5 wheel tire rotation... Why you should do it!

[prospectfour]

So here's my thought on the matter. I'm thinking a 5 tire rotation but not the way your'e thinking about it. Hear me out. (this is all assuming that you are going to stick with the same tires down the road, which might be easier said than done given how the world rapidly changes around us. )

Yes you can gain 20% life on the tires but when you go to replace the tires you're paying 20% more so it's a bit of a wash. The advantage to adding the 5th tire to the rotation is that when you need a spare down the road it's not going to be a 10 year old tire that you can't count on. On the other hand it's nice to have a "show" tire on the back of your vehicle instead of a beat up nasty looking tire. So what's the solution?

My thought is do the normal 4 tire rotation and keep the new tire looking new for the life of the first set of tires. Then when it comes time to replace the tires you still only replace 4 tires but (assuming you're sticking with the same size and model tire) this is when you switch out the spare tire with a new one and put the spare into the rotation. The advantage being that you don't need to worry down the line that you have an old dry rot tire that you can't depend on if you need it and you also don't have to pay the extra $300 (or so) every time you replace your tires. The extra 20% of life is nice but in reality you're going to replace the tires 2 times in the life of a vehicle the added 20k miles will be nice but you won't really see the benefit of it unless you're taking the car beyond 160k miles. Most people aren't. And in the meantime you've paid around $600 extra for tires by this point.

One note: I've seen the argument that if you work the spare into the rotation that it will evenly wear so you don't have to be concerned about it being drastically different if you actually need it. Personally I think the Bronco will handle the slight variation just fine for the short time until the bad tire can be fixed. Let's be honest we've all seen that car driving down the road with the silly looking (small) donut. The variation isn't going to hurt in the short term.

That's my thinking. I'm open to hearing other peoples counter opinions.

Thats a fair argument. The reason why I went the other way was because the tires almost certainly will change/improve in the next 5 years.

I’m running 275/65R18 Open Country AT3’s on my OBX. Even if I’m every bit in love with the tires years from now, I’m sure we’ll be looking at an AT4 version by then with a improved tread pattern. I also want the flexibility to go to a bigger tire post warranty.

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[sgraing1]

I wonder if all the people that swapped out perfectly good and new tires/rims are interested in this topic.

 

[tn3sport]

Good advise, except I like the look of always having a NEW tire on the spare, given its location and part of the look of the vehicle.

 

[M4Madness]

I'm embarrassed to admit it, but at 54 years old, I've never rotated the tires on any vehicle I've ever owned. My current daily driver got 70K miles out of a set of BFG KO's (and still had visible tread), and I'm at 40K miles on the KO2's that are on it now.

 

[mcinfantry]

Ozone kills tires
You can Google and read for days
SOME tire manufacturers will concede 5 years from date of manufacturing is about it. Other countries especially have time suggestions
That is only based on reconstructing fatalities and depositions I’ve been part of on the matter

of course someone will chime in how I’m wrong, but seriously tires age from the day they are made
So really in 5 years you should probably replace the spare anyway…..

I’ve also pulled a 5 year spare out and had it slip a belt in 100 miles….

 

[MayhemMike]

I'm embarrassed to admit it, but at 54 years old, I've never rotated the tires on any vehicle I've ever owned. My current daily driver got 70K miles out of a set of BFG KO's (and still had visible tread), and I'm at 40K miles on the KO2's that are on it now.

Don’t be embarrassed. At 62 years old, I have never rotated tires either. My tires last like you point out. The odds are one of your tires will suffer a non repairable puncture, and you will wind up buying not one, but two tires in order to match tread life.

 

[Ramble_Offroad]

I’ve had this, or similar taped up in my garage for years.

 

[bgcfman]

I decided to do a 5 tire rotation as well. Told my dealer that I wanted it when I stopped in for my early oil change.

The service desk advised me against doing it and said stick to 4 tire rotation. I insisted he do a 5 and went about my day.

About an hour later I get a call from the service desk saying the technician on the floor is imploring him that I only do a 4 tire rotation or it’ll “mess up your 4wd system”. I caved and just rotated in the 5th tire when I got it back.

Seems like there’s a lot of misinformation out there, dealerships are not exempt!

Total bs. My dealer has done 5 tire rotations without any pushback. I wonder what your dealer’s rationale is.

 

[Scott R Nelson]

I had my dealer do a 5-tire rotation on my Sasquatch. They don't charge for that and didn't try too hard to convince me to do the 4-tire version, but they did try.

When I get the oil change and whatever other service goes with that in a couple of thousand more miles, I'll have them do another 5-tire rotation.

I doubt that I will be getting the same Goodyear tires that are on it currently when I need a new set, and I would like my spare to be the same as the other four. That's the biggest reason I'm doing the 5-tire rotation. As far as I'm concerned, that argument about it costing the same is bogus, especially if you'll be switching brands. And if I can put off spending money until later, that's always a plus in my book.

 

[Tricky Dick]

There is approximately zero chance I'd ever get the same tires twice so saving the spare has never made sense to me.

I wonder if all the people that swapped out perfectly good and new tires/rims are interested in this topic.

That's me, and yes, I bought 5 new wheels and tires, so that I could still do 5 tire rotations.

But I also have 2 other sets of 4 tires that get mixed in, some super mild ATs for good MPGs on long trips and some super aggressive MTs for trails only. When those are in use I have a unmatched spare that doesn't go into the rotation.

 

[Cornbred]

Ozone kills tires
You can Google and read for days
SOME tire manufacturers will concede 5 years from date of manufacturing is about it. Other countries especially have time suggestions
That is only based on reconstructing fatalities and depositions I’ve been part of on the matter

of course someone will chime in how I’m wrong, but seriously tires age from the day they are made
So really in 5 years you should probably replace the spare anyway…..

I’ve also pulled a 5 year spare out and had it slip a belt in 100 miles….

wifes tires will be garbage then. Her 2017 edge only has 9k miles on it right now I think.

 

[AZ_Liberty]

If you rotate all 5, you get 20% more miles on a set. But...

I can't remeber the last time I had to buy tires because the tread wore out. Last couple sets of tires I replaced simply because they were over 6 years old and starting to disintegrate from UV damage.

I think the tires on my Expy still were only halfway to the wear bars after 6 years, but they were definitely not really safe anymore.

With my new job, I'm only driving 32 miles a day instead of 60. So I am probably going to do a 4-tire, and put a cover on the spare to protect it from the sun.

 

[0ne]

I’ve had this, or similar taped up in my garage for years.

Well this is the third five tire rotation pattern I’ve seen, this one with the rears crossed to the front which I believe is similar to an all wheel drive four tire rotation pattern.

 

[Moto26]

I’ve had this, or similar taped up in my garage for years.

This is my "cheat sheet". I keep it in my phone, and I have a print in the glovebox in case I'm not the one doing the rotation (like when it's at the dealer for the 10,000 mi. service)...

[Edit: To keep things straight, I’ve decided that no one will be rotating my tires but me. Whenever it’s at a shop, I explicitly tell them not to rotate them…]

 

[Jon_chimpo]

Just went to the dealer for a oil change service on Saturday. I asked for a 5 tire rotation. I said there is no reason to not, my service advisor agreed. All tires were rotated.

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