Best tire rotation pattern?

[2015owner2015]

What is the correct tire rotation pattern for my 2015 Exp?

This question came up when I started to feel cupping after a front <> back cross over rotation. I didn't notice any cupping prior to that. The mechanic suggested that it's because they haven't been getting rotated correctly (not criss crossed)

 

[ExplorerTom]

I do back to front, front cross to the rear.

Every 10k miles or so.

 

[BrianDA]

 

[jansen0987]

That's how I do it. Though I rotate every oil change. 5k. Not sure if that is to excessive but that's what I do

 

[chuck s]

OEM tires are normally not a rotation problem but some replacement tires are directional. They'll have a rotation arrow on the sidewall and putting them on the "wrong side" of the car will cause wear problems. No arrow there should be the word "Outside" visible on the sidewall and mounting these outside-in will also cause wear problems. Again not usually an issue with the factory fitted tires. Not usually...

-- Chuck

 

[BigOleFordFan]

View attachment 83924

Well, I've always used this pattern for my rotations, as my dad told me about way back when I was a tweener getting my 1st car....granted that was a LONG, LONG time ago and all cars were RWD back them, but just sayin

But with the advent of FWD cars, has this been revised to the opposite or some other way ?

 

[Moeman]

Some OEM's explicitly specify that tires should not be rotated. Our Volvo XC70 was one example. They claimed that the tires perform better when the wear adapts to a specific location on a vehicle. This actually does make some sense to me. Since that answer suits me by creating less work, I've gone this route across all my vehicles and I don't rotate very often - mostly when I have a few of the wheels already off for some other reason.

 

[OpticonBill]

Retired Big Tire Company employee here. So, here's the deal, studies have shown that for safety, the tires with the better tread should be on the rear. I was able to see this for myself on a circle track with water being dumped on it. Drove two cars, first car had brand new set of tires with the rear tires slightly sanded down to simulate wear. Second care had the reverse setup, "worn" tires on the front. On the tract with the first car tasked to drive as fast as possible. The rear would break free in an instant with little time for the average driver to respond. The second car (worn tires on the front) you could feel the rear start to break free, but you had enough time to let off the accelerator and regain control.

It does not matter whether the vehicle is a front wheel or rear wheel drive. The cause is due to what is called bump steer. The front wheels in a turn are pointing in the direction the vehicle is moving. The rear tires are not. As the front moves in the direction of the turn, a twisting motion is caused in the tire footprint (tire contact area with the pavement), that twisting of the tire eventually causes the tire to break contact (the bump) with the road, then reestablished when the tire is then more or less pointing (the steer) in the right direction. This is repeated throughout the turn, hence "bump steer". The more worn the tire, the least likely it is to reestablish friction contact with the road.

So that would mean that you would only rotate the tires if the front tires for some reason have better tread than the rear. In my experience, my 97 Expedition front tires would wear faster than the rears, so I never rotated the tires. I usually found that by the time the front tires were due to be replaced, the rear tires were actually still in pretty good shape. I would then buy two new tires of the same brand and model. move the rear tires to the front and the new tires on the rear. During the 25 years I had that Expedition, I still got good mileage out of the tires, only had to buy two tires instead of four at a time. Sometimes I would see a good sale on that brand and model tire, buy two of them and keep in the garage till I needed them.

By the way, that tire rotation diagram came out in the fifties.