Tire Shopping

[Jon Wehrenberg]

When I was putting on about 30,000 miles a year I rotated them every year. Front and tag to drives, and drives to front and tag. All tires were the same age and size. I had to knock them down because it was easier doing that than polishing the rims because the rims get reversed in their new positions. Keep in mind this was in the days when the inner drive was aluminum just like the others.

The net result was the tires wore evenly and after 130,000 miles I still had 1/4" of tread depth. I replaced the tires at that time because I was selling the company and I wanted it to put new tires on the bus as a going away present.

If I had a bus with dissimilar sized tires as the newer coaches have I see no advantage. I definitely would not put a front tire that had any sign of unusual wear on the tag.

The drive axle is the ideal place to correct any steer axle unusual wear patterns, but with the larger fronts now being used I don't see that happening.

[Sid Tuls]

Thanks Jon

[James]

The drive axle is the ideal place to correct any steer axle unusual wear patterns, but with the larger fronts now being used I don't see that happening.

What about crossing them as in switching the left front tire with the right tag and the right front with the left tag?

When rotating our wrangler tires the left front goes on the right rear, the right rear goes to the right front which goes on the left rear which moves to the left front. Perhaps something similar could be done for the front and tag tires.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

When we got our first coach the steers had cupping on the outer edges due to an out of balance condition. This was before I started using Equal and before I realized (thanks to Jim Keller) that the rubber tire actually rotates on our wheels.

Anyway that cupping was typical of the 12.00 tires of that time (1990). The tread depth was good, all the tires had been balanced, so I had the steers with the cupping put on the tag. Within 5000 miles those tires that had been placed on the tag had the rubber worn off down to the steel cords. Aparently the tag axle has ride motions that accelerate bad tire wear and accentuate it. At least that is the case I experienced.

I don't have any knowledge for or against side to side rotation, but I know I will not put any tire that shows an unusual wear pattern on the tag after my experience. FWIW the Michelins of 20 years ago are nowhere near the quality of those of today with respect to outer tread wear. Those tires back in the bad old days on just about everyone's coaches had a distinct scalloping around the outer edges that could be felt, and if allowed to continue could be seen. I learned a hard lesson that as soon as any unusual steer or tag axle wear is detected to move them to the drive axle where that wear will eventually be corrected. It goes without saying that part of the process is to eliminate the cause of the wear unless you want to continue going through the process of rotating tires.

BTW, I do not rotate tires now because I have no unusual wear at any position, but have been putting the newest tires in the steer position.

My Chinese drive tires still hold air.