Proper tire rotation

[paddlenbike]

Rotating tires is not rocket science, however there are different ways of doing it. As far as I can tell, for our RWD/part-time 4WD vehicles with non-directional wheels, you want to move the rear tires straight foward and then cross the front tires to the opposing rear wheel. In my case, I am using BFG All-Terrains. Is there any reason I should not use this method? I will not be doing a 5-tire rotation.

[Seanz0rz]

this is always the rotation i have done, esp if you do them regularly. ive known people to rotate only once in the lifetime of the tires, in that case i would recommend you cross them both (driver front to passenger rear, driver rear to passenger front, etc)

[corax]

that is the proper way.

BTW if you have a "torque on demand" type system that will automaitcally start turning the front driveshaft when it detects slip (not sure what Toyota's part time system does), then you want to make sure the tires are rotated regularly. What happens if they are not, is that the rear tires will wear down and effectively reduce the tires diameter which teh 4wd module will see as the rear tires slipping (smaller tire diameter = tire rotates more for a given distance). it will then try to engage the front, which on dry pavement is not good - with the different tire circumference it would be equivalent to running 2 different gear ratios on dry pavement, and if the transfer case uses a clutch pack to engage the front driveshaft (many do) then teh clutch pack will be forced to slip constantly and wear out.

[4x4mike]

I cross them, X pattern, every oil change. I did that on my full sized Chevy and got 42,000 miles on my first set of BFG AT's. There was 30K on the second set when I sold it.

[drguitarum2005]

i also do the X on my BFG ATs. I do a 4-tire rotation because my spare was not part of the set and is on a different wheel. theyve lasted at least 30k miles so far and still look really good

[paddlenbike]

I rotate the tires about every-other oil change. I use synthetic blended oils and have slightly extended my intervals to about 4,000 miles. So tires are rotated every 8,000 miles.