Rotated my tires today. Anyone else only swap front to back?

I rotated my (non directional) tires today. I used to always used to do a cross pattern rotation with my previous cars (Fronts straight to rears, but rear crossed to fronts). But now where I am there's nowhere level enough to safely lift the whole car (or even a whole end due to the left to right slope) at once, so cross rotation is too painful.

Anyway, I've found that even with a sideways slope, I can still reasonably safely jack an entire side (left or right), so a straight front to back swap is nice and easy.

Just wondering how others here are rotating their tires?

Your old way is the best. But once in a while just front and rear exchange will be OK.
Try to find a good safe spot to do the old way.

I think that prior to radials in the mid 70s, cross rotation was correct for bias ply tires.
Every car with radials I have ever seen does front to back.

http://www.toyota.com/t3Portal/document/om/OM47668U/pdf/sec_04_03.pdf

Page 26

I will do a cross rotation on non-directional tires if I see that there is more wear on the tires on one side vs. the other. Otherwise there is nothing wrong with front to back, and that is the recommended method in the 2G owner's manual.

Why bother? I find that causes all four to wear out at the same time thus you purchase 4 tires rather than only two! Plus it is hard to notice uneven wear due to front or rear alignment issue's . H

I bother because I prefer to have a matched set of tires on my car and almost never buy the same tires that came on the car. Different brands or models of tire on opposite ends of the car can also screw up handling.

Good point ,but does it matter as long as you stay with the same tire? H

That should work OK, one potential problem being that sometimes tire lines get replaced by new ones.

Something to consider is that if you don't rotate the rear tires may last long enough that age becomes an issue. When you should get rid of tires due to age is debatable. That depends on your climate and how much time your vehicle spends sitting in the Sun.

Another compromise alternative would be to rotate your tires once at a mileage based on tread wear so that they all wear out at the same time.

That is probably the best way. [The later system you mentioned]I suppose I will have to do something similar to that as I have gone with All weather Nokian WR 2g tires so that I can run the same tire all year .H

I know exactly what you mean Harold, and I did give serious consideration to doing just that. But in the end I decided to rotate for the very reasons that xs650 said above.

1. Can't always find the same model tire when it comes time to place fronts.

2. If they are available it might be a really lousy price (it's small market and less competition in Australia, so sometimes you get royally ripped off if you just need "that" particular item.)

3. With newer better LRR tires likely to be coming on the market I might want something completely different next time. (will also depend on how my current tires last whether I decide to go with them again).

4. You can often get "deals" when you buy a set of four tires, but basically never when you buy one or two. I know this is only a minor factor, but tire places around here often have deals like $50 off when you buy a set of four.

I still rotate as you used to every time. I will probably always do it this way (unless using directional tires). Theoretically, this should provide you with the longest life for your tires.

I prefer to cross rotate my tyres but since I am know running Hankooks that are directional I cannot. I did wonder if being directional helps with LRR.

Yep I'd still prefer to cross rotate if it wasn't too awkward for me with the slope. The roads here have quite a lot of roundabouts and I feel the left front tire probably get a bit more wear than the right (remember we drive on the left here and so go clockwise at roundabouts).

I get the feeling that with the straight rotation pattern my two left tires will probably wear out just a smidgeon before the right, but probably not enough to really bother about. Anyway I'll have to wait and see on that.

As far as the actual process goes, straight rotation is way easier to do with only modest lifting equipment (ie two jacks)

Well, assuming a level working area, you can raise up all four wheels with two jackstands located near the front jacking points, and one hydraulic floor jack holding up the center rear jacking point.