I wanted to know the easiest way to rotate tires. I would think to rotate tires you have to put car on jack stands.
By
Bull6791, September 9, 2014
I wanted to know the easiest way to rotate tires. I would think to rotate tires you have to put car on jack stands.
Jack up the left front put a jack stand in then take the jack to the left rear. Jack it up put in another stand and swap front to back. Back to front. Repeat for the right side. Torque to 76 foot pounds.
Thanks. Just what I thought. You need a trolley jack to jack up car and jack stands to rotate tires.
I just use the jack from the trunk and place the jackstand as close as possible to the jacking point.
Once you jack the front all the way up, the rear tire lifts off the ground also.
Snow tire
I guess it would be easier to use jack that car
came with. Only thing with that is you would have to jack up all for corners one at a time individual.
With trolley jack the whole front goes up at same time.
Also I never understood where do you place jack stands.
You can either jack both front wheels, both right wheels, both left wheels, or both rear wheels at once with included scissor jack, but it's easier with a floor jack.
Jack stands are positioned where the chassis is strongest, under front suspensions' cross member near control arm mounting points, and just at front of rear suspensions' control arm mounting points.
You can try to keep rotating tires so they all wear evenly... Instead, you can leave your more worn tires in front where they wear faster. When they're worn out, replace them with 2 new tires and switch them with the rears, and so on as I do. They can still be rotated right to left. That way, you always have your better tires in the rear for increased stability and control, especially on reduced traction, ice and snow.
Also depends on the tire and the car's use - some do not recommend any rotation at all, especially in cases of asymmetrical, staggered tires or cases where you run a very aggressive alignment . Aside from those special cases - directional tires should be rotate front to rear, unidirectional tires can be cross-rotated if desired.
How you want to rotate the tires depends on the equipment you have on hand. If you have a local garage that they are on good terms with - sometimes, you can work out a good deal to have them rotate them for you, sometimes the cost can be quite low - just ask.
As mentioned, can do it one at a time or do them an axle set / same side of the car at a time - just depends on what you have available to you to work with. Easiest way to do them - depends on what you feel most comfortable doing - using what you have or spending money to buy equipment to do the work.
Always having the better tires on rear axle, as recommended by all tire manufacturers, is well summed up here:
I use a 2 1/2 ton jack placed 1/3 the distance of both doors behind the front tire(a couple feet back) which lifts the front and rear tires, then I place jack stands under each side and swap front to rear. Saves having to jack the car up 4 times by just having to jack 2 times, once for each side.
what I do is place the spare on the right front and take the front and move it to right rear. Then right rear to left front then left front to left rear and finally left rear to right front. It takes time to lift and lower vehicle each time but I can get it done in about 20 mins now.
