Rotating RE-92s across the car?!

[SD_GR]

OK, odd question here:

I've heard all about the skeleton issues with rotating radials across the car, thus changing their direction of rotation. Still...

... I'd not mind squeezing a few more thousand miles out of the RE92s - it's a waste to swap them out due to the inside tread being worn down (normal camber, just lots of miles) if (and I stress IF) I could simply swap them side-to-side and get a few more months out of them.

Has anyone actually *done* this? Up until now I'd been rotating front/back and keeping the wheels on the same side. I understand swapping sides at 5,000 miles is "better" than swapping sides at 35,000 miles, but has anyone tried?

Will I end up on the evening news?

[Integra96]

Bump...

Good question. I've heard only bad things about switching sides but never a great justification for that. I understand the bit about tread depth, AWD, etc., but it wouldn't seem to be that big of a deal to do the left-right swap.

[Mr. Poon]

I've swapped non-directional tires from side to side for years without any problems whatsoever- go for it.

[SD_GR]

Thanks!

Given your response, I am guessing the way to go is to keep the wheels on the same axle and just switch sides. Any uneven wear favouring one wheel over the other on a specific axle will simply be reversed with this change.

Unless somebody screams that I'm going to kill several people by doing this, I will give it a try and see what happens. This will put the worn "inner" sides on the outside on each respective axle. If the car behaves OK I'll run like this for a bit.

[Mr. Poon]

Originally posted by SD_GR
Thanks!

Given your response, I am guessing the way to go is to keep the wheels on the same axle and just switch sides. Any uneven wear favouring one wheel over the other on a specific axle will simply be reversed with this change.

Unless somebody screams that I'm going to kill several people by doing this, I will give it a try and see what happens. This will put the worn "inner" sides on the outside on each respective axle. If the car behaves OK I'll run like this for a bit.

On my last car, I rotated the tires front to back, then corner to corner (ie: left rear to right front), then front to back again. Got over 35,000 miles out of two sets of Yoko A509s, and over 25,000 miles from another set of Yokos. Was working on my first set of Falken Azenis when the bad man in the minivan took the car from me (RIP).

[CharT]

I don't see how you could even out the wear of the inside/outside of the tires by rotating side-to-side. I mean, the outside edge is still going to be the outside edge on the other side. The only way you can wear the other edge of the tire is to unmount the tires from the rims and remount them.

[ma1ade]

I vote a big NO. At 35000 miles your tires have a severe bias in the wires (leaning one direction). If you change em to the other side you are putting yourself at risk of trying to lean the wires in the other direction most likely resulting in fatigue failure rather than extended tread life. Its your call, however i think you'll end up with a failed tire.

[SD_GR]

As the great Homer Simpson once said, "Doh!"

You're right about remounting.

[BrandonWRX]

I always rotate my tires every other oil change. The front left tire goes to the rear right location and the front right tire goes to the rear left. This will prevent front-rear bias as well as left-right bias...

[CharT]

Originally posted by SD_GR
As the great Homer Simpson once said, "Doh!"

You're right about remounting.

On the other hand, if you really must, remounting the tires will allow you to move the tires to different corners without changing their direction of rotation. Considering cost of mounting and balancing, I don't think it's worth it, seeing as how RE92s are generally regarded as one of the crappiest tires in existence!