred to me. I treat my spares like they’re Sloth from The Goonies.

lone_liberal > Honeybunchesofgoats 07/05/2016 at 20:29

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You’d better watch out! They’ll eventually get free!

Honeybunchesofgoats > lone_liberal 07/05/2016 at 20:39

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I have a glove compartment full of Baby Ruths; I'm prepared.

TheHondaBro > Wobbles the Mind 07/05/2016 at 20:47

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What if I do rotate my transmission huh? You don't know me.

-this space for rent- > Honeybunchesofgoats 07/05/2016 at 20:58

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People should, then I wouldn’t have to spend hours getting the spare tire winch thing on my 4runner freed up and working.

The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock > Wobbles the Mind 07/05/2016 at 23:15

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I only ever rotate them front/rear, never rotate them sides to side.

facw > The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock 07/06/2016 at 02:24

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That’s how it is supposed to be for directional tires. You’d have to get them removed and remounted in order for them to point the right direction on a side to side swap.

  > Wobbles the Mind 10/17/2018 at 06:17

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Tyre rotations make sense if you live somewhere with cambered roads though . Top heavy SUVs especially consume left tyres here.

NKato > lone_liberal 10/17/2018 at 06:22

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I have a spare but it's an old tire from my previous set. Game plan is, when I retire an old set of tires, one will be remounted as a spare. 

beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard > Wobbles the Mind 10/17/2018 at 06:47

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The last time I trusted a shop with an oil service they rotated my tires too.

Even though they were only a couple of weeks old , were directional, and staggered!

TheRealBicycleBuck > Honeybunchesofgoats 10/17/2018 at 06:47

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I tried that. They all melted.

Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street. > Wobbles the Mind 10/17/2018 at 07:51

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I like downhill tire rotation competitions...

Kiltedpadre > Honeybunchesofgoats 10/17/2018 at 08:03

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I used to on my last truck. Then I got my current truck and the spare isn’t the same style of wheel as my regular wheels.

Other than in cases like the Wrangler where you can see it he spare all the time you generally don’t get a spare tire that matches your regular wheels. Heck, when my current truck was new the tire wasn’t even the same tire on the spare. It had all terrain tires from BF Goodrich on the main wheels and the spare was a uniroyal all season.

Tripper > Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street. 10/17/2018 at 08:35

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I just watched that whole thing lol. I guessed that the big tire would win it, and I think it would have had it not destroyed the ramp.

Wacko > Wobbles the Mind 10/17/2018 at 09:01

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I rotate my tires every tire change, only cause the fronts use faster than the rear.

The roads here are not straight nor flat.  So naturally the front tires do use faster 

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street. 10/17/2018 at 09:31

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The Japanese are so delightfully weird

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Wobbles the Mind 10/17/2018 at 09:32

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Oh I get it now!  This explains why I get charge so much to have someone rotate my tires.  I thought I was paying some jerk $40 just to take the tires off and put them back on again, but yeah if he is running around the block like that I get it.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > Wobbles the Mind 10/17/2018 at 10:10

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Depends on how you differentiate rotation vs. revolution.

one could argue that the tires revolve around the axle center, and get rotated around the car’s wheel positions, based on an automotive vocabulary tradition...

If based on a celestial model, tires rotate on their axle like a planet on it’s axis, and have a modified non-planar -orbital 3-dimensional revolution pattern around the car...

It used to be about keeping wear even, and getting the most life out of a tire by not letting it revolve only one direction it’s entire useful life.

Now, tires are much more stable in their construction, more of them are intended to be directional for noise and water dissipation, and shouldn’t rotate on their axis “backwards”

It is even debatable as to whether rotating front to back is beneficial, maybe on trucks or economy cars with same-sized front and rear tires, and markedly -biased weight distributions most of the time. where cycling a pair of new tires on, and moving the existing pair of less-worn tires to the non-drive axle, to save money and get the most longevity can be a bit frugal and conservation-minded against waste.

But some performance applications with 2WD and/or weight bias, also use staggered size  fitments of  directional tires, which means tires have, and stay in their respective corners, because they fit properly only on one axle, and rotate in only one direction.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street. 10/17/2018 at 10:33

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Based on this research industrial or truck tires should be used on fast cars!

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Tripper 10/17/2018 at 12:03

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It’s more mass and aero than anything else for that competition. I was disappointed that it lined up so well but the ramp broke so we’ll never know how far it could have gone.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > AMGtech - now with more recalls! 10/17/2018 at 12:05

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It depends on what you are trying to do. For downhill drag racing like this, a bigger/heavier tire would be the best choice until the contact patch got so big that friction becomes a problem.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 10/17/2018 at 13:12

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Joke