Tuesday, Nov 22, 2016 at 18:10
I doubt very much that there is an industry standard ..... it there was it would be unreliable and unhelpful.
Any advantage in tyre rotation on any vehicle will depend on how that individual vehicle wears tyres.
IF a 4 wheel trailer is well designed and does not spend a lot of time in the city going around roundabouts ..... it is unlikley that there will be any advantage to tyre rotation, because the tyres will wear evenly and are best left where they are.
If on the other hand there are desgn flaws in the
suspension, the vehicle does a lot of non straight line work in particular roundabouts ... there may be wear patterns, such as shoulder wear and scrubbing front or rear axle that may be addressed by tyre rotation.
AND that rotation may not just be wheel to wheel but turning the tyre on the rim.
If your vehicle wears the outside shoulder (common in some circumstances) changing the wheels around without rotation the tyre on the rim will help none.
On 4 wheel stand alone vehicles, there are a number of common tyre rotation schemes, in the guides and manuals ........ yeh there are arguments that they are unhelpfull and pointless on any cases.
On most of my vehicles in the last 30 odd years, they have had live beam rear axles ..... this presents the wheel square to the road the majority ( pretty much all) of the time ..... I have found that my rear tyres wear evenly over the surface of the tyre as long as my tyre pressures are correct ..... so removing them from where they are presents no advantage.
On the other hand the front tyres always wear and scrub on the edges, because of the
suspension and turning geometry and the very work of turning the vehicle.
Some would get exciteted and say that they should be rotated to the back ... I do not believe that would give me any advantage in overall tyre wear or cost.
there may be advantages to rotating left for right, because of the roundabout factor and the scrubbing caused on the outside edge of the passenger side tyres.
I just fit a pair of new tyres to the front and the best of the remaining on the rear ...... 1/2 of the time that means leaving the rears where they are.
Any scheme of tyre rotation has to consider actual wear on that actual vehicle.
If you are realy concerned about maximum tyre life, paying attention to correct inflation, wheel alignment (if available) and in particular on trailers wear in the
suspension bushings .... will save more tyre wear than rotation ever can.
cheers
AnswerID:
606102
Follow Up By: MarkHugh - Wednesday, Nov 23, 2016 at 07:14
Wednesday, Nov 23, 2016 at 07:14
Good response Bantam,
Cheers
FollowupID:
875841
Follow Up By: RMD - Wednesday, Nov 23, 2016 at 19:56
Wednesday, Nov 23, 2016 at 19:56
Bantam
That is a bit confusing. Are you limiting your response to the tow vehicle OR trailers systems only. I read it as a combination of both so am confused.
FollowupID:
875864
Follow Up By: hooks - Thursday, Nov 24, 2016 at 11:13
Thursday, Nov 24, 2016 at 11:13
Hi Bantam,
Thanks to you and the others for your replies. I advise further data which may help explain my particular situation. I am referring to the vans tyre ware.
The van is duel wheel on ALCO independent suspension/ shock absorbers /off road. The passenger side front wheel has worn more than the other 3 on the 0utside edge, about half of the tyre width. This particular tyre has a very slow leak over time and may have contributed to some of this ware. As I said in the post above I wanted the tyres rotated to even out the ware, but both service centres only moved front to back on each side only. Both seemed to indicate this was ok, and one said that the tyres were directional and that was how they should be rotated. They are not directional ! Looking at the
suspension itself, it does not appear that there is any fine adjustment possible re the wheel alignment for each wheel.
This may help explain, but I may have to live with things if it turns out the whole
suspension is out of alignment slightly and cannot be adjusted. Tyre rotation including diagonal swapping might be my only option.
Look forward to your comments
Bob.
FollowupID:
875878
Follow Up By: Frank P (NSW) - Thursday, Nov 24, 2016 at 12:08
Thursday, Nov 24, 2016 at 12:08
If the tyres are not directional there would be no problems in swapping them diagonally, or side for side on the same axle.
There may also be a benefit in turning one or more tyres over on the rim, depending on how they're wearing on the shoulders.
FollowupID:
875879
Follow Up By: Dean K3 - Thursday, Nov 24, 2016 at 19:49
Thursday, Nov 24, 2016 at 19:49
Hooks,
if one wheel is showing wear on one side only this strongly suggests wheel alignment issue -you mentioned independent
suspension so camber and toe in/out is adjustable.
I noticed similar on folks camper and managed to get bigwheels alignment here in
perth wa to check over and adjust it. i then took camper awy for a month and noticed no more wear traits =i did have tyre popped off and wear placed on inside as it look better to casual observer
rotating tyres won't fix this issue just means another tyre will have same wear pattern in short time depending on how much you travel.
per pattern of rotating most tyre are now radial so trick of rotating them diagonally across isn't deemed necessary today, unliek bias tyre of yesteryear.
I have swapped my original 6 tyres on a front to back to spare sequence regularly for 140K until they were basically shot and worn out with no dramas .
However some high performance tyres do still have a rotation direction mainly to do with water dispersal
FollowupID:
875891
Follow Up By: The Bantam - Thursday, Nov 24, 2016 at 20:04
Thursday, Nov 24, 2016 at 20:04
My response applies to anything with wheels right down to shopping trollies and roller skates.
Any system of rotation, has to be in response to how that vehicle in it's use pattern is wearing tyres.
Hooks mate, if you have a single tyre wearing excessively no system of rotation will solve the problem.
Under inflation ( or uneven tyre pressures) will cause all sorts of weird wear patterns.
a tyre that is under inflated will tend to roll on the rim and chew the shoulders out in fairly short order ...... a tyre that is under inflated compared to its mate will tend to scrub and wear in short order
cheers
FollowupID:
875892
Follow Up By: Frank P (NSW) - Thursday, Nov 24, 2016 at 20:12
Thursday, Nov 24, 2016 at 20:12
"if one wheel is showing wear on one side only this strongly suggests wheel alignment issue -you mentioned independent
suspension so camber and toe in/out is adjustable."
Not always.
My van with independent
suspension has toe only, no camber adjustment.
Perhaps there are others with no provision for adjustment at all. In the caravan industry, known for its lack of engineering excellence, that would not surprise me.
The OP says he can see no provision on his ALKO axles for ANY wheel alignment adjustment.
Just looking at the ALKO website, it supports his claim for no apparent adjustment.
So unless he has access to a
shop that can bend the axles (I have read somewhere that bending axles is a method of wheel alignment) to provide the required alignment corrections, he is limited to rotating tyres to maximise tyre life.
Cheers
FollowupID:
875893
Follow Up By: The Bantam - Friday, Nov 25, 2016 at 20:32
Friday, Nov 25, 2016 at 20:32
just because there is no adjustment ..... it does not mean there is not a wheel alignment issue.
The OP mentioms there was a tyre pressure issue ...... appart from doing and ruler and string wheel alignment ..... correcting the tyre pressure issue would be the first thing to correct.
an under inflated tyre in a group can wear very rappidly.
cheers
FollowupID:
875933