[matt_g]

Hi All,

Just had my 2010 Jimny get its first annual service, and had them do a 5 tyre rotation. There's only 4500km on the vehicle, and the tyres (BFG ATR 215) don't seem to have had much wear.

So here's the question, if your spare is under an opaque vinyl tyre cover on the back of the car, where does the balance fall of putting it into the rotation & extending the life of the set of five vs leaving it pristine and just doing the 4 tyre rotation, and only replacing 4 tyres when you need new ones?

Does tyre rubber have a shelf life such that on a low km car you're going to end up having to chuck it by the time you wear through a set of 4?

cheers
mattg.

[Scrawny]

I'd just leave it and rotate the 4 on the car.

I look after 5 year old vans with 300,000+kms that still have the original spare hanging underneath. The tyres are dirty but still very much usable. I realise they don't see the sun but it takes quite a while for a tyre to perish in direct sunlight.

[BlueSuzy]

All terrains and road tyres will be ok.

On my new zook i will be rotating to get the most out of 5 35"s.

Reason behind this in a 4 cycle, once the 4 tyres are worn i might get a different pattern tyre or they don't make that pattern anymore So im left with a perfectly good miss matched spare. Road tyres you dont really notice the difference, but mud terrains you do.

I like having tyre all the same

There is a shelf life for tyres, i guess it depends on branding.
You can't keep boots forever because the rubber sole deteriorates.

[TheOtherLeft]

I would rotate all 5, assuming of course they are all of the same size. That way you get 25% more life out of the tyres compared to only 4 tyres.

Tyres do theoretically have a shelf life of 5-7 yrs. As tyre rubber ages it goes harder (oils in the rubber coming out) and hence they are more prone to punctures, poor performance/losing traction etc. Having said that I have tyres several years old and find them OK.

[shabz]

I've been told by a could of different tyre guys that they can't legally sell a tyre that was manufactured over 6 years ago.

[fordem]

There are two different aspects to be considered - one is the wear on the tire and the resulting change in size and it's effect on the drive train of a four wheel drive, the second is the deterioration or "dry rot" of the rubber.

The original poster was very specific in mentioning an opaque vinyl cover - and I am addressing this because it relates to "sun damage" which is, in my mind, a critical factor - I have had unprotected tires fail prematurely - and not unprotected hanging on the tail gate, but unprotected on the road wheels - a vehicle parked out doors and not driven frequently - on which the tires usually on the western or exposed side of the vehicle repeatedly went "out of round" but never on the "eastern" side.

Direct sun light rapidly increases the rate at which the rubber deteriorates, but, this will also happen without sunlight - for example tires stored in a warehouse - out of the sun. I've also used on a different, daily driven, vehicle, new, old stock tires, and had those fail prematurely, again going "out of round" - so that you understand - I purchased on three different occasions over a period of time, the same size & brand of tires, in sets of four (this was not for a 4WD) and had no problems with the first two sets, but when the third set started to go out of round with significant tread life remaining, I matched the date codes and determined that all three sets came from a single shipment. As a result of this I personally would not want to buy tires older than six years.

Having said that - the spare on that daily driven vehicle, which lives under the trunk floor, inside the car, is some eighteen years old, and in like new condition - both from a tread wear and an appearance stand point (the deterioration in the rubber is usually visible to the naked eye).

On the road vehicles I use a four wheel rotation to even up the wear and replace in sets of four - front to back/back to front - always on the same side - because I use tires with a directional tread pattern.

Off road or 4WD - I use a five wheel rotation pattern, so as to include the spare - the idea is not only to even up the wear but also to keep the rolling diameter of the set as close as possible to minimize drive train stresses when in 4WD.

[smiffkid]

with all our directional tires that we run on our cars, we dont rotate them, or move them front to back, as there where to the car and buy moving them around just makes them where quicker, usually do a 5 wheel swap if there not directional, unless there a simex

[fordem]

smiffkid wrote:

with all our directional tires that we run on our cars, we dont rotate them, or move them front to back, as there where to the car and buy moving them around just makes them where quicker, usually do a 5 wheel swap if there not directional, unless there a simex

Exactly how does moving a directional tire from front to back make them wear quicker?

As long as they stay on the same side of the car, the rotational direction stays the same.

Also - based on personal experience over six sets of tires on the same vehicle, three directional and three non directional, I can state with some certainty that rotating the tires, be it front to back/back to front for directional tires or a four tire pattern for non-directionals has given me more miles total out of a set of four tires than leaving them where they are, and replacing them in pairs.