Scotty’s videos are always amazing. However, I just watched the video of Scotty saying tire rotations are a waste of money, and I believe this statement to be the wrong message to the masses.
To start, while I was in the tire industry for many years, I moved to the software industry, so I have nothing to gain here. A very important item to note: If you buy your tires from most tire shops such as Goodyear, Firestone, Mavis, Tire Kingdom, etc, they will rotate your tires for free for the life of the tires as part of your original purchase/installation.
Secondly, if you don’t rotate tires on a front wheel drive car, the fronts will absolutely prematurely wear out faster. The opposite is obviously true for a rear-wheel drive truck. Additionally, the tires on the non-drive axle will succumb to heal-toe wear, resulting in noise disturbances at higher speeds as this uneven wear gets worse. Rotation to the drive axle smooths this wear condition out.
Thirdly, most tires have mileage warranties. If you don’t perform routine tire rotations, and the tires fall well short of their expected mileage warranty, the tire manufacturer will likely not provide any warranty credit toward a new set. They will ask to see rotation records.
Maintaining proper air pressure throughout the seasons, ensuring proper tire alignment, and routine tire rotations are what allows you to well exceed the mileage rating for your average quantity tires. I have been doing it for years, and I have inspected peoples’ tires who didn’t do this for many years in my past life. We don’t need more scrap tires. We can make tires last longer, and tire rotations are part of that. They don’t all get recycled. Please do the right thing and re-record this video with the proper information to the masses. Your are only right with vehicles that have staggered fitments.
Scotty saying tire rotations are a waste of money, and I believe this statement to be the wrong message to the masses.
It depends. I think there is a small benefit to rotating tires ... it does help them wear more evenly. So if you have spare time and rotate them yourself, then you can save yourself some money. But if you are paying somebody, then that cost very quickly adds up to the cost of a whole new set. Obviously if a shop offers the service as a courtesy then you may not have much to lose. On the other hand if it's a working vehicle, and taking it off the road means a loss of productivity for you, the benefits may vanish for you again.
if you don’t rotate tires on a front wheel drive car, the fronts will absolutely prematurely wear out faster. The opposite is obviously true for a rear-wheel drive truck.
I've been driving RWD vehicles for some time, and the fronts still wear out faster. This is likely because they are the steering wheels and always experience some amount of scrub.
They will ask to see rotation records.
I have never been asked for records when warrantying tires.
@imperator It's probably an abnormal pet peeve of mine, but for some reason when I see other people turning their tires in parking lots while stationary it's annoying to me. Haha. I try to anticipate turning in parking lots, etc. before actually making turns as much as possible to save on scrubbing. It probably doesn't make a noticeable difference, though. I'm in your boat. Only two cars of mine have been FWD, all others have been either RWD or a 4x4.
@justin-shepherd
doesn't matter if stationary or moving. When you turn around a corner at an intersection or bend in the road, only a narrow strip of the tire contact patch is matching the speed of the pavement. The inside of the tire rotates slightly faster, and the outside rotates slightly slower, leading to scrub. Not much, but multiply that by the millions of rotations the tire makes in it's lifetime. Not to mention that centrifugal forces deforms the tire sidewall slightly, rolling it, wearing down the shoulder.
@imperator Makes sense, now that I think about it again. That's why when you turn on smooth concrete, if you're turning hard enough, the tires will squeal. That reminds me of a big garsge my step dad was in when they measured the horsepower and torque on a dyno. The squealing tires is the scrubbing. I guess that's a brain fart, because I would have known that. The car's differential can only match the car's rate of turn where it first gets into the wheel, the rest of the tire is along for the ride, slightly rubbing the surface it's on.
yep exactly.
I think both the OP and Scotty’s logic is sound. And similar to MMJ said above.
Rotate them if it is free. But if you are paying for rotations, the math may work out, that by the time the tires are unevenly worn, it’s time for new tires. The money going to the rotations goes to the tires instead.
