5 tire rotation questions

[GregsFX2Ranger]

How would you rotate the spare? Its typically NOT the exact tire as the other 4 on the truck.

Mine says "full size spare tire", but its not the same as the others.

I did a comparison of mine (pdf)

Sponsored

 

[Radioman]

How would you rotate the spare? Its typically NOT the exact tire as the other 4 on the truck.

I assume the OP was buying a new wheel and tire the same size as the other 4. You are right, I would not rotate in a tire of a different size.

 

[GTGallop]

This is the rotation I use on my Jeep. 5 tire rotation will give you 20% more tire life on a full set.

It also costs 20% more because you buy 5 tires at once instead of 4.

But yes - thank you for posting. This is my preferred rotation pattern.

 

[dapakattack]

I bought an extra wheel off of ebay that matched the other 4, bought the sensor off of tpms.com which came pre-programmed for my Ranger, and bought a matching tire from Wal-Mart (lucked out and saved $50 because it was on clearance) which they put the sensor in and mounted. Followed Discount Tires 5 wheel rotation pattern. Did my first rotation when the truck hit 5K and will follow that schedule (going to do my oil changes at that time too).

 

[Cabose-1]

TPMS?

 

[Radioman]

It also costs 20% more because you buy 5 tires at once instead of 4.

That's true Greg but when 4-wheeling by myself way out in the boondocks, if I need a spare tire, I don't one that has been sitting on the rear of the Jeep for a long time because I didn't replace it with the other four on the ground. Time will deteriorate a tire over time even if it never touches the ground.

Anyway, that's what I do but that may not be the best decision for others.

Edit: If rotating all five using the diagram above, you only need to jack up one corner of the vehicle at a time.

 

[Dave1899]

Here is another question, about how many miles should one go before rotating?

I always rotate every other oil change.

 

[dapakattack]

TPMS?

Tire Pressure Monitoring System. Each tire has a sensor.

 

[slowmachine]

Discount Tire also recommends replacing any tires that are 6 years old. This nixes leaving the spare up under there forever.

Ford also advises replacement after six years, regardless of tread wear, and states that heat caused by hot climates or frequent high loading conditions can accelerate the aging process and require tires to be replaced more frequently. See the Ranger owner's manual tire section.

 

[slowmachine]

I am convinced that the dissimilar full-size spare is simply a cost-cutting measure. I run five matching wheels and tires with TPMS, and rotate all five. There are a couple of long threads, one that I started, about how the Ranger auto-detects the fifth TPMS sensor after tire rotations. It seems to work for most people, but some report problems that can be fixed with an inexpensive reset tool. I can't imagine getting help from the Ford dealer with this, as it is an unsupported configuration. It works flawlessly for me.

People seem mostly concerned about the cost of purchasing five tires instead of four. I think that cost per mile is a better measure. If you go 25% farther between tire replacements, then you break even on the tire cost. The cost of the extra wheel and TPMS sensor will likely never be recovered. A tire sitting unused in the spare carrier until it rots out from age doesn't sit well with me. I paid for the tire, and I want to get some use out of it. I hate waste.

I usually do my own rotations. It takes far less time for me to rotate, inspect, and clean all five than it does for me to drive to a shop and pay for it. If you live in snow country, where the roads are treated with salt and sand in winter, the spare can accumulate an incredible amount of dried-on debris. The nature of the chemicals makes it difficult to clean the lug nut seats to a point where I feel confident that the torque specification is satisfactory. With all-terrain tires, I have been doing this every 2,000 miles, but am now going to extend that to 2,500 to sync with 5000 mile oil changes. More aggressive off-road tires often (if not always) need more frequent rotations to avoid abnormal tread wear that significantly shortens the life of the tires.

I like to rebalance tires about every 10,000 miles, so I recently took the Ranger to the Ford dealer for balancing and an alignment check with just under 13,000 miles on the odometer. All five tires needed new weights. The free alignment check showed that there was no adjustment needed. The Ford dealer charged me a flat price of $59.95 for four tires, and $15.95 for the additional tire.

 

[66F100]

Not trying to argue but hear me out.

Using your logic I could do a six, seven, or eight tire rotation "set". And the results would be the same. I wouldn't increase the tread life on the individual tire, no matter how many tires I choose to rotate with as a "set". I would only increase the amount of time those tires are on the truck, by a proportion directly related to the number of tires ex; six tires would give me 150% longer time in service. You aren't actually extending tread life you are just extending the amount of time you can run that particular tire. Which gives the environment more time to do all the bad things it does to exposed rubber, which you seem to understand. I would think using a tire up quickly but managing it's wear and tear during service - proper inflation, rotation, inspection - is the best way to achieve maximum tire efficiency not, extending the total amount of time that each tire is in service by uninstalling and reinstalling later.

I do understand your argument about waste but, do you use the emergency jack and lug wrench for tire rotations? No, because they are there for emergencies. Same with the spare tire. A prudent and safe owner inspects there spare and other emergency equipment regularly and replaced as needed but, doesn't necessarily put it into service.

As far as Jeep rotations go, I think the primary reasons are for looks and serious off-roading. Looks, because they want that tire and wheel hanging off the back to match the rolling stock on the thing. Off-roading, because they want the same performance from the spare tire since they may replace a tire on the trail every few days and need that tire to help get them home. Which is why our trucks have a full size spare. It can handle what your normal tires can in case you blow a tire while towing, hauling, or off road.

Not trying to argue or be condescending - there is plenty of that in this world - just educate and communicate. And if there is something I missed, please let me know I am more than happy to change my mind on tire rotation!

 

[slowmachine]

Not trying to argue but hear me out.

Using your logic I could do a six, seven, or eight tire rotation "set". And the results would be the same. I wouldn't increase the tread life on the individual tire, no matter how many tires I choose to rotate with as a "set". I would only increase the amount of time those tires are on the truck, by a proportion directly related to the number of tires ex; six tires would give me 150% longer time in service. You aren't actually extending tread life you are just extending the amount of time you can run that particular tire. Which gives the environment more time to do all the bad things it does to exposed rubber, which you seem to understand. I would think using a tire up quickly but managing it's wear and tear during service - proper inflation, rotation, inspection - is the best way to achieve maximum tire efficiency not, extending the total amount of time that each tire is in service by uninstalling and reinstalling later.

I do understand your argument about waste but, do you use the emergency jack and lug wrench for tire rotations? No, because they are there for emergencies. Same with the spare tire. A prudent and safe owner inspects there spare and other emergency equipment regularly and replaced as needed but, doesn't necessarily put it into service.

As far as Jeep rotations go, I think the primary reasons are for looks and serious off-roading. Looks, because they want that tire and wheel hanging off the back to match the rolling stock on the thing. Off-roading, because they want the same performance from the spare tire since they may replace a tire on the trail every few days and need that tire to help get them home. Which is why our trucks have a full size spare. It can handle what your normal tires can in case you blow a tire while towing, hauling, or off road.

Not trying to argue or be condescending - there is plenty of that in this world - just educate. And if there is something I missed, please let me know I am more than happy to change my mind on tire rotation!

Reasoned discussion is always welcome.

We all have different expectations in usage and performance of our vehicles. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Ford has provided, I assume, what they believe is the "common denominator" for the basic Ranger, at a price that they think will satisfy most buyers. They don't provide everything that everyone wants, but they do a reasonable job of providing the most basic needs.

All of what you say is true, for some usage scenario, but not universally true.

The 6-8 tire rotation "set" is only reasonable if off-car storage is available and affordable for the extra tires. The truck can carry five. The rest need to be somewhere, and that "somewhere" has a cost. You can only "use" five at a time without incurring extra cost. It is usually reasonable to expect 5-6 years of safe use from modern tires before aging would cause me to consider replacing a tire with safely usable tread, so any number of wheel/tire sets would work equally well, as long as the useful tread were consumed before aging-out. I have 10 wheels and tires for the Ranger. Four all-season tires plus the dissimilar spare for summer, and five snow-rated wheels and tires for winter. The second set consumes space, at a cost which is justified by the different tire requirements for winter use.

I do not use the emergency jack and lug wrench for regular rotations in my garage. I have a floor jack for that. If I lived in an apartment complex with no garage, a reasonably flat parking space, and were permitted to do so, I guarantee that I could accomplish a rotation with the included tools. Would I? Probably not, unless it were an urgent issue that couldn't wait for me to drive to a shop and pay for a rotation. One situation that might fit that description is where one of the tires was punctured and DIY-plugged (not uncommon off-road and out in the boonies) and I need to get somewhere before normal tire shops are open for business. I'm OK with a plugged tire in the spare carrier, or on the rear axle if not towing, but never on the front.

My expectations are satisfied by having a fully-capable spare that allows me to continue my trip without altering the handling or load-carrying characteristics. I do pay for roadside assistance service on my insurance policy, and would not hesitate to call for help if I could not safely change the tire. This scenario is common in rural areas such as mine, where there the pavement extends about six inches past the paint line at the edge of the road, and the ground is neither flat nor free of trees. The Ford factory scenario, where a tire that is merely close in size, and maybe not at all close in tread design, is good enough get to a tire shop, within the 50 MPH speed limit on the tire label, towing a trailer, is simply not good enough for me. I think there is a smarter way to do it, and that is by having a fifth matching wheel and tire hanging under the bed. If there is enough space and load capacity in the trailer for an additional tire, or tires, I might even bring them along for the ride.

I have owned four Jeeps, and driven many more during my military service. Since the beginning, there has never been space, or an attempt to create space, under the body, for a spare tire. The spares always match the road tires. The rear tire carrier is not cosmetic. If you have ever tried to change a tire in challenging terrain, you'll understand how hazardous and time-consuming it is to extract the spare from beneath the vehicle. There is no comparison to a pickup truck that is primarily designed for on-road use.

 

[OrangeStreak]

When I started driving it was fairly common to get the 5 rotated on request. On most vehicles all 5 were matching tires and wheels making them interchangeable. The introduction of donuts (spares with dissimilar tires and wheels) eliminated that. We could get more mileage on the whole set of originals by spreading it out over the 5. When I needed tires would buy 4 new and use the best existing tire for the spare. Then only rotate the ground ones from then on. There was no problem with the spare getting too old to be safe, because I would always trade vehicles before that happened.

Fortunately, the set of BFG K02's that I upgraded to on the Ranger came with a spare which was a duplicate of the other 4 ground tires except with a black wheel. I will need to get a TPMS and a wheel for the spare that matches the other 4 if I want go to the 5 rotation method...but at this point don't feel for myself it would be practical. The Ranger manual says to rotate the tires at each oil change. My policy is to change oil every 5000 and always do rotations at the same time.

 

[OrangeStreak]

Not trying to argue but hear me out.

Using your logic I could do a six, seven, or eight tire rotation "set". And the results would be the same. I wouldn't increase the tread life on the individual tire, no matter how many tires I choose to rotate with as a "set". I would only increase the amount of time those tires are on the truck, by a proportion directly related to the number of tires ex; six tires would give me 150% longer time in service. You aren't actually extending tread life you are just extending the amount of time you can run that particular tire. Which gives the environment more time to do all the bad things it does to exposed rubber, which you seem to understand. I would think using a tire up quickly but managing it's wear and tear during service - proper inflation, rotation, inspection - is the best way to achieve maximum tire efficiency not, extending the total amount of time that each tire is in service by uninstalling and reinstalling later.

I do understand your argument about waste but, do you use the emergency jack and lug wrench for tire rotations? No, because they are there for emergencies. Same with the spare tire. A prudent and safe owner inspects there spare and other emergency equipment regularly and replaced as needed but, doesn't necessarily put it into service.

As far as Jeep rotations go, I think the primary reasons are for looks and serious off-roading. Looks, because they want that tire and wheel hanging off the back to match the rolling stock on the thing. Off-roading, because they want the same performance from the spare tire since they may replace a tire on the trail every few days and need that tire to help get them home. Which is why our trucks have a full size spare. It can handle what your normal tires can in case you blow a tire while towing, hauling, or off road.

Not trying to argue or be condescending - there is plenty of that in this world - just educate and communicate. And if there is something I missed, please let me know I am more than happy to change my mind on tire rotation!

Justin, I agree. Hopefully everyone can read and consider other's opinions and perspectives without getting defensive, critical and argumentative about it. We come from a variety of environments and lifestyles which means we will look at things differently. This is a Ranger Forum created to share ideas, learn new things and have some fun in the process

 

[66F100]

Justin, I agree. Hopefully everyone can read and consider other's opinions and perspectives without getting defensive about it. We come from a variety of environments and lifestyles which means we will look at things differently. This is a Ranger Forum created to share ideas, learn new things and have some fun in the process

Absolutely! He can slash holes in his tires every 1000 miles if he wants to. What do I care?! I say to each their own. Kinda why I don't bother giving my opinion on how often to rotate tires or change fluids. Everyone has their own opinion and their own money, spend it how you choose.
From a financial standpoint your example from yesteryear makes the most sense to me. But it didn't involve the initial purchase of a matching spare so there's that. In all honesty I thought I was missing something and wanted to put my thoughts into words.
I will be purchasing a set of aftermarket wheels and tires soon for better street performance so my stock stuff will be for the winter snow and salt.

Sponsored