How to rotate tires?

I have a set of BFG KO2 tires with about 10,000 km on them that I've had off for the summer and want to rotate them from the positions they were in when I put them back on.

My mechanic who I trust says he just swaps the front tires with the rear on the same side.

I always thought the correct way was to move the rear tires forward and take the front tires crossways to the rear.

What do you do?

 

Always do an X pattern

 

Front to back and back to front.

Added - I align once a year (or as needed if I hit a hole/bump hard) and have never had a set of tires wear prematurely.

 

Well that settles it then. Good luck with the rotation.

 

Just to confuse you more, I put rears on the front then front to rear but switch sides. This way each tire gets a shot at every corner, for what that's worth, my OCD felt that was the best. Definitely the best. Definitely.

Edit: Just re-read your post now that my coffee has kicked in and we're doing it the same way

 

I've gone 40K miles without rotating without ever having an issue. As long as your alignment is okay, I'm honestly not convinced that it matters. Rotate them however you want! Or be a bad owner like me, and just don't do it LOL!!

 

I never did on my Porsche or BMW. They never had any issues. I'm rotating now because it's free.

 

Front to rear and rear to front no crossing.

 

Manual says front to back, back to front, no cross of tires.

But ya'll know more than Toyota.

 

Exactly!

 

rear to front, front's to opposite rear position is the most common method

 

LF to LR, LR to RF, RF to RR, RR to Spare, Spare to LF. 5 tire rotation for the win.

 

This is how I do it at work with customers Tacos and Tundras

P metrics, front to rear, no cross rotate.

LT tires, front diagonal to rear, rear to front.

M/T or feathered LT tires, diagonal front and rear.

I just did a reverse rotate on a taco with Derek Cepeks M/T and did it ever freaking howl on the test drive, its hard to explain to customers that its a good thing to reverse rotate, as the first 2 days after are loud as hell.

The biggest thing is to just rotate often, especially BFG's they wear like crazy if left in the same spot.

 

Necro-bump:

My cars usually had directional tires, so I always rotated front to back, and back to front. I did the same with my Terra Grapplers on my truck and never had an issue. I did the same for the first 30k on my S/T Maxx tires, then tried the back to front, and front crossing to back. The tires got loud after that.

 

I need to have my alignment checked, as my front tires have a slight \ / stance.

 

I move the rear tires straight forward and the front tires crossed to the back

 

First a Porsche or bmw is not a truck. Secondly most of them run different width wheels front and back so they can’t be rotated any way. My truck I just go front to back no issues.

 

This.

Just did mine this morning

 

Thanks for this thread!

 

And thanks for the written directions!