Rotating tires: Include spare?

[landtank]

The real payoff with rotating 5 tires is if 1 tire were to become un-usable.

With the newer trucks with the VC in the transfer case, the tires need to be within a range of each other otherwise damage can occur to that unit.

If you run only 4 tires and they wear beyond the acceptable usage point of the spare and you destroy one of them for whatever reason you'll need to buy 4 new tires.

With the spare rotated in, you could buy just a single tire and deligate it for a spare only and run the remainder 4 until they all wear out or another one gets destroyed. In which case you would buy another 4 tires and begin the 5 tire rotation scheme again.

 

[Hayes]

Ohh boy.
This forum is full of nerds.
Makes me feel right at home .

A set of 5 tires will get 25% more miles than a set of 4.

but

A set of 4 tires will get 20% fewer miles than a set of 5.

Depends on which way you're looking at it .

Hayes

good suggestions and info, but once again, their nubers are off.

it's 25%, not 20%. here's why:

if you have 4 tires, and you get 40k out of them, then you put 40k on each tire. if you have 8 tires and rotate full sets (one set on for 5k miles, then the other set - full swaps), then you would get 80k out of the 8 tires. if you rotated them in by pairs or singles every 5k miles, then you'd still use all the tires by the end and you'd still get 80k out of the 8 tires.

what am i getting at? 4 tires = 40k. with 8 tires, you get and additional 40k.

with that same logic, if you had only 6 tires and you rotated them into the mix, then you would cut that 40k mile extension in half, since you only have half the extra tires. (see where this is going?)

with 6 tires, you get 20k extra. using that same logic, with 5 tires you would get half that, or 10k extra.

now for the hard math.

40k + 10k = 50k total mileage.

50k / 40k = 1.25 or 125% for a 25% increase

by their logic, you pay 25% more for that extra matching tire and only get 20% more mileage out of the set, so it's LOOSING MONEY. when you do the math correctly, you see that it's a wash on the value of the tires. you don't save any money by having 5 tires instead of 4, but you do get to wait longer inbetween trips to get new ones.




now THAT was a waste of time, wasn't it???

 

[ed97fzj80]

You want to see a real nerd fight, look at what Walking Eagle and Sumotoy have done to the "Suspension Travel" thread.

You know, I originally didn't link to the article but just attached the pretty pictures instead. Then I decided it wasn't really cool the use the pretty pictures without giving credit where credit is due, so I linked the article. The pretty pictures were the whole point, and they're helpful even if Tire Rack is arithmetically challenged.

 

[Hayes]

You want to see a real nerd fight, look at what Walking Eagle and Sumotoy have done to the "Suspension Travel" thread.

Yeah.
I've been lurking there.
Always informative and entertaining.

I wonder if Discount Tire will rotate my tires whenever I want, or if they only do it for you on a certain mileage schedule...

Hayes

 

[bamachem]

i've never had any issues with getting them rotated at 3k or 5k instead of the "recommended 7500 miles" at the places i've used... i doubt they'd question it. if they do, then just do it yourself at 3750 and then take it to them at 7500 in alternating intervals.

 

[OZCAL]

This set of tyres I only do a 4 tyre rotation because spare is same size but different brand . Last set all 5 were the same so all 5 were rotated the spare was rotated through the left side which minised the the miles on the front left because were I live the Council has gone crazy with roundabouts. The set before all had excessive wear on the outer edge from all the right hand turns on roundabouts.

Never thought about that, but you're right -- even left turns are mostly right turns with a roundabout.

 

[Bryan E.]

I bought 5 matching tires since I was going up to 315's, but even before when I ran stock size BFG AT's, I bought 5 and glad I did. I had a puncture in a tread just outside Vegas, on a vacation so I was able to put a matching tire on, got the other patched, and went on with my trip. After getting this tire fixed, I decided to just leave it for a spare and didn't rotate it into the mix incase it was a weaker tire. Now I've gone to 35's and I want to keep all 5 tires matched in wear mainly to keep the OD's sized the same. I also doubt I will want the same tires next time, and unless you stay with the same size, now your spare won't be the correct size and you won't get much value trying to sell one old tire, even if it has good tread. I think a matching spare is better in many ways. I was wheeling with my brother in his 76 Bronco. We were out on a muddy woodsy trail. He's running 33" BFG mt's, and we started getting a in particularly tricky area. I then noticed his spare was one from when he got the truck, stock sized, and poor traction. Luckily, we were able to make it back out to the road with the one tire being low. We totally forgot his airpump, and tire kit. If my spare rim didn't match, I wouldn't want to do a 5 tire rotaion but since it does, it's really no problem. You need to write down exactly what rotation placement you are using because there are several standard directions. Taking it to a tire shop and expecting them to know how you did it last just doesn't work.