Technical Tires

I bought a set of tires with very few mile on them from a friend that had them on his '55 Chevy, unfortunately a tree fell on the car during a sever storm a few months ago.

I wasn't there when he took them off the car and removed them from the wheels so they were not marked LF,RF,RR or LR.

Is there anyway to determine how they were mounted or does i really matter? HRP

 

Sad for your friend. I would be more concerned that they were properly removed and not damaged from the accident.

Unless you are a numbers matching type. Then it matters alot.

 

Fortunately, the car was a recent purchase and he was getting the car road worth after sitting for more than 20 years, his insurance was adequate and he actually came out smelling like a rose. HRP

 

I’m still swapping tires back to fro t and front to back. Easier to keep track of for me. I’d really like to get a definitive explanation on which method is the best.

 

Mark, yeah they are radials, I have already bought them, they were purchased back in August of this year. HRP

 

The tires on my 56 were similar and I have probably put 10k miles on them with no clue which corner they were run on before I got them. I have also heard that it no longer matters, but would like any clarification if there is some both for bias or radial.

Strangely enough, a tree smashed the shoebox Ford that these came off of as well.

 

Back when radials were fairly new, manufacturers specified front to back. Now it's thought OK to cross them unless they are directional tires. Sadly, my wife's OT Toy has 15" fronts and 16" rears, and they are directional, so each tire has an ***igned place on the car (and they ain't cheap!)

 

Here is what Bridgestone recommends. The pattern is dependent on the type of vehicle and type of tire (directional or not).
Tire Rotation: How and Why to Rotate Your Tires (bridgestonetire.com)

 

This is how I rotate tires on my DD. the hot rod has big-n-littles. Can't rotate the tire and no sense going L-R

 

This Fall, we discovered that my 4+ year old tires on my OT 4WD had been mounted inside out! Turns out that there was small, I mean really small, print that said This Side In. Directional mounting had been followed and there seemed to be the same tread pattern across the tire. Handling hadn't been an issue so ??? The dealer switched them around and rebalanced them at no charge.

 

At the dealerships it was always just front to back on the same side to avoid any kind of pull or noise or vibration issue as much as possible .
Unless they are directional or asymmetrical. It really does not matter where you put the tires .


Sometimes if you rub your hand flat across the tread the direction the tire was travelling in will be smooth
And running your hand the opposite way your hand will catch in the edge of the tread .

works depending on tire ware .

With new tires it really does not matter where you put them as long as the tire is worn evenly it’ll work itself out .

 

If the tires have a couple hundred miles on them the easiest way is to look at the outer tread blocks.
On steer wheels they will be more visibly worn on the outside tread blocks.
Some brands only place ALL the tire information on the outside sidewall. Serial, treadwear, load etc.

But as noted, besides for directional, it doesn't really matter.

 

If you have some fronts that start to show uneven wear or cupping, swapping front to back should straighten them right out. If they truly have very few miles, I wouldn't worry about it, run 'em and start rotating as necessary

 

Yeah it really doesn't matter anymore.

On bigs n Littles I like to rotate side to side atleast on the front. It allows the corners of the tires some wear relief and reverses the pull and wear on the edges from turning all the time.

On the rear it just helps to cut the tread edges off from the feathering of spinning the tires, I hear that less gas pedal does the same but it's probably an Ole wives tale and not near as much fun.

.

 

No.

 

The diagram shown by Moriarity is correct for a front wheel drive vehicle. You are supposed to cross the non drive wheels. So reverse that for a rear wheel drive car.

 

For years I've run with "littles" in front and "bigger littles" in back. This is on O/Ts, HAMB friendlies, new cars when I re-tire, just about everything that I drive regularly. My simple formula is 'same size wheels all around with one-size larger aspect in the rear". I usually replace them by the pair and, by default, I don't rotate.
Of course, I do make exceptions when a particular car calls out for an exception.

 

If you have different size front n rears, you can pull the fronts off and reverse them on the rims to even out the wear when they wear more on one edge

 

I've never been one to rotate tires. If one set is wearing, then you put them on the other end, the set you just put on will start to wear just like the others did. Now you have both sets with the same wear, and will probably end up replacing them all 4 at one time instead of 2 at a time. Always been better on me to buy 2 at a time instead of 4.

One exception was on the steering on my semi trucks. The left always wore faster due to the crown in the road. I would rotate them side for side every so often to try and keep them worn about the same amount. When they got down to about 50% left, I'd buy two new ones and the old ones went either as spares or on the pull axles if needed. I just about always had a former steer tire beside an all terrain tire, you always ended up with one with a wear problem or blew one out.

 

You didn't specify Danny, but I ***ume they're radial?

 

Mark pretty well nailed it, Early American made radials would sometimes have issues when you swapped them side to side and they changed directions. By early I mean early 70's oem style tires. Those same early tires often had issues with pushing or pulling what ever you want to call it to one side or another. Meaning that you could have a car that tracked perfect with one set of tires and put those on it and it would pull to the left or right. On those I often swapped sides with them too get them to drive straight. after the late 70's I never saw that happening again.
The biggest problem that I had with them in the early and mid 70's when I was working for Firestone and at a Pontiac dealer as a front end alignment mechanic was that old farts didn't like the bulging look of the radials on their new cars and would air them up to about 6o lbs and then come in and ***** because they rode hard.

 

Nope unless they're directional tires. Just put them on and see if they have flat spots from sitting. If they do then drive on them and it'll work itself out......but be super bumpy until then.

 

Tires you say? Are you implying that you’re on a umm, roll @HOTRODPRIMER ?

 

When I was in my teen I asked my dad if he wanted the tires rotated on his new Mercury. I went out and rotated them at about 90 mph.

 

If they are relatively new it can't matter much.
The signs to look for only show after prolonged use.
A handy item to have is a tread depth indicator. Find one at a diesel truck stop, cheap.
*Crown top roads ( actually all roads are built to drain water to the side )
will show more tread loss on the right side tires.
*Curbside on parallel parking will scuff outer wall of right tires.
*Steer tires, if driven briskly, will show more tread loss on edges
( we tend to brake more for right turns )
*Rear tires should have even edge tread across the tire.
*I shouldn't have to say what a RR non posi with large motor would be.
So with these factors the most worn would be RF, The least LR
Of the two remaining outer edge wear would be LF
Best of the lot ( as already mentioned ) LR. Even wear across tread, and perhaps side wall scuff RR

 

The raised white letters go out so the whole world can see them!! (that oughtta lighten up this tread... I mean thread)

 

Hmmm...

Seems all my cars/trucks wear the front L outside edge fastest. & rear R the slowest. All-seasons or Winter-spl(Blizzaks/etc), doesn't matter. . So, the non-directionals get rotated according to tread depth, w/of course, the most treaded tire going on the LF & least treaded tire going to the RR. Directionals just go front-to-back.

Apparently, the hiway on/off ramps - mostly cloverleafs - consist of partially-banked reducing-radius rh loops. That are entirely too much fun, & therefore entirely unresistible to someone like me. Whether in a sorta-sporty OT car, or an OT XUV. Even the OT bike tended to wear more on the rhs of the tires. & sometimes w/no traffic, all 4 loops get done, well, just Because... . There aren't enough round-abouts(much less properly-sized one) here to offset the cloverleaf tirewear. Burnout & such are sorta unafordable due to possible parts breakage n instant tire tread reduction(not to mention low HP) - meaning I still like my ~50->100K/set of tires.

Marcus...