Tires can play a big role in a car’s safety and fuel-efficiency. But buying a set can be very expensive, especially if they are good tires. Tire rotation refers to the practice of moving the tires on your car to a different axle location. This helps in making the tyre tread to wear more evenly. It saves money by extending the average life of a set of tires.
Even though it’s an affordable age-old concept, it’s amazing that a lot of people don’t rotate their tires. In fact, tire rotation is the main activity at most car dealerships, and considering that it can make a set of tires last many thousand more miles, it should be a must-do for all car owners.
Why Should I Rotate My Tires
Front and rear tires wear out at different rates. Typically, the front tires carry more than 60% of the weight of your car and, in front-wheel drive cars, move the car. As a result, the front tires usually wear down faster than rear ones do.
As another insight, motorists that drive on the right side tend to take right turns faster than left turns, thus wearing down the right tires more than the right – the weight shifts to the opposite side when turning. By rotating your tires, you can equalize the wear so that all tires wear approximately at the same rate.
Number of tire rotations
Check your car’s owner’s manual for the manufacturer’s recommended rotation schedule, although most automobile manufacturers recommend that tires be rotated every 5,000 kilometers. Quite a number of people rotate their tires every time they change their oil, so 5000 kilometers is a good interval to strive for.
Rotating Non-directional Tires
The tread pattern on non-directional tires is designed in such a way that the tire can be mounted on the wheel for any direction of rotation. So you can switch the side the tires are on when you rotate them.
Rotating directional Tires
Directional tires have a “one-way” tread pattern that are optimized for the direction the tires rotate. Directional tires are thus optimized for either the right or left sides. To find out what direction they should turn, check for little arrows or triangles on the sidewall that indicate the direction. To rotate directional tires on a car, just switch the front right tire for the back right tire, and the front left tire for the back left tire.
Tire rotation is affordable, effective at preserving tire life if you’re not the type who likes to spend an arm and a leg for a set of tires. Getting it done is as easy as getting an oil change — just let your mechanic or dealership know when you want it.