Tips For Having The Best Tire Rotation Pattern
Contents
What is tire rotation pattern?
It is common that at some point, there is a chance you will need to do a tire rotation on your car. The tire rotation pattern is when you equalize the front to rear wearing of the tires by changing the current location of the tires. Do it correctly and you will always end up with better wearing, more traction, and many other benefits. Depending on the type of tires, you will have to use various patterns when it comes to tire rotation and alignment.
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How often do you rotate your tires?
The tire rotation pattern can vary from one manufacturer to the other, but there are some standard time frames offered by specialists. For most vehicle manufacturers, they would advise you to rotate the tires at each oil change. This should be at around 5000 to 6000 miles or simply once a year every six months. Some people can still stretch the oil change to about 10,000 miles, which is nothing wrong to also rotate the tires at that time.
Tire rotation pattern: Directional and Non-Directional Tires
Now that you know how often should you rotate your tires, it is now time to learn more about the tire rotation patterns. You will definitely find it easier knowing that you have the best rotation pattern depending on your tires.
Rotation with non-directional tires
The common types of patterns include the following:
- Forward cross – this type of pattern is often used for the front-wheel drive vehicles. The tires from the front will move straight to the rear while the rear tires will now move to the opposite at the front from where they are located.
- X-Pattern – this pattern is often used for also the front wheel cars, and it seems to be the best alternate to using the forward cross method. In this pattern, you will have to move the front tires to the opposite sides in the rear positions and also the rear to be moved in opposite sides to the front.
- Rearward cross – this pattern is the best for the rear-wheel drive cars or even the 4-wheel drive vehicles. What you will get is that the rear tires will be moved straight to the front and the front tires have to be moved to the opposite rear axle positions. It is like the inverse of the forward cross.
Rotation with directional tires
It is simple with the non-directional tires as they employ a simple way of doing the patterns. Here is how to rotate tires.
- Front to back – due to their pattern design you can have the directional tires can always rotate in the same direction. For this pattern, you can move the front tires to the back and back to front each maintaining their position.
- Side to side–another way of doing a tire rotation pattern on your car would be side to side. This means that you move the tires from left to right and right to left. No need of moving them to the front or the back.
Tire Rotation Pattern with Spare
Sometimes you might have to use the spare during the process of tire rotation pattern. This involves that you get to choose the full-size spare tire not the donut one. A number of methods can be employed in doing the pattern rotation. If you are to do an all-wheel drive tire replacement, then there is the need to follow the manufacturer instructions on tire rotations. You do not want to put more pressure on the drive train with uneven wear of the tires. The recommended methods for this scenario include using the forward cross for a front drive car and the rearward cross for a rear-wheel drive vehicle.
How to rotate tires
How long does a tire rotation take?
When it comes to how long does tire rotation take, it will depend on the user experience. For someone who has not done it before, you can take up to 40 minutes. In most cases, it would take around 20 minutes to get the whole rotation done.
Step by step
– Make sure that your car in engaged in the parking brake for safety. Proceed to loosen the lug nuts on the wheels.
– Lift the wheel with a car jack and place a jack stand under the car in the right position.
– Once the car is on the stands, remove the tires and rotate them as specified in the rotation pattern.
– Lower the car from the stands and you should be good to go for another 5000 miles before doing the tire rotation pattern again.
Tools needed
– Car jack
– Jack stands
If you had questions on how often should you balance your tires or how long does a tire rotation take, then you have your answers. As you can see, the concept of tire rotation pattern is important so that you always end up with the best tire wear for your car. Make sure that you get to embrace the idea of using the rotation patterns.
