Tyre Rotation

[OdinEidolon]

Nah, you're right, my apologies. And I thought that was just a bit of crap on the tread

Btw I though from the title of this thread it was about swapping tyres about to spread the wear - front right on left back, left back on right back, left front to the spare, all that guff, which I presume goes out of the window when they can only be on one side of the car. And what about spare tyres? If you want all 5 the same you'll have to guess which side you're going to have a flat on

I never bothered anyway

Musical tyres from Pirelli: http://www.us.pirelli.com/web/technolog ... fault.page

I usually let the spare tyre be the spare tyre, only for emergencies. If a tyre is flat I use the spare and buy a new one to substitute the one broken as soon as possible.

[lozz]

Theyre not Rotational, tyres,
if they was the Arrows wouid be on the sidewalls not the tread,

if they are ive never seen any like that and ive had some expensive tyres in the past,
the 2 with the foot print are Rain Tyres there desighned to spray the water into the Arches of the car

[Welly]

Directional Tyres must rotate in a given direction to clear water.

Asymmetrical tyres are designed to improve handling and reduce noise. These tyres can rotate in either direction with the correct side facing out as indicated on the sidewall - it will say 'outside' on the sidewall.

[OdinEidolon]

Directional Tyres must rotate in a given direction to clear water.

Asymmetrical tyres are designed to improve handling and reduce noise. These tyres can rotate in either direction with the correct side facing out as indicated on the sidewall - it will say 'outside' on the sidewall.

It is possible to have both characteristics.
These tyres seem to have them, as you can see obviously it is not the same if the tyre goes one way or the other. One way water is pushed towards the inside of the tyre, the other towards the outside of the tyre (whch is the inside of the car). The latter is right, the formes isn't.

[waue1978]

Gary, if you're reading this, don't start worrying - the tyres are fitted fine. If they were asymmetrical AND directional, they would be produced with 2 patterns as 1 pattern would be to go on the left & another for the right.

When was the last time you saw anyone asking for tyres & having to tell them which side they'd go on so the tyre place knew which ones to order?

[OdinEidolon]

Gary, if you're reading this, don't start worrying - the tyres are fitted fine. If they were asymmetrical AND directional, they would be produced with 2 patterns as 1 pattern would be to go on the left & another for the right.

When was the last time you saw anyone asking for tyres & having to tell them which side they'd go on so the tyre place knew which ones to order?

I disagree.
Look at the second pic.
Take the tyre on the right and imagine it fitted to a front right wheel. The pattern is facing backwards, and it is expelling water from the tread.
Then take the tyre on the left and imagine it fitted to a front left wheel. The pattern is facing forwards, and it is sucking water inside the tread.

This is how I see it, it seems pretty logical to me!

[waue1978]

The direction of the grooves isn't always paramount & the types of tyres where you would specify which side pattern you want would be on more extravagant machinery than would be fitted with mere 16ins wheels.

You are right in that it would be more logical to have them for different sides, but the reality is that in everyday driving you wouldn't really notice a massive difference in performance & the water is still getting safely expelled by the straight channels as well.

Isn't normally a massive issue on asymmetricals as they don't usually have such an angled inner portion of the tread. I usually go for directionals as it can be a struggle to get on-directional tyres for sensible money these days, but asymmetricals are ideal for a spare as they can go anywhere on the car (as we did recently for my father's spare on his 523i).

[OdinEidolon]

The direction of the grooves isn't always paramount & the types of tyres where you would specify which side pattern you want would be on more extravagant machinery than would be fitted with mere 16ins wheels.

You are right in that it would be more logical to have them for different sides, but the reality is that in everyday driving you wouldn't really notice a massive difference in performance & the water is still getting safely expelled by the straight channels as well.

Isn't normally a massive issue on asymmetricals as they don't usually have such an angled inner portion of the tread. I usually go for directionals as it can be a struggle to get on-directional tyres for sensible money these days, but asymmetricals are ideal for a spare as they can go anywhere on the car (as we did recently for my father's spare on his 523i).

Yep, but honestly I'd prefer to have them mounted logically.
On a very rainy day an emergency stop would require both tyres to equally drain water - a small change in water drainage could result in serious damage.

This is just because I'm fond with security when it comes to tyres, especially with rain conditions. But this is just me.

[DaiRees]

That's a common talking point on 4X4s 'cos they often have directional tyres for mud clearing properties, but then when you have one on the spare you have a 50/50 chance of it being the right way 'round when you have a puncture


I used to have asymetric tyres on the 406, Pirelli P7s. Always thought the pattern would work differently on one side to the other but that's just how they were, they certainly aren't available "handed", could you imagine any mainstream tyre manufacturer getting themselves into that hole? Twice the product range, twice the tooling costs, twice the number of production runs, twice the hassle, same number of sales... not happening!

Yay, it's that photo again!!!
I kinda miss my splitter

[lozz]

idont care what anyone says
im with waue on this one,

Thems tyres are not Rotational,
if they was the Arrows wouid be on the walls not the TRead,
ive had this discussion before regarding Load ratings and directions of tyres if youve owned a mpv you will know why ive had this discussion

a tyre fitter looks at the side wall before fitting them not the tread
the only time they look at the tread is when there trying to pair up tread patterns so the tyres dont look odd ball,

[waue1978]

Cheers Lozz.

At least my 3 years of tyre & wheel experience didn't totally go to waste.

I'm going to have to stop posting soon - nearly hit 1000 & it'll be a nice round number to have under my pic!

[OdinEidolon]

idont care what anyone says
im with waue on this one,

Thems tyres are not Rotational,
if they was the Arrows wouid be on the walls not the TRead,
ive had this discussion before regarding Load ratings and directions of tyres if youve owned a mpv you will know why ive had this discussion

a tyre fitter looks at the side wall before fitting them not the tread
the only time they look at the tread is when there trying to pair up tread patterns so the tyres dont look odd ball,

It's logic, mister!

[steve_earwig]

Dissimilar treads can also make the car pull to one side.

[waue1978]

When I was working in the tyre wholesalers, 1 of the directors got a brand new (in 1993) BMW 318is coupe. It got used as a pool car a couple of times & everybody who drove it complained of the whole car "crabbing" under hard cornering - he never noticed because he was nearly 60. We had a close look at the car & found that it had been fitted with directional tyres, but they had all been fitted the wrong way round! It is surprising how much of a difference these things can make under hard driving, but when you're just pootling around normally you'd probably never know.

& there's post 1000. I'll just have to edit old posts when I've got something to say from now on.

[plod]

& there's post 1000. I'll just have to edit old posts when I've got something to say from now on.

Post sh*t loads of drivvle until you get up to 2000 instead





I also agree that tyre manufacturers wouldn't double up on tooling and produce left and right handed tyres
No experience, just my opinion