Duratracs Mounted Backwards?

Just purchased my 2nd set of Duratracs for my Taco and the tire shop mounted all the tires the same. Sounds fine on the surface right? My question starts here...

Does it matter that my tires are rotating opposite on the driver and passenger sides? I know the treadmill pattern is not directional and can rotate either way, but shouldn't all 4 tires be mounted to turn the same direction? I REALLY feel like after they installed these tires my truck feels REALLY loose at highway speeds. Just a little wiggle of the steering wheel causes I fish tail effect and doesn't feel right.

Any help or insight here would be greatly appreciated.

 

Did you check the tire pressure?

 

Try to go back to the shop and tell them to fix it if they truly did mount them incorrectly

 

I just got done checking the pressure on them and found what very well COULD be the problem with the loose feeling. They had the tire pressure at 40 pounds in all the tires. With that much pressure I was probably riding on the center of the treadmill. I set em at 32 and 28 (f&r) and hoping I flattened out my tread to ride right. I'll know in an hour when I drive to work.

 

Treadmill...

If the tires are mounted so the tread pattern is rolling in the same direction, you would have white letters showing on one side and black letter showing on the other side.

 

^^ This.

 

Unless the tires have a directional tread pattern, it shouldn't make any difference in the way your truck drives, but if the lettering is different on the two sides, that would annoy me. If your tires do have a directional tread then having them backwards is going to be dangerous in wet conditions if you're traveling at higher speeds (interstates/freeways) or in heavy rains or standing water, as the tread will not effectively pump water away on that side and you'll hydroplane. In dry or only moderate wet conditions, even a directional tread won't change the handling of your truck if the tires are backwards. Under those conditions it's your tires' compound that determines its grip, not its tread.

 

Well, I just drove almost 30 miles to work and after adjusting the tire pressure my truck drives much better. The tires are a lot louder than they were, but that only confirms my previous suspicion that I was riding mainly on the center of the tread. Now that the "footprint" has flattened, the tires feel much more stable.... louder.... but stable.

 

I was going to say ... is there really directional truck tires? I've seen them on sports cars and farm equipment but as far as your everyday truck tires ???

 

Directional tires will have a small arrow on the sidewall indicating direction of rotation. You cant go by the normal side wall writing indicating tire brand and size etc.

 

30 pounds of air seems low for highway. What is the recommendation for those tires?

 

What are you talking about? How you define the direction in the tires which are not directional (as you said too). Duratracs are similar at both sides, no matter what way they are installed.

 

I run 30 up front and 28 out back, highway and city driving. Pressure was determined using chalk method. We're both first gen, so just my setup for your reference.

 

29 front / 32 rear psi are actually the Toyota-recommended pressure for stock 265/70R16 tires for 2nd gens.

Interestingly, the owner's manual advises increasing pressure by 3 psi for continuous speeds above 100 mph.

 

I THINK some muds are.