First tire rotation?

Today I'm going to be doing the first tire rotation on my truck. I have looked through some threads and see where some are having problems with losing the centercaps. With this being said, do you all recommend leaving the centercaps in place for tire rotations? Also if you have any other useful tidbits of information you can throw that in too.

 

I left my center caps in place when I rotated mine. Also if you have the aluminum wheels don't forget to torque them down to 85 ftlbs.

 

Nothing special. Just take them off and swap straight front to back.

 

Does the manual call for a front to back rotation or "x" rotation?

 

Front to back on my dblcab sport 4x4

 

I do this:

 

It says front to back if not using the spare tire in the rotation.

 

How is your wear in the "x" rotation compared to front-to-back? I was thinking of doing the x-rotation too but I'm undecided.

 

Did the rotation earlier today. I went ahead and went with the x-rotation and I'll keep a check on things and see how that goes.

 

Me too. The vehicle doesn't matter,its what you prefer. I think this rotation will give more even wear.

 

The X rotation can potentially give some noise problems but that is primarily with tires that are way past due for rotation. Big lugs and 4wd make it worse. If you keep up with it and don't hear any noise, the X is probably best.

To be honest though, the computer generated tread patterns on tire in the last 20 or so years handle wear so much better that front to back is good enough!

 

I have always rotated front to back, I thought the X went out with radial tires