[Marine_ID]

Out of curiosity, how many of you are having your tires rotated using the recommendation in the owner's manual to do a rearward cross vs sticking with the old method of rotating radials front to rear?

 

[tvandyck7]

Crossing them makes the tread wear more evenly. Especially with mud tires or aggressive A/T's. The tread blocks wear/chop lower in the rear, so moving the tire to the opposite side will even them back out.

 

[Marine_ID]

Crossing them makes the tread wear more evenly. Especially with mud tires or aggressive A/T's. The tread blocks wear/chop lower in the rear, so moving the tire to the opposite side will even them back out.

I'm definately familiar with the advantage of crossing sides, but the Ford dealership argued with me that it was widely known that "especially with Super Duties, it was important to go front to back." When asked why my owner's manual disagreed with them, they huffed and puffed and finally agreed to cross them using a forward cross method designed for front wheel drive vehicles. Any rotation is better than none, but seriously... you'd think they would know the difference between a forward cross for FWD and and rearward cross for RWD.

 

[Hdslider]

Unless it is a directional tire only. it makes no difference about X ing tires. Like stated if your tires start to cup, X ing will make them wear even. best is to rotate every 5,000 miles. get alot more life out of them.

 

[Dr.Evil]

Unless it is a directional tire only. it makes no difference about X ing tires. Like stated if your tires start to cup, X ing will make them wear even. best is to rotate every 5,000 miles. get alot more life out of them.

Ummmm I dsagree. I put 127,000 all highway miles on a set of 255-85R16 Firestone Wilderness AT's on my '96 F250 4X4. I could have gone another 10,000-15,000 miles but I had one starting to go out of balance so just put new Bridgeston Dueler AT's on. Those tires were rotated frt to back only TWICE. The rear tires actually wore faster than the frt.

Tire wear abnormalities are the result of worn suspension parts and driving style.

The topic of tire rotation comes up frequently on some of the forums I frequent. Many auto companies are starting to recommend NOT CROSSING tires and only rotate frt-to-back. The only time I'll rotate tires is when obvious tire wear imbalances are seen, with my F250 typically every 40,000-50,000 miles.

 

[Marine_ID]

This is definatley a long running debate, and don't want to come across that I have no idea how I want my tires rotated. I'm mostly curious about what people are actually doing with their trucks and anyone that has supporting evidence like Dr. Evil of what is actually working on the 2011 SDs.

I'd also like Cory to explore why the Ford Shop manuals don't match the recommendation in owner's manual. As of today (3 June 2011) both the Ford (owner's manual) and the the National Tire and Rim Association recommend that a REARWARD CROSS pattern for rear wheel drive and 4X4 vehicles. Honestly, this is what I prefer. But if you ask your local Ford dealer to reference their shop manual, it recommends front to back. Ford should take a position in this debate, and it should be the same in both publications.

Altogether different....my Ford dealer, apparently not knowing the difference between cross patterns, actually performed a FORWARD CROSS (for forward drive vehicles only). Debates aside, this is probably the worst possible option available. I always place numbers inside the 'C' on my Continental AT tires so I can keep tabs on where the tires move.