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Tire Rotation
How many miles are folks rotating their S/T tires? I’m assuming there is no rotation of the D tires.
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8 Replies
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With the rubbing effect on outside edges of tag axle tires I’am becoming a little concerned about moving tags to front.
Take a good look at these pictures of tread separation in tag axle mounted tires. Inspection of edges seems to be really important to catch a suspect tire. Referance…. Sids tire post.
If my steer axle tires are wearing evenly then why do I want to move a tag tire from a really tough service location to my steer axle ?
BTW…..Michelin 365’s are national back order, again.
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From experience I can tell you that tag axles are the final resting ground of tires. Usually the best tires end up on the steer axle. Tires that are formally on the steer axle, but are being replaced with newer ones generally end up on the tag axle.
This whole tire situation has been screwed up by the use of two different size tires on our coaches. If all the tires are the same size usually a tire with an uneven wear pattern can be placed on the drive and it has a tendency to get the pattern eliminated or at least improved. The tag has been the axle folks put tires near their end of life. Having said that I know from experience that if a steer tire with an unusual wear pattern such as edge scalloping gets placed on the tag the wear and the pattern will accelerate. The tag axle is hard on tires that are not true.
With 2 sizes of tires I don’t think we have much flexibility on moving tires around, and usually not moving tires from the tag to the steer unless it is for temporary purposes, such as to replace a flat to get to where the tires can be repaired or replaced.
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I basically agree with Jon. Our bus has 365 on steer and tag. I made that change in 2007, so all 365 tires were dated as of 2007. Then changed steers in 2012, 2 years later changed out tag by placing new steer tires again in 2014, and moving the 2 steer tires that were only 2 years old to the tag. Again replaced the steers in 2016, moving the 2 steer tires to the tag. Reason for that is one of the tags had pattern I did not like in 2016, so wanted to take both tags off of the bus in 2016. Now am running almost new steers, and 2 year old tag. The drive tires were replaced in 2014, and as of now have to plan to replace i nthe very near future.
I do not “rotate tires” except to replace.
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Let’s say you have strange wear patterns on your front 365s steer. Nothing serious but continued use will increase the strange pattern. Shocks are new so take that out of this question. You have the front end parts inspected and all are serviceable. Your at the cross roads point that you feel alignment is the next move.
Question: Would you swap the 2 front steers side by side ? You have 80% service left on these tires, inspection shows no cuts, rips, tears or snares on either tire.
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I have no idea have valid this information or dvice is, but I will repeat what the two alignment techs at Nashville Prevost told me.
I had bad tie rod ends and replaced the tie rod. I measured the tie rod removed and duplicated its length on the one that replaced it. But I felt a slight unusual wear pattern on the steer tire on that side so I scheduled an alignment. The tech found a drag link end with some play so that was replaced prior to the alighment.
When the alignment was complete the question was what to do about the fact one steer tire has a wear pattern that could be sensed by feeling the tread, but that could not be seen. The answer was to do nothing. Leave it where it was. They did agree a tire with an unusual wear pattern did not belong on the tag, and since the tire was a 365 it stayed on the steer and it has been 10,000 plus miles and I can no longer sense or see anything to indicate the tire did have unusual wear at one time.
Their opinion appears to have been good advice and unless a steer tire has real damage from wear I would just make sure the front end components are tight, the alignment is good and just keep running the tires where they are rather than putting them on the tag. My steers and tags are the same age so I don’t know what to do if the ages are staggered with the older ones really needing to be on the tag I guess if the wear pattern is not too bad it might be OK.
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Al, I also had the same question. Though there was no answer here, I did finally find in the Prevost maintenance manual that it is ok to swap steers side to side. And I’m going to do that when I change out the rotors in a couple weeks.
Edit: here is the language from the manual.
Radial tires should be rotated only when necessary. If the tires are wearing evenly, there is no need to rotate. If irregular wear becomes apparent or if the wear rate is perceptively different (from axle to axle), then tires should be rotated in such a manner to alleviate the problem. NOTE: There is no restriction on criss-cross rotation.
So, criss-cross rotation, to me, means it’s ok to reverse the direction that the tire turns when moving forward.
This is from section 13 (wheels, hubs, and tires) page 6 of the manual that came with the bus, i.e. 1994.
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How about this scenario. No unusual wear on steers. Rotate to tag at 3 years and new steers. Replace drives as needed or timed out. This way you would have new steers every 3 years (IMHO the most important placement). I have all 315’s however I don’t think this would be different for those running 2 different sizes.
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Never had a problem with 315’s…only 365’s and we’re by far not the only ones. Geo.
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