Swapping wheels around

[Mattieuk]

Talking to a guy at work about cars etc... He said if you want to prolong the life of your tyres its worth swopping the wheels around every few thousand miles.

He said swop them over front to back / back to front, to opposite corners.

What do you all thing? Worth doing or a waste of time?

 

[clio__chris]

not much point imo

just means ull have to replace 4 tyres when the time comes.....

 

[172 Dave]

as above, not only that but the rears do get 'set'in their tracks to a degree and the sidewalls become stiffer than the front due to less weight sat on/passing through them..........not 4 me mate

 

[Dink]

the way i do it is wear fronts out fit new tyres stick them on rear then wear the older out on the front and repeat

 

[V1NNY]

the tyres with the more gpip should be at the back, you dont want less grip at the back

 

[Gareth]

i've always switched the tyres around on my cars.

 

[Has]

^^ Same here

Normally stick fronts to rears.

 

[kully]

did it also on me cup..............prolonged from new to 13k

 

[MRBILLYUK]

When you get new tyres always put em on the back , for 2 reasons .

1st it prolongs the life of your tyres .

2nd if you have less thread on your back tyres and you have to break hard , emergency stop etc .... the fronts will grip and stop and the back of the car won't stop and will want to overtake the front of the car ,especially if your on a bend .

MrBillyUK !

 

[MRBILLYUK]

as above, not only that but the rears do get 'set'in their tracks to a degree and the sidewalls become stiffer than the front due to less weight sat on/passing through them..........not 4 me mate

^^^^^^^^

Never heard of that one before , the tyre walls get stiffer ??

Did somebody tell you this ? Or is it something that you made up ,lol

MrBillyUK !

 

[MRBILLYUK]

Talking to a guy at work about cars etc... He said if you want to prolong the life of your tyres its worth swopping the wheels around every few thousand miles.

He said swop them over front to back / back to front, to opposite corners.

What do you all thing? Worth doing or a waste of time?

Just do it when you get new tyres mate .

New on the back , old on the front , you'll get more life out of your tyres .

MrBillyUK !

 

[kully]

When you get new tyres always put em on the back , for 2 reasons .

1st it prolongs the life of your tyres .

2nd if you have less thread on your back tyres and you have to break hard , emergency stop etc .... the fronts will grip and stop and the back of the car won't stop and will want to overtake the front of the car ,especially if your on a bend .

MrBillyUK !

LOL ............I thought of the opposite way , get better grip on the front for better take off speed :quiet: :quiet:

 

[MRBILLYUK]

LOL ............I thought of the opposite way , get better grip on the front for better take off speed :quiet: :quiet:

Its not the take off speed mate , its when you need to slam on you should be more bothered about .

Lets just say i know from experience , an ass twitchin moment

Don't forget , about 75% of braking is done by the front brakes / tyres . If you have bald or low thread tyres on the back they won't grip and will want to carry on turning causing the back end to overtake the front end .

MrBillyUK !

 

[kully]

Its not the take off speed mate , its when you need to slam on you should be more bothered about .

Lets just say i know from experience , an ass twitchin moment

MrBillyUK !

nice 1 m8 ...............just playin

 

[MRBILLYUK]

nice 1 m8 ...............just playin

No probs

Just alot of myths about swappin tyres , people havin their own theories .

When i know " i'm right " lol

MrBillyUK !

 

[TheCake]

New tyres always always go on the back. You never end up replacing all 4 at once, thats just silly. You keep them in rotation.

I've always rotated tyres - its common and good practice.

 

[Has]

^^^ exactly

My Exaltos lasted aages, i never had any problems with grip at all or back end coming round.

I prefer to replace them all at once,rotation mehtod is used by many

 

[Ally]

I rotated my last tyres so that I WOULD have to replace them all at the same time - I was changing from the standard 195/45/16s to 205/45/16s and didn't want tyres of different sizes on car at same time.

This time I'm keeping them where they've been fitted til they die, then stick the new pair on the back.

 

[MRBILLYUK]

^^^ exactly

My Exaltos lasted aages, i never had any problems with grip at all or back end coming round.

I prefer to replace them all at once,rotation mehtod is used by many

Expensive way of doin' it replacing em all at the same time .
New on back , back ones to the front and you should get at least another 6 months out of the front ones .

You know it makes sense

MrBillyUK !

 

[Ali]

I always put new tyres on the bak....Swapping ensures a balanced car.

 

[Rich]

Best tyres on the back makes sense on small hatches, when I get a new set get them stuck on the back here to now.

Used to swap front to back every 3K on the 205 GTi so always ended up needing a full set!

 

[fungusman]

I have been meaning to do this for some tiem now.. so its front to back.. ill have to give it a go.. the front ones are dying...

 

[Turkish]

New boots always go on the back of mine. Makes sense to have more grip at the back as you've got no real weight over the rear axle and its safer to have understeer and the front end breaking grip 1st rather than the rear. That said i'm quite prone to hanging the ass out on roundabouts by provoking it anyway, lol.

 

[Rich]

That said i'm quite prone to hanging the ass out on roundabouts by provoking it anyway, lol.

It's the way you drive them loony!

 

[MarkCup]

I've always rotated as well - it keeps the wear even over all four corners.

What's safer?

1. NSF @ 2mm, OSF @ 6mm, NSR @ 4mm, OSR @ 8mm

2. or all of them at 5mm from rotation?

I for one wouldn't want to drive my Cup when the "balance" of grip available in wet condtions is so one-sided.

As for rear-end grip...by definition these little hot hatches have bugger all...and in only very limited circumstances would having brand new tyres on the rear, and two that are on their wear-indicators on the front, be safer.

All IMO of course...

 

[Leeshez]

I also rotate my tyres i keep meaning to do them.

 

[MRBILLYUK]

I've always rotated as well - it keeps the wear even over all four corners.

What's safer?

1. NSF @ 2mm, OSF @ 6mm, NSR @ 4mm, OSR @ 8mm

2. or all of them at 5mm from rotation?

I for one wouldn't want to drive my Cup when the "balance" of grip available in wet condtions is so one-sided.

As for rear-end grip...by definition these little hot hatches have bugger all...and in only very limited circumstances would having brand new tyres on the rear, and two that are on their wear-indicators on the front, be safer.

All IMO of course...

Always have the best tread on the back , if you have to slam on ( especially in the wet , or on a bend ) , the front will stop the back won't , it will want to overtake the front end .
Tyres play a major part in the braking of a car and the fronts do most of the braking .

MrBillyUK !

 

[Gareth]

i'm sorry, I agree with Mark and have always rotated tyres.

 

[MRBILLYUK]

i'm sorry, I agree with Mark and have always rotated tyres.

Makes sense if you want to wear your tyres down at the same rate and replace all 4 at once .

I guess safety isn't high on your list of priorities then ?

MrBillyUK !

 

[MarkCup]

Always have the best tread on the back , if you have to slam on ( especially in the wet , or on a bend ) , the front will stop the back won't , it will want to overtake the front end .
Tyres play a major part in the braking of a car and the fronts do most of the braking .
MrBillyUK !

You just cancelled yourself out?

You want the best tyres on the back...but it's the front that do most (>90%) of the braking.

A car with a sprightly rear end, one that weaves about under braking, is not suddenly going to become rock solid because you've an extra 3mm of tread on the rear tyres...is it?

Also, you say about the back coming round when hard on the brakes...

At rest a 172/182 etc. have F65%/R35% weight distribution, so that's about 700kgs over the front, 400kgs over the rear.

When braking hard what does this then become? I reckon around F80%/R20% if not F85%/R15% as the weight shifts forwards.

So you've got no more than approx. 150-200kgs pushing the back down...that's why it moves about, there's nothing pushing it down, and a few extra mm of tread doesn't make a whole lot of difference.

 

[jon_r]

Best tyres on the front. Its more fun that way.

 

[MRBILLYUK]

You just cancelled yourself out?

You want the best tyres on the back...but it's the front that do most (>90%) of the braking.

A car with a sprightly rear end, one that weaves about under braking, is not suddenly going to become rock solid because you've an extra 3mm of tread on the rear tyres...is it?

Also, you say about the back coming round when hard on the brakes...

At rest a 172/182 etc. have F65%/R35% weight distribution, so that's about 700kgs over the front, 400kgs over the rear.

When braking hard what does this then become? I reckon around F80%/R20% if not F85%/R15% as the weight shifts forwards.

So you've got no more than approx. 150-200kgs pushing the back down...that's why it moves about, there's nothing pushing it down, and a few extra mm of tread doesn't make a whole lot of difference.

How have i cancelled myself out ???

The fronts do most of the braking , as we both agree ! If you have little tread on the back especially in wet conditions the tyres won't grip the road and will want to overtake the front as the front tyres bite into the road .

I know , i've experienced it when i had to brake hard on a blind bend in the wet when i hit queue of traffic . The front end stopped no probs , the back end didn't , it slid round cos it had no grip and i ended up stationary at a 45 degree angle to the line of traffic .
That was in a 306 S16 which wasn't anywhere near as twitchy as the 172/182's .

MrBillyUK !

 

[Weeman]

LOL, I have to agree after going sideways in the dry at the ring, and down numerous autobahn slip roads on knackered Avons, that best on the back without a doubt, LOL Dont listen to jon the man is clearly nuts, u trying to out showboat me Richardson??? LOL

 

[MRBILLYUK]

LOL, I have to agree after going sideways in the dry at the ring, and down numerous autobahn slip roads on knackered Avons, that best on the back without a doubt, LOL Dont listen to jon the man is clearly nuts, u trying to out showboat me Richardson??? LOL

Hey at last ! Somebody with some sense

Cheers Dutch

MrBillyUK !

 

[MarkCup]

How have you cancelled yourself out?

You stated that the fronts do most of the braking, and also that you always need best tread/grip on the back. If the fronts do most of the braking, doesn't it make sense to ensure they've got the best tread/grip?

As for braking on a bend and rotating 45 degrees...slow down, or learn to counter-steer

Also, agree with Jon...I prefer the options I get with oversteer compared to understeer...plus it's damn good fun.

 

[Weeman]

I love going sideways, as often as i can, but when the back was stepping out and sliding on greasy slip roads, at grandma pace, it was time to put good tyres on the back.

 

[MRBILLYUK]

How have you cancelled yourself out?



As for braking on a bend and rotating 45 degrees...slow down, or learn to counter-steer

Or just put the good tyres on the back

Also, agree with Jon...I prefer the options I get with oversteer compared to understeer...plus it's damn good fun.

Enjoy your fun , hope you don't become another Clio statistic

MrBillyUK !

 

[MarkCup]

Managed 55k so far with no incidents...(probably gonna regret saying that now)

 

[MRBILLYUK]

Managed 55k so far with no incidents...(probably gonna regret saying that now)

I hope not mate Just keep an eye on your back tyres and you'll be ok lol

MrBillyUK !

 

[Gareth]

i prefer to have the better tread on the front tyres, they control the acceleration\braking and direction of the car, unless you are driving like a f**king idiot I cannot see any reason to put the best on the back.