Stop Wasting Money | Rotate Your Tires More Often

SID297

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Stop Wasting Money | Rotate Your Tires More Often

F350_Tire_Rotation_004.jpg

I’ve had a habit over the years of replacing my tires when they get about half worn. To me, few things can make a car feel better than a fresh set of rubber. Unfortunately though, keeping up that habit has becoming increasingly expensive over the years. We’re living in a time where high quality tires in an appropriate size for many of our performance/hard-working vehicle don’t even break a sweat to get past $300 each. Fortunately, there’re a few simple things you can do to prolong the life of your current tread.

F350_Tire_Rotation_003.jpg


Brand new and open for business. These guys have great customer service skills.


Unfortunately, I hadn’t been quite as studious as needed to keep everything wearing evenly with the Nitto Ridge Grapplers on my 2009 F-350. 4WD Ford Super Duty trucks are well known for eating front tires and ball joints. It’s just the nature of the heavy-duty Super Dana 60 solid front axle, and my front tires were starting to show a little uneven wear on the outside edge. That’s par for the course for big truck ownership, so I made a call to my local North Myrtle Beach branch of Discount Tire. Check out the vid of the experience:


This facility is brand new, having only opened a few months before my visit. The order of the day was a fresh balance and rotation, along with an air pressure adjustment. As soon as I pulled into the bay these guys were on it. They quickly had the truck in the air and all four tires flying off. One of the things I noticed they do that is often overlooked by other shops, is perform a thorough cleaning of the wheel and hub mating surfaces. This can be a huge deal, because in certain conditions corrosion can effectively chemically bond the wheel to the hub. No one wants to have to call a tow truck just to bring you a pry bar so you can remove a blown tire on the side of I-95 at night. Ask me how I know.

F350_Tire_Rotation_006.jpg


A clean backside is important.

The Duty runs a fairly large and heavy set of tires (295/65R-20), so it’s not surprising that the needed to be rebalance. The slightly unevenly worn fronts needed more weight adjustment than the rears, which is to be expected. Discount Tire uses a modern road-force balancer in order to get everything set to perfect, and after the rotation to opposite corners I have to call the entire operation a success. We even took the time to inspect the brakes and suspension components, finding everything still in spec. The truck rides and drives much better (proper balance makes a big difference), and after about 1,000 miles the former front tires (now the rears) are evenly worn. All is right in the world, and I’m going to make a point to visit the Discount Tire crew on a more regular basis. The results achieved and service received makes them stand head and shoulders above other national chains.

F350_Tire_Rotation_002.jpg


The Nitto Ridge Grappler is currently my favorite truck tire. The particular size I chose also has a ridiculous payload rating.

F350_Tire_Rotation_001.jpg


I could use a shop just a bit bigger than this one for all my antics.

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It takes plenty of floor jacks to get this 4-ton beauty off the ground.

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You can safely skip the gym for a day after lugging a set of wheels an tires like this around.

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This Hunter road force balancer takes all the guesswork out of setting up the tires perfectly.

F350_Tire_Rotation_010.jpg


I expect several more years of service out of these tires, but when the time comes I'll be reaching out to DTD for more Nitto Ridge Grapplers.
 

ZYBORG

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Isnt this the truth. Just wasted beaucoup bucks having to replace the M/T’s on my truck that had more than 75% thread left. Vibration/wobble became unmanageable. All because I was too lazy to align AND rotate my tires properly. Hurt having to spend $$$ on a new set of tires so soon.

Wont make the same mistake again.
 

Black02GT

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Damn, going on another little road trip this weekend. Reminds me to bring it back to Sam's Club next weekend to rotate them on the 150. It's free but just never think to do it and honestly a lot of jack work to do at home on stands. Nice "Off-Road" tires wear really fast when you drive on the street like a jerk and don't rotate. I'd like to make it through the winter snow with good tread before I think of replacing before the winter after that. Laziness = $$$

Thanks for the reminder.
 

SonicDTR

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My rears always seem to wear much faster than the fronts...So I have a pretty good routine of rotating the fronts to the rear and buying new fronts once the rears are gone.
 

2001Bullitt

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I balanced and rotated my tires every 3k miles on my 12 F150. Got an almost new set of AMP Allterrains off market place for 300 bucks (around 1k new) because the guy couldn’t get them to balance.. well I had no issue. Put 50k on those things with towing the car all over the place. Smooth as could be. All about care and maintenance
 

Discount Tire

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Great call out Sid, rotation provides many benefits with even wear and maximizing tread life being towards the top.

We appreciate your continued support and look forward to serving you in the future!
 

Aeneas137

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Damn, going on another little road trip this weekend. Reminds me to bring it back to Sam's Club next weekend to rotate them on the 150. It's free but just never think to do it and honestly a lot of jack work to do at home on stands. Nice "Off-Road" tires wear really fast when you drive on the street like a jerk and don't rotate. I'd like to make it through the winter snow with good tread before I think of replacing before the winter after that. Laziness = $$$

Thanks for the reminder.

I have never been to a Sam's Club tire center that did the job correctly (visited 4 in towns nearby on the search for competence) so I stopped going there, get much better service at Les Schwab. You get what you pay for and free is not always free when the work is $#!T.
 

Black02GT

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I have never been to a Sam's Club tire center that did the job correctly (visited 4 in towns nearby on the search for competence) so I stopped going there, get much better service at Les Schwab. You get what you pay for and free is not always free when the work is $#!T.

I agree, I would think any one could rotate tire with a lift but I've been wrong before.
 

Rich B.

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Yes, indeedy, do that myself. In training for when I get a flat if ever with the Buick (yes, have AAA but won’t go that route). Boss is another story… only about 3,500 miles after almost a decade old. So buy a Mach I before I have to rotate, LMAO? Naw, in Maine the taxes, insurance and registration is outrageous for something seasonal here if driven at all. Side to side rotate only and yes, have spare for that but compares with compact size (Brembos the problem there for sizing). Too, fits tire well perfect. The air compressor that came with car… um okay.
 
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blk02edge

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Front/Rear swap vs. criss-crossing? Debate
I say criss cross is fine on a truck and a generic DD but not on a performance car. What sucks is staggered setups..

I've done every combo possible on all flavors of treadware performance tires to slicks. You aren't going to risk blowing a tire or any other crazy failure. Performance just drops off significantly.
 

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