Daily commutes cause a lot of wear and tear on your tires. AAA Newsroom says, “U.S. drivers spend nearly an hour behind the wheel each day and travel 31.5 miles- a five percent increase from 2014.” Even if you just got new tires, you need to care for them properly to get good use out of them. Learn all the ways to rotate your tires and why it’s important to do so.
Why You Should Do It
A vehicle requires a lot of maintenance, such as regular car washes and oil changes. One thing many people tend to forget is rotating your tires. Rotating your tires is necessary because front tires wear out faster than the rear tires. So, you must equally distribute the stress to prolong their life, which will increase safety.
When You Should Do It
It is recommended to rotate your tires every six months or every 6,000 to 8,000 miles. When you get an oil change, mechanics will do this for you if you request it. You may also notice some wear and tear to your tires with tread or sidewall damage, which also indicates you should get them rotated.
How You Should Do It
There are five ways to rotate your tires, and we lay them out below.
Rearward Cross
Rearward cross is best for vehicles that utilize four-wheel or all-wheel drive. A different rotation is required because you get more use out of all your wheels with four-wheel drive compared to front-wheel drive. With this rotation, move the rear tires up to the front and keep them on the same side. Then, move the tires that were in the front and crisscross them to the back.
X-Pattern
For light-weight trucks and sedans, use the X-Pattern. This requires both the front and rear tires to be switched diagonally. So, each tire should be moved to the axel diagonally across from its starting position.
Forward Cross
The forward cross is done for front-wheel vehicles and is a combination of the two previous rotation methods. The forward cross has your rear tires move diagonally, while the front tires get moved back and remain on the same side.
Front-To-Rear
For directional tires, the front-to-rear method keeps the tires on the same side because they are designed for it. So, all you need to do is move the rear tires to the front and the front to the rear. There is no need to crisscross or move tires to the other side of the vehicle.
Side-To-Side
The final way to rotate your tires is to switch them from side-to-side. This is because some tires are differently sized and must remain in the front and the rear. This means you switch the places of the two front tires, and the rear tires get switched with each other.
Rotating your tires prolongs their lifespan, so don’t let this important maintenance step go by the wayside until your tires become useless. If you need replace your tires, we have summer tires for sale to get you back out on the open road.