Swapping Tires From Side to Side, Need some Opinions

[Suds]

I did a performance driving school 2 weeks ago at Texas World Speedway, I drove about 230 miles hard on some Bribgestone RE-11s, great tires, now the outer tread blocks are worn from front to back, maybe I've used a good 25% off the tire side wall, but if I swap from right to left I will be wearing the other side of the tread block and i think the tires should last longer.

The question, should I worry about reversing the tire rotation after this many hard driving miles in one direction?

When I am braking I am reversing the stresses from accelerating so I should be good, right?

[fe1rx]

Eh?

You flip them on the rims so the inside edge becomes outside edge and put them on the other side of the car so the rotation stays the same direction. Front wheels remain front and rear remain rear, unless you have a square tire setup.

This is a very normal way to get the most life out of a tire.

At the risk of committing sacrilege, in the dry, rotation direction really doesn't matter. Others will disagree, but your logic is sound. What makes a tire directional is its tread pattern. Once you have worn the tread off and are operating in the dry the tire doesn't care. (A similar question is "are slick tires directional?" The doubters can search that one out.) You don't need to do it though unless you are wearing out one side of the car more, which does happen on some tracks.

[Suds]

No, the tires are not directional, so the outside of the tire is on the outside of the rim, easy swap, no un-mounting required.

I am hoping to find someone in the community that has done this.

Originally Posted by fe1rx

Eh?

You flip them on the rims so the inside edge becomes outside edge and put them on the other side of the car so the rotation stays the same direction. Front wheels remain front and rear remain rear, unless you have a square tire setup.

This is a very normal way to get the most life out of a tire.

At the risk of committing sacrilege, in the dry, rotation direction really doesn't matter. Others will disagree, but your logic is sound. What makes a tire directional is its tread pattern. Once you have worn the tread off and are operating in the dry the tire doesn't care. (A similar question is "are slick tires directional?" The doubters can search that one out.) You don't need to do it though unless you are wearing out one side of the car more, which does happen on some tracks.

[fe1rx]

OK, I note that the RE-11 is asymmetric but not directional. That does argue against flipping because the internal structure is probably asymmetric also.

I can't understand how you can wear out a tire from "front to back" though. Perhaps a picture would make your point clear.

Nor can I understand why reversing a non-directional tire is a concern. The tire is after all explicitly non-directional.

[z3papa]

You need to have the tires re-mounted (flipped) where you have the tires mounted so that what is on the outside of the tires now is on facing the inner wheel well. It's not as simply as changing the wheels from one side of the car to the other.

[Kgolf31]

Originally Posted by z3papa

You need to have the tires re-mounted (flipped) where you have the tires mounted so that what is on the outside of the tires now is on facing the inner wheel well. It's not as simply as changing the wheels from one side of the car to the other.

The RE-11 has an outside/inside marking on the sidewall, so simply just dismounting and flipping will yield the same setup he currently has. The only option to reduce wear is to swap the front wheels to the back, given your offsets will allow this.

This is why I hate RE-11s, you cannot effectively flip the tires to maintain even wear.


To make Z3's point though, dismounting and flipping tires on directional tires is the only way to go.

I did these to my RS3s, and extended the life to 2 years (although they were heat cycled to crap...that is a different story:

[Suds]

Yeah, the front tire tread blocks are worn in the back about a 1/32" more than the front of the following block, only on the fronts, rears are good. I am going to swap side to side the fronts and rears before my next PDS which is in two weekends, the difference is noticeable when you rub your hand across the blocks

[Suds]

Originally Posted by Kgolf31

The RE-11 has an outside/inside marking on the sidewall, so simply just dismounting and flipping will yield the same setup he currently has. The only option to reduce wear is to swap the front wheels to the back, given your offsets will allow this.

This is why I hate RE-11s, you cannot effectively flip the tires to maintain even wear.


To make Z3's point though, dismounting and flipping tires on directional tires is the only way to go.

I did these to my RS3s, and extended the life to 2 years (although they were heat cycled to crap...that is a different story:

Yes I agree, I will be doing this on my 135 with Dunlop ZII's. I do feel some feathering across the groves on those tires already after 3k miles and 8 or so AutoX days.