I have some Toyo Proxes and on each tire is the word "Rotation" and the arrow in which it should rotate. Does that mean I can only rotate the front ones to back and not the other side? Just wondering if that would be suffice whenever I would rotate them. How often should I rotate them anyway? I might just rotate it every time I change oil (3000 miles).

 

Yes, you should only rotate them F-R if they have that arrow. As for mileage, it really depends upon alignment and your uses, and you might want to check with Toyo to be sure.

I do mine (Kumho Supra 712's, soon to be Falken Azenis) at 3k with the oil changes, just because the car is already in the air, and because my custom alignment eats fronts pretty quickly, and because on a FWD car the fronts are naturally going to wear out more quickly anyway. But I know plenty of folks who do it every 6k instead, with the same (or similar) tires.

Which Proxes exactly- FZ4, T1S, RA1, etc? I might be able to find a suggested rotation interval online somewhere, or in old documentation...

Hope that helps,

Jon

 

If they're RA-1's or T1-S, they can be run in any direction, as long as you're not running them in the wet. If this is for a daily driver, then make sure you're facing them the right way.

Warren

 

If they're RA-1s (the track compound) then it really doesn't matter. Flip them on the rim, swap from side to side...makes no difference. For the street tires I don't know. But my street tires (Bridgestone RE-730) are very much directional in nature and would probably suck in the rain run "backwards."

 

Since I am the way I am, I ALWAYS spot directional tires pointed in the wrong direction on unsuspecting cars. The incompetence of some tire shops has me worried. It's gotta be like a parachute for standing water.

 

Kumho V700s are all left handed. As long as the wide tread is on the outside, you are ok.

 

As Al alluded to, sometimes it doesn't matter. (I haven't seen a right-side-marked Kumho V700 in years!) But for street tires, I think it does matter. They are usually marked according to how the tread is supposed to pull water away from the road surface, which is exactly why I wouldn't run a marked street tire backwards... what happens if one side doesn't clear water away as well as the other? Whoopsie, hope you have both hands on the steering wheel when you hit that big puddle, because it's gonna twitch big-time.

But you're right, Mike. Many tire changers don't give a rat's *** about those markings. Part of it is the fact that they aren't paid enough to care. But I still believe the markings are on there for a reason... and should be followed accordingly. Who are we to question the actions of billion-dollar tire companies anyway?

Jon

 

I don't know, but the first thing that comes to mind is that rolling refrigerator known as the Ford Explorer?

 

And that time you noticed my back-***-wards RE-71s? I guess that's what I get for having a [very reputable] Mustang shop put Eibachs on a Honda ('cause I didn't know how to way back then).

 

hey, my Khumo's have "R"'s on them. i think....

 

Which Proxes? T1 should rotate correctly, V's in a forward pointing spin. RA-1 doesn't really matter, the pattern is cosmetic and worn off shortly, leaving circumferential grooves. Direction on unidirectionals is always for wet traction, in the dry it wouldn't matter.

Gary

 

Aren't some tires constructed unidirectionally? ie, their internal casing design is built to be run in one direction at speed?

 

Street tires, generally no; competition, sometimes, i.e. pro drag tires? It gets expensive making two molds for a tire that needs L/R AND A/B, i.e. directionally spun and asymmetric.

Either the casing plies splice (loopover joint; old Yoke RS A/B pairs) or tread splice (Kumho Victoracer lateral separation anomaly) created conditions where you wanted the torque direction to keep the splice together (e.g. rolling a roll of tp), these days most of those issues have been addressed, note that Kumho now only sells one mold of the Victoracer -> / <- pair.


[Modified by 4WDrift, 8:24 PM 12/31/2001]

 

The Hoosiers that we run have direction arrows that are labeled Left Side and Right Side Rotation so you can in fact use them on both sides but aren't suppsed to flip them on the rim... which of course we do anyway (for driver's ed and not races, of course). Then again, Hoosiers weren't the tires in question.