Rotate? Balance? What do you do?

I finally rotated my 1-year old Michelins Defenders with 15K miles on them and this was the takeaway:
-Tire wear was relatively even across all 4 wheels
-Re-balancing them notably reduced vibration in the steering, including on roads that [I thought] were the cause of previous shudder/vibration.

So, what are your feelings about 5K rotations and balancing? My dealer always advocates rebalancing, but every 5K seems excessive.

At this point, I'm planning to go another 15K miles and do it again. Is this a sound approach?

BTW - Happy Friday! With 65K miles, the '21 Taco is going strong. She's ready for another 400K and is probably the vehicle I've enjoyed owning more than any other in 50 years of driving.

 

I rotate and road force balance every 3500 miles. Discount tire is great and its free! Never had issues.

 

I rotate every 5,000 miles. My oil is due every 5,00 miles so I do them together.

I rotate the tires using this diagram. I only balance the tires going to the front unless I'm chasing a vibration.

 

My low mileage 2016 just rolled over 30,000 miles last weekend. The original tires were changed a couple of months ago due to cracking between the tread and had been rotated once at 5,000 miles. There was no obvious differences in wear. There may have been some. I realize my action is bad but no apparent damage. My "plan" is to rotate the new ones every 10 or 12 thousand miles.

 

15,000 miles is too far without a rotation. More aggressive tires need to be rotated 3500-5000 miles. You can get away with going 7000-8000 on street tires but no way I'd let them go 15,000. Once uneven wear gets started it's hard to stop. Front tires wear a lot faster on the edges because they are also steering. If you place them on the rear before the wear gets too bad they have a chance for the wear to become even.

I don't re-balance unless there is a problem.

Front wheel drive cars eat through front tires much faster than rear wheel drive cars. There are some people who will never rotate tires on front wheel drive vehicles. They simply replace the 2 worn front tires with 2 new ones. Move the old rear tires to the front and put the 2 new tires on the rear. Supposedly it's cheaper in the long term and on those cars may be.

 

I'm with the 15,000 is way too long to go between rotations but, 3500 may be too short. I rotate mine every 5-6000 with my oil changes. I dont re-balance unless there is a vibration issue. When I buy new tires, they are road force balanced. Ski

 

Rotate at 5000 mile or max 10000 mile intervals. Balance based on need but if you can afford it once a year or 20000 miles, you can often go further but I find I can feel slight improvements after balancing once a year, no it wasnt very bad but its nice having a smooth ride.

 

This is what I do, except I don't do it. The tire dealer does it. I buy my tires at Discount Tire and have for years, for all our vehicles. The tire prices include mounting, balancing (for life of the tire) road hazard and full replacement if not repairable (like a nail in the shoulder). I do my own oil changes and then call Discount for an appointment so I don't forget to get the tires rotated. I'm 71, and it's too much a pain to do all the jacking and lifting of tires and wheels that weigh 80 pounds apiece.

 

Rotation on a rear wheel drive isn't that important. You should get fairly even tire wear at all 4 corners. Balancing is only as needed. In theory, your balance shouldn't change unless you lose a weight, but it never hurts to rebalance.

 

If in for an oil change, why not have them rotate same time. Ditto on balancing, I've only re-balanced after throwing a weight or feeling vibrations or wobbles. Nice to have front end alignment checked after pothole season ends. If your alignment is off, you'll see inner or outer treadwear in short time.

Tips and tricks dept.:
265 series tires are not crazy heavy, but if you can't lift easily or have 33-35 inch+ large tires...
Place the tire next to the hub and hold upright with one hand. Position the head of a round nose shovel under the tire. Place a 2x4 (or brick or something similar) behind the shovel to use as a fulcrum. Use the shovel to lift the tire into position. Simple but worked when I strained my back trying to wrestle 33x12 tires onto my Jeep. No need for fancy tire lifting devices sold in stores!

 

I rotate mine every 5K in a Z pattern. This changes the direction of rotation for every tire, and I've been getting great tread life and even wear this way.

I only re-balance tires when I notice an issue. If you have a good tire shop that does free rebalancing, I don't see any harm in doing it more often.

 

I rotate regularly on FWD cars. On my 4wd and AWD cars they wear pretty evenly. I haven't rotated the tires on the Taco in 35k miles. The rears are worn about 1/32 more than the fronts.

I also get them at Discount Tire and the rotations are free but the lines there suck. Even the 8am appointment can take more than an hour to get out. Any walk-in customer goes first except for me.

 

The outside edges of the front tires on something like a 4WD truck tend to feather and unevenly wear the edges of the lugs; solid front axles are worse that independent front suspension. Rotating spreads that wear to all four tires. Wear from wheelspin wears the driving wheels more, so rotating tends to even out that as well. I've always been able to tell a difference in the ride after having tires balanced when they were rotated.

 

If you tires wear on the edge, that is from improper alignment. Moving them to the back doesn't stop the wear and being 4wd has nothing to do with that. and if you are that guy doing burnouts for fun, yeah, rotate them and you will be buying 4 instead of 2.

 

Every 5 to 7K for me never had tire issues.

 

Hasn’t come up yet so I’ll be the 5 tire idiot…
Rearward cross 5 tire rotation every 5k with the oil. Balance when new and then only if there’s an issue. People seriously balance every rotation? I’ve never even heard of that

 

Simple front to back / back to front for me. Works fine / lasts long time.

 

Tacomas have full-size matching spares. Do a 5 tire rotation to get max life out of your investment.

If your spare is currently on a steelie, just spend the $200 to buy a matching wheel /tpms. The extra wear life you’ll get will make the investment worth it

 

My last Dealership visit I said oil change & tire rotation. Came back look @ wheels still mud on lug nuts, go back in says didn’t need cause plenty of tread. Wasn’t to much longer had to get rotated somewhere else.

 

I'm in the seventy's as well. Always have and will keep trying to do my own oil changes. Never ever did tire rotation or re-balancing. If the initial balance is good, don't see the need to keep balancing. Also can't stand getting vehicle back from a shop and everything they touch is wrong. Always have to change tire air pressure and wheel torque. I'd never be able to change a flat tire with the torque they put on with air guns. Never had a problem doing it my way. Tire wear is usually pretty even. Some things seem overkill to me.