Why Rotate Your Tires

Rotation means you are changing where the individual tires are mounted
on the vehicle. Let's assume you have a front-drive car with all four
tires the same size. Each tire will carry a different load and be faced
with different situations. The front tires will carry over 60 percent
of the car's weight. They are also responsible for putting the power of
the engine to the road, and for all the steering. Finally, they are
responsible for about 80 percent of the braking.


It stands to reason, then, that the front tires will wear much more
quickly than the rears. Not only that, but the right front tire might
tend to wear out more quickly than the left front because the nature of
American traffic means that left-hand turns (which load the right-front
tire) tend to be taken at higher speeds, and under higher loads, than
right-hand turns (which load the left-front tire). And, right-side
tires are more likely to be faced with road hazards and hitting curbs.
The result of all this is tires wearing out at different rates.

Rotation Schedule
To make the entire set wear at the same rate, that is, to equalize tire
wear and thus maximize tire life, you can rotate them. With some
vehicles, the owner's manual will have a recommended tire rotation
schedule and a diagram of the rotation. A typical schedule may call for
rotation every 5,000 miles with a pattern that's sometimes called
"cross-rotation." For example, the front tires will be moved to the
opposite sides of the rear, right-front to left-rear and left-front to
right-rear, and the rears moved straight forward. If you follow this
through, you will see that, eventually, every tire will have been to
every spot on the car, and then it starts all over again.