Tire Rotation Not Needed?

My experience is more weight on the wheel the longer the tire will last. Semi trucks can go over 400,000 miles on tires.
On my dually the fronts tend to round quite a bit faster than the four rear tires wear. I bought two more tires and wheels and run 8 tires in rotation. taking the front tires off swapping with the spares. Then when those round those four go to rear.

Tvov wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
My question is why are the fronts wearing faster? Under inflation?

My fronts have always seemed to wear faster, I am a little surprised at all the people saying rears wear faster. I've always assumed it was a combination of front weight and steering... with the majority of wear caused by steering.

I tow almost daily, but not "heavy" towing... landscape equipment trailers, and our camper, all of which are roughly only half of my trucks rated capacity. My rear tires last noticeably longer than my front.

Especially when I had my 1987 F350 dually dump truck - that truck had limited slip rear end, and an amazing turning radius. The front wheels almost went to 90 degrees it seemed like. Combine limited rear end with front tires almost sideways during slow maneuvers - I would actually leave skid marks on pavement from the front tires with the wheel all the way over, with all 4 rear wheels trying to push the truck straight. I would have to replace the front tires twice as often as the back. And that truck was regularly overloaded.

As to dealers not rotating tires - typical. They offer things like free rotation to get you in the shop, then turn around and claim it is not needed - while charging you for other services. Whatever a dealer says, you probably need the opposite.

Don't mean to sound too negative, but decades of dealing with dealers just confirms all the stereotypes about them.

Get your axles weighed, use the tire weight/inflation chart for your tires. Then add 5 psi to rears and 10 psi to fronts to what the chart says.

dodge guy wrote:
It’s simple. They don’t want to rotate then because they aren’t ready to be rotated yet. Unless the fronts are feathering then I would leave them until they are ready.

True, unless the rears are wearing faster.
I've seen opposite here, dealer/tire shop insisting the most tread to remain on the fronts. Good for braking and handling, within reason, but better to sell new tires quicker due to 2 wearing out prematurely.

As far as front tires wearing MORE than rears, I can think of exactly zero vehicles in the 30 years of driving that this was the case. Unless maybe easy driving, and Mountian road all the time that tend to feather out fronts much quicker.

My truck sees very little wear on the front compared to the back. I usually rotate the tires every 10000 miles or so and still only get 40000 miles out of a set of tires.

Cummins12V98 wrote:
My question is why are the fronts wearing faster? Under inflation?

On pickups, likely cars and SUVs, the front tires carry more weight most of time. Look at your scale ticket from when you weighed your rig. Front tires get most of the side thrust. Most drivers do not stress the friction rear tires to ground most of time..

Grit dog wrote:
OMG..
No radial tires don't "like" to remain where they were installed and "broke in". (WTH is that anyway? Tire break in?)
Tires "like" (if I can pretend they're my friends now and not just.....tires) to be worn evenly if the tires' owner likes minimizing what comes out of their wallet.
And the way to keep them smooth and even is by rotating.

This is probably confusing to those who have no idea how to read tire wear and how it relates to load or position on the vehicle.

Most of the tires I have bought where for my trucks and trailers, not my toys or pleasure vehicles. New tires, mount on wheels, heat a bent wire, and brand a arrow on the sidewall pointing the direction that tire will rotate. And for the life of that tire, (drive tires normally cap twice) that tire only spins the other way when truck is in reverse. On my last truck, steer tires looked like would last about 70,000, but when I got to 50, would need tires on the lift, move back. (I carried 22,000 plus on each of the axles) My tractor, out of town, with a company trailer, flat. Shop I was at had limited selection of used. Owner of trailer did not want to buy a pair of new, I knew if we mounted new next to the one that was there I would be in tire shop again before got home. Told the boss I would rent him my steer tires for the difference in what new would cost home/here. He asked how old my steers were. "A little over 100,000"
He goes into a rant, you are running on my authority blahblah... 5000 miles later, back the trailer in home shop, owner and son (that ran co.) meet me, "Those are pretty good tires, how do you get them to last longer than mine?" Soon as I unhook I'm to shop for a 3 axle alignment check, just like every time I put tires on it"

It’s simple. They don’t want to rotate then because they aren’t ready to be rotated yet. Unless the fronts are feathering then I would leave them until they are ready.

Cummins12V98 wrote:
My question is why are the fronts wearing faster? Under inflation?

My fronts have always seemed to wear faster, I am a little surprised at all the people saying rears wear faster. I've always assumed it was a combination of front weight and steering... with the majority of wear caused by steering.

I tow almost daily, but not "heavy" towing... landscape equipment trailers, and our camper, all of which are roughly only half of my trucks rated capacity. My rear tires last noticeably longer than my front.

Especially when I had my 1987 F350 dually dump truck - that truck had limited slip rear end, and an amazing turning radius. The front wheels almost went to 90 degrees it seemed like. Combine limited rear end with front tires almost sideways during slow maneuvers - I would actually leave skid marks on pavement from the front tires with the wheel all the way over, with all 4 rear wheels trying to push the truck straight. I would have to replace the front tires twice as often as the back. And that truck was regularly overloaded.

As to dealers not rotating tires - typical. They offer things like free rotation to get you in the shop, then turn around and claim it is not needed - while charging you for other services. Whatever a dealer says, you probably need the opposite.

Don't mean to sound too negative, but decades of dealing with dealers just confirms all the stereotypes about them.

OMG..
No radial tires don't "like" to remain where they were installed and "broke in". (WTH is that anyway? Tire break in?)
Tires "like" (if I can pretend they're my friends now and not just.....tires) to be worn evenly if the tires' owner likes minimizing what comes out of their wallet.
And the way to keep them smooth and even is by rotating.

This is probably confusing to those who have no idea how to read tire wear and how it relates to load or position on the vehicle.

rightlaneonly wrote:
Sounds like a lazy service dept.
I get my vehicles serviced Every 6 months and may only have 2 or 3 thousand miles, they rotate tires every time. Rotating keeps wear even and tread edges from rounding off.

Sounds like your service dept enjoys your business. Rotate every 2-3 thousand miles??
Really?
That's like the dude who changes his trans fluid after every road trip (real person, posted on this forum iirc).

Cripes, I'd have to take my work truck in for a rotation every couple weeks sometimes.....