Tyre rotation

Johno,

Just need to ask yourself which tyres have the most bearing on where you, and the XTrail, are going. Especially if you've got the family on board.

What's your spare like? If it's good then buy a 4th tyre and you'll have a safe set, and 2 reasonable spares.

No good saying I should've bought new tyres, after you've had a massive drama.

Bob

Is the Xtrail full time 4 WD?

If so you'll have to change them all at the same time.

always put your best tyres on the front ,
to lessen the chance of a tyre failure causing an accident due to lack of steering
mechpete

I would rotate all 5 tyres at service.
If you want to upgrade to new tyres of a different brand / type, you are going to be better with the spare replaced same time as well.

If your tyres are non directional, the standard 5 wheel rotate diagram can be used when servicing.

Now directional tyre rotate for the 4 fitted wheels is normally front to back and vice versa leaving them on the same side . . . what to do with the spare with directional tyres fitted all round ?

Surely a directional spare will only be able to be put on one side of a vehicle . . . and to enable the 2nd half of its life to wear the same on the other side of the vehicle, you'd need to have it removed and turned to go on the other side ??

Always wondered if you had to go to that hassle, but expect so to get 5 tyres to wear evenly.

The tyres on the back will have more load on them while towing.I always run the best tyres on the front and try to buy two new ones at a time.This enable you to only buy one and use your spare.Pick the best and use that as a spare.If you change brands your not stuck with a new tyre as a spare.

99% of the time an xtrail is front wheel drive so the fronts will wear faster than the rears.

I would put the best "steering" tyres on the front.

And may I suggest that you work out a system of getting all tyres to the same or similar wear state and rotate all tyres, including any spares, at every service.

We have two complete sets of five rims with AT's on one set and one step up muddies on the other. The wheel are rotated every time we change sets and at every services (10Kms apart). Bothesets are in good nick and wear appears identical and even on all tyres.

Recently bought a new tyre and the fitter said the tendency these days is to rotate on the same side only so as not to reverse wearing pattern by crossing them over. Anyone else come across this?