New tires on the rear

[Paul G]

I have been reading that when replacing only two tires the new tires should be mounted on the rear. It makes sense after watching the video.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/how-to/repair/6-common-tire-myths-debunked-10031440

Then I ask myself how about when time to rotate and the rears are still in better shape than the front? This will be the case for front drive cars especially. Does this mean to always keep the best tires on the rear?

[Musicman]

I haven't seen the video, but common sence tells me that if you have 4 bad balding (high milage) tires, you replace the ones on the back first for better grip, and get to the fronts ASAP. If you had 4 "fairly new" (very low milage) tires, and one has been damaged, put the new set on the front, and they'll be ready come rotation time.

Myth No.5 is one of my personal favorites.

[Iceyone]

Now I know why Walmart had to do some kind of waiver when I bought a new pair of tires for the front of my truck a couple of weeks ago.

[JB400]

Front does all the steering and the braking.  A good driver can recover a vehicle if the rearend is sliding around with the front tires and a little throttle, but it is awful hard to steer the front wheels with only good rear tires.

[Cooter]

You should see the BS State Inspectors have to deal with when it comes to tires. One would THINK that a soccer mom, with Five babay seats in her Big ole SUV would want decent tires on it. This isn't the case. She spent way more on her Smart Phone than she budgeted for S.I. and now she needs tires.(Should have all 4). However, she begins to complain about how she can't afford them right now, and was trying to hope and pray that these would just pass inspection long enough for her to save enough for tires.

Truth: She was hoping these half bald turds would pass again this year as she hasn't bought tires in over 3 years. If it weren't for S.I. she wouldn't put tires or anything else on it for that matter.

So, she comes back in the shop with some USED, Junkyard, sh*t tires. Barely enough to pass S.I., but surely the guy at the junkyard who's NOT a State Inspector and doesn't know the laws, told her they will pass S.I. She comes in with them in the back. As soon as air is inflated in them, out pops a "knot" where damage occurred in the wreck they were in. She is furious at this point. Because in trying to save a few bucks by buying junk, she now has to go BACK to the junkyard, buy more and roll the dice again.


All this, and there's those baby seats in the car the whole time.....You would NOT believe what people in this economy have their families riding around on for tires.
That's why those STUPID tire monitoring systems came about. All because some stupid chick/dude didn't check their tires before a trip, got out on the Interstate and Crashed. I can almost hear it now...."Well, there shoulda been a warning light or something"....Right, there needs to be a light to tell your stupid ass to use common sense....I guess common sense ain't so common anymore. These "Myths" are proof.

You know there are people out there that will buy a High Performance car/truck, with tires that are like "Z" rated for like 120 MPH and try to buy cheaper tires like an "S" rating on them?? Here, it's unlawful to replace any tire on a high performance vehicle with tires of lesser performance. Cheaper or not. Like a damn Mercedes owner going to Wal-Mart for oil changes. You wouldn't believe.

[Dino]

If it's all the same to you guys, I'll just replace all 4.  I don't f**k around with tires, regardless of what car I'm in.

[duanesterrr]

I run a all season set for 9 months and blizzaks for the other 3.  For the all season set I replace all 4 at the same time.  The blizzaks I replace 2 every couple years and keep the good ones up front (front wheel drive car).  I have been keeping the new ones up front on the blizzaks for years and have no problems at all.

The all season set I usually leave probably 10k miles left on them when replaced.  I don't like the idea of being in a torrential downpour and having shotty tires. 

[odcics2]

If it's all the same to you guys, I'll just replace all 4.  I don't f**k around with tires, regardless of what car I'm in.

[Paul G]

Doesn't make much sense to me to replace all four tires when one pair was replaced shortly before I purchased the truck and are in great shape, just so I can start with a new set of four.

[Dino]

Doesn't make much sense to me to replace all four tires when one pair was replaced shortly before I purchased the truck and are in great shape, just so I can start with a new set of four.

Of course not, that's not what I meant.  If they're good they're good.  The reason I said what I did is because when all 4 are bald and you only buy 2 to replace the worst then you're playing with fire.  I never meant to say that's what you were doing, but you and I know there's plenty out there that do just this.  I know tires ae expensive but what I see on the road sometimes is just not acceptable.

[Lord Warlock]

Maybe its different up north, but down here in the south, we'd rather have good tread up front than out back,  I usually replace the front tires before the back ones,  as the fronts wear down a bit, i move them to the back and get a new set for the front, primarily to allow me to steer in the rain or on wet roads.  Around here it rains hard enough on a regular basis to experience hydroplaning while going 70mph, and when it happens in 4 lanes of traffic, it gets kinda hairy.  When I start to experience the car losing traction in the rain and not steering properly, thats when i change tires.  I'm currently just about ready to replace my original 20 inch tires on my challenger because it hydroplaned on me a few weeks back.  Using the penny/nickel measureing method,  the tread is slightly deeper than what is recommended to change, but bald enough to steer poorly in a hard rain,  its ok on normal wet roads but during downpours its getting dangerous enough to be nervous. 

Right now i'm waiting on delivery of a set of wheels i bought for the charger, that i'd like to test fit on the challenger before buying new tires.  Probably won't fit, but i gotta try anyway. 

[HPP]

A good driver can recover a vehicle if the rearend is sliding around with the front tires and a little throttle,

Therein is the rub, because of all the automated features on new cars, there are a lot of drivers who think they are good, but really aren't. Unfortunately, they don't find out until they are in that panic mode and a lot is at stake.