Staggered Tires Rotation??

[we350z]

Howdy - I have now put approximately 25Kmi on my Toyo Proxes S/T tires (275/40/20 front & 315/35/20 rear) that I bought way back in late 2007 or early 2008. I'm amazed at how well these tires have held up. Even after using the X5 to tow an overweight trailer from Phoenix to SF. There is still a considerable amount of tread left on these tires. Quite honestly I have been waiting for them to die for quite a while so I can get some Michelin's ... but they just won't die. Granted I don't drive the car very much but I'm surprised folks are getting 60K mi out of them. At the rate that I drive this vehicle I am going to have these for at least another 6 years lol.

After my initial issues of driving over a screw and popping the rear driver side (double Vulcan patched) and going through the pain of flat spotting the front tires due to the car sitting - which made it impossible to road force balance within tolerance causing steering wheel vibration (even with repeated trips to the pro wheel shop). Recently I hopped a curb turning around on the freeway on my way to Napa. Slicing a piece of the passenger front sidewall (no cord was cut):



I am planning to plastidip the rims, and was thinking perhaps before I do so I should dismount, mount and balance them then rotate them from side to side to even out the wear (since I am approx 40-50% through the life of the tire supposedly) and for aesthetic reasons to move the cut sidewall to the inside.

So I spoke to a couple wheel shops yesterday including Big O and a couple local ones. Basically one of the guys told me:

1) Staggered tires should not be rotated side to side. This will likely cause the vehicle to pull. For this reason staggered tires will just wear out sooner than non-staggered.

2) They won't remount a cut tire for safety reasons.

So ... do you guys agree with this assessment? Should I just not mess with it? I am just going to crazy glue the little rubber slit on the sidewall back and then be done with it I think.

[bcredliner]

Your tires are directional. Which means the tread can only face one direction so side to side changes will not increase longevity.

[JCL]

Don't bother to try and rotate them. You compromise handling, as tires take a set from being run in one position. They will last long enough, just consider it all part of the cost of staggered tires.

When I installed tires, I would not have installed a cut tire, as your shop told you, for liability reasons.

[we350z]

I guess the idea was to dismount the tires and swap them from side to side. They would still be in the proper direction, but the wear would now be in the outside vs. the inside.

Regardless it sounds like it is better just to not mess with it. I probably should get my alignment done after the curb check tho

[Qsilver7]

I agree with the points the forum members above mentioned...and I also lean toward #2 from the tire people. Not being able to see how bad the "cut" is...I do know that a lot of stress is put on the rim of the ire as its mounted/dismounted from the wheel...and if the cut is big enough it could tear even more as the tire's seal is broken to dismount & remounted.

And before it was mentioned (by bcredliner), I was going to ask if these were directional or asymmetrical tires...but as mentioned (by bcredliner), directional tires can only be mounted one way, so the outside of the tire will always be on the outside, thus nothing changes as far as wear...you can't reverse the tread, it would be running backwards and you'd have increased instability.

[bcredliner]

The tires OP has are directional.

[Qsilver7]

Originally Posted by bcredliner

The tires OP has are directional.

...yes, I noticed you mentioned that this brand of tires were directional in your reply. This wasn't made clear when I typed my post. I was on my tablet when I originally replied and it doesn't have a physical keyboard...so using parenthesis and other punctuation marks can become cumbersome...but not acknowledging the info you offered made my post unclear.

Hopefully my "edit" (stuff in the parenthesis) helps clarify what I was trying to say.

[jgold47]

BMW sez don't rotate your tires. Period.

[bcredliner]

All is well. I am on iPad now. I feel your pain.

[we350z]

well sounds like i'm not rotating lol