Is tire rotation still necessary?

[Adventureboy]

The fronts will always wear on the tire shoulders more than the rear as a result of changing direction around corners and curves. Your driving conditions and style determine how urgent this is for your truck.
1) Mostly highway miles - much lower need for tire rotation
2) Spirited driving around corners and sharp curves - much higher need for tire rotation

Rotating regularly takes care of either case, but you determine how often it is needed based on your mix between the two extremes.

For me, it is easy. I rotate spring and fall when I swap out the summer/winters, simply because it is no additional effort. I don't count the mileage.

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[flux capacitor]

It really depends on whether you like to replace all tires at the same time for aesthetics. I could careless since tires after short time all tires look the same anyway. Unless you want a whole different tire or brand just by two of the same. Front wheels on vehicles always wear out the front tires faster. Your back tires last longer without all the turning. I have replaced my front tires on my car twice with the same tires on the rear. I like saving money and have practiced this for years of only having to buy 2 tires at a time. I think you wear out your whole set of tires faster by rotating them. Take it from Scotty Kilmer Stop Rotating Your Tires

 

[Pacific.NW]

Mine get rotated through the fact I swap winter / summer tires twice a year. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[mr.Magoo]

Is buying just two new tires a thing in the US? What about age?

5+ years old winter tires are borderline illegal in Norway due to the rubber hardening.

Most of the vehicle condition is up to the owner, so completely bald (like down to / past the wear strip) 10yr old all season tires are not uncommon, because it still works, right.
Most states do not have any sort of reoccurring inspection which is why it isn't uncommon to see vehicles that look like the crusher just threw up.

Ultimately there's those who care and then there's those who don't, but it's also about economics, there's a LOT of people barely getting by, so they're not going to buy four new tires because it's the right thing to do, they'll buy one used if they can/have to.

I run dedicated winters (Hakkas) simply because I know (AND value) the difference it makes.
Few people (in Michigan) do - I can't even convince the wife, so I'm either a bad negotiator or that's how deeply rooted the all season mentality is (probably a bit of both).

 

[RickLightning]

I run dedicated winters (Hakkas) simply because I know (AND value) the difference it makes.
Few people (in Michigan) do - I can't even convince the wife, so I'm either a bad negotiator or that's how deeply rooted the all season mentality is (probably a bit of both).

The last time I put on dedicated snows was decades ago. Same area as you, AWD is fine if you've got good tires. About to replace the Mach-E tires, debating between Defender 2 and CrossClimate 2, the latter would be better in the snow.

 

[Athrun88]

The last time I put on dedicated snows was decades ago. Same area as you, AWD is fine if you've got good tires. About to replace the Mach-E tires, debating between Defender 2 and CrossClimate 2, the latter would be better in the snow.

Can vouch for the CrossClimate2's if you're on the fence. I have them on the wife's Q6 and they were solid this past winter. Next door neighbour has them on his Q5 and loves them as well. Pricey, but I think they're worth it if you're mostly paved road driving.

 

[Joe Dablock]

Also, tires do develop a scallop that tends to make noise, by rotating the tires so they rotate in the opposite direction, the scallop wears off and the noise goes away.

The other thing is garages encourage you to come in for tire rotation so they can look your vehicle over for other maintenance issues that they can suggest that you need.

 

[21st Century Truck]

The last time I put on dedicated snows was decades ago. Same area as you, AWD is fine if you've got good tires. About to replace the Mach-E tires, debating between Defender 2 and CrossClimate 2, the latter would be better in the snow.

IMHO and from personal experience, using Winter tires is more about the cold temperatures and the much softer Winter tire compound that doesn't harden when it's cold (i.e. "a good grip" in icy conditions, even without any snow on the road) than about the relatively small risk of snow-digging.

 

[K6CCC]

I'm in So. Calif. so winter tires is not an issue. I don't normally rotate tires at all with the exception of buying new tires normally go on the front and the existing front tires move to the rear at the time of buying two new tires.

 

[Firebelly]

Before the Lightning I had a FWD Chevy Bolt. The fronts wear about right around twice as fast as the rears. What a lot of people are doing is, let the fronts wear out, replace those, and then when those wear out it's time to replace all 4.

So on the Lightning I'm just keeping an eye on them but not seeing a need to rotate so far.

 

[Randys Lightning]

I know, a pretty tired topic, but I just had my 23 Lariat LR 24k miles tires rotated for the first time. I hadn't done it yet partly because I'm lazy and partly because I wanted to see how the tires would wear without rotation. $40 later I discovered that each tire was measure at the same 8/32 tire condition, so my question is, with a dual motor EV and heavy battery where the weight is pretty evenly distributed front to rear, is the idea of needing to rotate tires leftover from the ICE days?

I have 10,000 on my K03s They have the very lightest brake feathering, Going to rotate Driver to passenger since they are all the same wear pattern. I use 100% one pedal.

 

[Firebelly]

I got curious and just checked and all 4 are within 1 mm of each other. All between 6 and 7 mm. They haven't been rotated at least since I got it which was 1 year / 17,000 miles ago.

 

[2sleep]

If you live in areas where the roads twist a lot as I do in WNC, I would think that the turning tires would wear slightly faster. Perhaps not enough to notice but, since discount tire is happy to rotate them for free, I do it.

 

[Firebelly]

If you live in areas where the roads twist a lot as I do in WNC, I would think that the turning tires would wear slightly faster. Perhaps not enough to notice but, since discount tire is happy to rotate them for free, I do it.

I think if the Center of Gravity of the vehicle is near the midpoint, which I think it is, then the fronts and rears are going to get about the same amount of sideways force on them. The whole truck needs to be forced sideways, not just the front.

 

[DavidS]

You certainly don’t need to follow any PM if you don’t want to. The PM list for a Lightning is vanishingly small compared to a standard F150. You don’t have to change your oil on your ICE vehicle either if you’re planning to get rid of it with less than 30k miles or you can charge your EV to 100% and run it down to 0 every day. However, if you want a vehicle to run optimally and last for years, it’s a good idea to follow the advice given in the owner’s manual.

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