Super Fast Rear Tire Wear

[Giller]

Originally Posted by jakeru

You guys ever try "flipping" your tires to enhance wear life? (inside out)?

I noticed the inside edges of both my fronts and my rears are getting noticeably more worn than the rest of the tread surface, so am contemplating having them all "flipped". I believe they are non-directional, but if they are directional, I can swap them left/right while flipping.

I already set the alignment up to get the minimum of the negative camber specification range on the rear, and maximum on the range on the front, so at least maybe my fronts and rears will wear a bit more evenly now.

I'm not willing to completely sacrifice good cornering performance only for the sake of extending tread life. (And if I got to that point in my rationale, I figure I would reconsider my car selection choice - one of the best handling cars potentially out there - with 8-10" wide rubber available in factory stock wheel/tire configuration(!) - anyway.)

Just curious if anyone here has had success flipping. Thx!

Believe they are directional. Looked into flipping my tires to get rid of some feathering - research seemed to suggest because they are directional, water would not channel properly through the tread and lead to potential hydro-planning.

Not sure if that is true, just what I found in my limited search. That being said, I don't drive my Box in the rain....

[alm001]

Originally Posted by Giller

Believe they are directional. Looked into flipping my tires to get rid of some feathering - research seemed to suggest because they are directional, water would not channel properly through the tread and lead to potential hydro-planning.

Not sure if that is true, just what I found in my limited search. That being said, I don't drive my Box in the rain....

You are talking about swapping wheels and tires side to side, he is talking about taking the tires off the wheels and swapping them so the insides are now on the outside, then swapping side to side. Direction of tire rotation will stay the same.

I have done this once on my old benz. Rears were 345/35/15 and the insides were toast. It got me a couple hundred miles. You definitely won't double the use of the tire.

[imon_2nd]

One more factor in rapid tire wear: worn suspension parts or wheel bearings. I've had this issue in several sports cars over the years. The increase in vibration can be too subtle and increases so gradually that you don't notice. Sometimes, the tire wears evenly across the tread, sometimes not.