If you've ever spent a whole day on your feet, you know just how sore they can get. If you were wearing a nice, supportive pair of shoes, it might just be a little ache. But if you are wearing a cheap or unsupportive pair of shoes, you might find yourself in quite a bit of pain.

Much like how the shoes you wear can affect your feet, which can have additional impacts on your ankles, legs, and back, your tires can also have an impact on the rest of your vehicle and how it performs.

While this isn't the perfect analogy, the tires on your vehicle can have a huge impact on your vehicle's ability to drive straight, handle smoothly, brake responsively, and even accelerate. When your tires are in alignment, it can even help your vehicle be more fuel efficient, not to mention safer.

But, like most things, tires wear down over time. Day-to-day wear and tear, as well as more intense incidents like potholes or curbs, can negatively impact your tires. This can cause uneven wear on your tires, which can also affect your tread depth and your traction.

Regular tire rotations can help prevent uneven wear and the resulting issues. But first, what is a tire rotation, how often should you get your tires rotated, and what happens if you don't?

What Is Tire Rotation?

There is plenty of maintenance advice when it comes to your vehicle, but what advice do you take, and what do you ignore? Tire rotations are one of the things that, on the surface, don't make the most sense. After all, your tires rotate when you are driving, so why would you need to get them professionally serviced?

The rotation of the wheels is what gets your car rolling, but a tire rotation is something completely different. A tire rotation is when the tires of the car are moved to different positions on the body of the car, either by swapping the position of the rear axle tires and the front axle tires, by switching the driver's side and passenger's side tires, or by doing a combination of both.

Tire rotations ensure that the tires are not always being worn in the same place, which can ultimately decrease your tread life, reduce traction, and cause weak spots on your tires. If your tires were tilted inwards, it would cause uneven wear on the interior edges of your tires. If you were to take those tires and switch sides on the vehicle (right to left and left to right), the wear would be shifted to the less-worn part of the tires.

The goal of a tire rotation and alignment is to prevent uneven tread wear from happening in the first place, but tire rotations can help even if you've already begun to wear down your tires unevenly.

Depending on the type of vehicle you drive, you might require different styles of rotations. A front-wheel-drive car will usually have its front axle tires moved straight back to the rear axle, and the rear axle tires would move directly forward. This will ultimately help prevent uneven tread wear on the front tires since the front of your vehicle is generally heavier than the rear, thanks to the position of the engine.

In all-wheel-drive vehicles or rear-wheel-drive vehicles, however, the rear axle tires will be moved directly forward to the front axle while the front tires will be moved to opposite sides on the rear axle.

How Frequently Do I Need To Rotate My Tires?

Tire rotations are a part of recommended routine maintenance, much like oil changes or fluid checks. The general rule of thumb for tire rotations is every 5,000-8,000 miles. Generally speaking, if you're using fully synthetic oil, this will be right around the same time you get an oil change. Conventional oil users would be more likely to rotate their tires every other time they get their oil changed.

Many people choose to get these services done at the same time because it means fewer trips to the mechanic. For some, however, they want to stick to the specific amount recommended by their vehicle's manufacturer. If you want to know the specific recommendation for your vehicle, check your owner's manual for a service schedule.

Let it be known that regardless of how often it tells you to get the service done, there might still be times when you need to get the service done sooner. Noticeably uneven wear, loss of tire pressure, and vibration while driving at higher speeds are all signs that your tires need to be rotated. Having your tires regularly rotated also gives you the chance to visually inspect your tires, check the air pressure, and examine tread depth.

Why Is Getting A Tire Rotation Important?

A tire rotation service isn't just going to shuffle your tires around aimlessly. Rotating tires on vehicles involves strategically moving the rear wheels and front wheels to help your tires wear evenly. 

Regardless of how your tires are rotated, rotating tires is an important part of your vehicle's service schedule. In fact, some companies in the tire industry require your tires to be rotated regularly to maintain the warranty on your tires. Overall, here are the most important reasons to get a tire rotation.

Even Treadwear and Tire Life

Regularly rotating your tires is important because it guarantees that your tires wear evenly so that their tread life is maximized and you don't have to replace the tires as frequently.

This is because each specific wheel position on your vehicle faces different demands. The front tires on a front-wheel drive vehicle, for example, experience a greater demand due to the torque and friction that is required for turning, accelerating, and braking. Different positions on vehicles of varying drivetrains can cause more or less wear on any specific tire.

Even if your vehicle's alignment is perfect, your four tires (or more) still need to be rotated regularly to counteract the wear associated with each wheel position on the vehicle. New tires are even more important to have rotated before the 5,000-mile mark since the fresh, deep tire tread is more prone to uneven wear.

Smoother Ride

Uneven tread wear can cause issues with the smoothness of your ride, and tires that are out of balance can cause an annoying vibration, especially at higher speeds. Having a tire rotation can prevent these issues from arising.

Enhanced Safety

Keeping the treads on your tires evenly worn helps traction and handling, which are critical components when driving in inclement weather such as rain, snow, or ice. The treads of your tires allow your vehicle to grip the road. When you wear down only one section of the tire, you reduce the traction of the wheel, which can lead to potentially dangerous situations on the road.

These factors can also affect turning and cornering, braking performance, and overall safety, especially on wet or icy roads.

Improved Fuel Efficiency

When your tires are worn unevenly, they also can't maintain uniform contact with the road, which can mean increased friction. This increased friction means that your engine has to work harder and use more fuel to move. Therefore, getting a tire rotation can help prevent this excess friction and improve your vehicle's fuel efficiency.

Tires And Suspension

The aforementioned vibration, especially at higher speeds, can also cause damage to your drivetrain and suspension. Especially for an all-wheel drive vehicle, evenly worn tires reduce the stress on the drivetrain and engine, which can keep your vehicle in better shape for longer.

Which Tire Rotation Pattern Do I Choose?

Different types of vehicles will require different tire rotation patterns. The number of wheels your vehicle has, the type of wheels you're using, all-wheel-drive, front-wheel-drive, rear-wheel-drive, and more, all of these factors might play a part in how your tires ultimately get rotated, as well as whether your tires are directional or non-directional, whether or not your tires are the same size on the front and rear of your vehicle and more.

Here are some of the different rotation patterns you can expect to see commonly in the industry.  Just remember: following a tire rotation, it is important that all tires are adjusted to the vehicle manufacturer's recommended pressure.

For Tires That Are Of Uniform Size And Non-Directional

Rearward Cross

For rear-wheel drive vehicles, the rearward cross pattern is recommended. This is when rear tires are moved to the forward axle and kept on the same side of the vehicle. In other words, rear tires are moved directly forward. The front wheels, on the other hand, are moved from the front axle to the rear axle, as well as to the opposite side of the vehicle.

X-Pattern

For 4-wheel drive and all-wheel drive vehicles, including sedans, lightweight trucks, and more, all tires are moved diagonally from their starting positions. This means that rear tires are moved to the front axle and to opposite sides, while front tires are moved to the rear axle and to opposite sides. From above, if you drew arrows from each wheel's starting position to their new position, it would make two X shapes.

Forward Cross

As the most common pattern for front-wheel drive vehicles, the forward cross consists of the front wheels being moved directly back while the rear tires are moved forward and switched sides, opposite from the rearward cross.

For Tires That Are Of Uniform Size And Non-Directional With A Full-Size Spare Tire

When you have a full-size spare tire, you'll want to rotate the spare in with the other four to ensure that all of the tires on your vehicle have even tread wear. This is especially important for 4-wheel drive and all-wheel drive vehicles since even minor differences can cause unnecessary strain on your vehicle's drivetrain.

Rearward Cross (Rear-Wheel Or 4-Wheel Drive Vehicles)

This is similar to the standard rearward cross but takes into consideration the spare tire. In this situation, both tires on the rear axle move directly forward to the front. The spare tire moves to the right side of the rear axle, while the front right tire moves backward and across to the rear left axle position. The right front tire becomes the new spare tire.

Forward Cross (Front-Wheel Drive Vehicles)

Again, similar to the aforementioned forward cross, the tires on the rear axle are moved diagonally forward, placing the rear left tire into the front right position and the rear right tire into the front left position. The spare tire is moved to the rear right position, which leaves the front left tire to go to the rear left position and the front right tire to become the new spare.

For Differently-Sized And Directional Tires

Side-To-Side (For Differently-Sized Tires On The Front And Rear Axles)

Since tires in this situation are differently sized, tires are simply switched with their same-sized partner while remaining on the same axle. This means that the rear left becomes the rear right and vice versa. The same goes for the front tires.

Front-To-Back (For Directional Tires)

In this situation, all tires are switched from one axle to the other while remaining on the same side of the vehicle. For example, the rear right tire becomes the front right tire and vice versa, while the left front and rear also trade positions.

Other Types of Rotations

Six-Tire Rotation (Dually trucks)

In the case where a vehicle has more than four (or five, counting a full-sized spare) tires, there is a little more that goes into the tire rotation. The main commonplace example of this is for trucks with dual rear wheels - two front tires and four rear tires.

In this case, the tire rotation pattern resembles two triangles, one for the three wheels on the driver's side and one for the three wheels on the passenger side. For each side, the outer dual tire becomes the inner dual tire, the inner dual tire becomes the front tire (the steer position), and the front tire becomes the outer dual position.

Tire Rotations At Benson CDJ

Look no further than Benson CDJ for all of your vehicle service needs. Give us a call or visit our website to see the services we offer and schedule a visit. Our service professionals are highly trained to help keep your vehicle in the best possible shape. We'd love to see you soon!