1st tire rotation on a tacoma- where to use floor jack and stands safely?

Lots of places do it for free if you ask.
Pep Boys - https://www.pepboys.com/auto-service-repair/tire-services/tire-rotation
Discount tire will, but they will try to sell you balancing which isn't a bad deal
NTB/Tire Kingdom/Merchants and whatever else they own charge $19.99, but since they match competitors, they will do it. Of course they will try to sell you lifetime balancing on your factory tires.

Totally agree witht he all day issue. Unless I can make an appointment that they reasonably stick to, forget it. As well as the fact that if I can't watch them work, probably not worth it, but a well placed $10 spot up front and asking to hand turn the lug nuts and reminding them to use the correct torq stick along with hand torqueing the lug nuts it is usually painless.

One thing about rotation on a rear wheel drive is that you don't need to do it as frequently as a front wheel drive. I usually go 15K for rotations which makes doing it myself even more of a hassle because I get lazy. What takes me 2 hours doing it myself with getting everything together, the work, the clean up, the beer break in between, etc. I can get in and out of a tire shop in 15 minutes if I time it right late on a rainy Wednesday afternoon.

 

That's what i did when i switched to black lugnuts.
raised rear by diff and put jack stands on the frame
took both rear wheels off
lifted front drivers side with jack
front drivers side wheel went to rear drivers side
rear passengers side wheel went to front drivers side
lowered front drivers side
lifted front passengers side
front passengers side wheel went to rear passengers side
rear drivers side wheel went to front passengers side
front wheels were chocked when they were on the ground
easy peasy

 

buy a two post, much easier

 

I know! LOL. They are the oem side steps it appears.

 

manual says 5k rotations. I only care because i have the "coming to a stop seat vibe when braking" issue. I know they will ask if i rotated the tires and will prolly try to blame the tires somehow. i have 5,094 miles on her and i bought her end of april.

 

Isn't that the truth! You have to take away all of their excuses before they will actually look into the problem.

 

When doing rotations I put the jack under the LCAs, towards the outside. When you put it there you don't have to jack through the suspension travel which is significant...getting the tires off the ground at full droop nearly maxes out the typical floor jack.

 

all done!

so i did this:

1)loosened all lugs to snug
2)jacked front up with a floor jack on the jacking point center tit
3)put my new 6 ton stands right next to where the oem bottle jack would go
4)lowered so that all of the weight was on the stands
5)went to rear and jacked up using same jack, off the pumpkin
6)put my 3 ton stands under the spring perches
7)took weight off jack then put a little pressure back on it and kept it there
8)went to front and slid my other smaller jack under the tit and put a little pressure on it
9)rotated tires front to back and back to front- noticed that the wheels wouldn't seat all the way until i used my ratchet to turn the lugs.
10)snugged up
11)torqued rears to 83ft/lbs
12)jacked up rear enough to remove stands and removed stands then lowered all the way
13)jacked up front alittle to remove stands, removed stands and then lowered just until the drivers tire touched.
14)torqued drivers side to 83 ft/lbs
15)lowered jack some more and repeated torque on pass side.
16)lowered all the way, retorqued all lugs to 83 ft/lbs
17)went for a 5 mile drive- all good.
18)pulled in garage and checked torqued to 83. one turned a hair- will check in 50 miles.
19) contemplated adjusting headlights as i think they are too low- i did my fogs months ago.
20) found this:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/aiming-3rd-gen-headlights.467447/page-2

then wondering why people don't proof read their work:

"When turning counterclockwise for down, turn the screwdriver counterclockwise, not the cog.
Cog counterclockwise= beam up
Cog clockwise= beam up"


which is it? counterclockwise is up or down??


job took about 1 hour. not bad at all.

 

fyi- no tpms issues. just rotated and saw they were all "-"s. after a block down the road, they all registered.....no button pushing or anything.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/we-know-youre-good-at-jacking.508689/

 

They're all registering, but the location is no longer correct.

 

All the TPMS reset button does is set the benchmark pressure(s) for the warning light.
The TPMS ECU identifies the tire position based on wheel speed signals from the skid control ECU and acceleration rate signals from the TPMS sensors.

 

Ahhh, the joys of DIY... sometimes I even skip the DIY and go straight for the beer.

Previous to the Taco I had a Camry and previous to that a Jetta (RIP). Both front drive obviously, but my philosophy was to not rotate the tires. The fronts wore down faster but not appreciably so. The rears lasted about ~1-1/2+ x as long as their rating so I never had to replace four tires at once other than the first set of Pirellis on the Jetta.

 

Immediate cringe for me on his channel name. Maybe a reveal about his home life.

 

Getter Done!

 

Now that’s thinking with beer!

 

That isn't a bad strategy. The reality is that tires are not going to last long just because you move them around. Once a tire is worn, it doesn't stop wearing and you are only delaying the inevitable. The benefit to rotation is to have them all wear evenly, but on a front wheel drive you can get into the 2 tire cycle. That is easier on the wallet for sure.

 

Where at in az, are you?

 

One thing about this thread. In general, all the advice seems well thought out and good reading. But, it’s most populated by those in more southern climates. In snow country when many use winter tires it takes care of itself, so much so, many tire shops do it for free with wheels mounted on spare rims. That pretty much eliminated me from the tire rotations at home.

I’m not suggesting you move north though. I envy your problem...movin on. Keep up the good comments.

 

Exactly, and Fwd is the toughest to deal with. Where the best tires go on the rear for stability, you’re almost forced, not to rotate till you buy a new pair. This is where Tacos have a big advantage. My truck and awd car tires responded much better to rotations then any fwd.....