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Tire Rotation

JJM

SM 2003
Full Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2002
Messages
102
Location
NW Indiana
I had my 3000 mile service today and asked that they rotate the tires. When I picked up the Avy, I noticed that they put the rears in the front, and the fronts on the rear - same side. (I had them marked ahead of time just to see)

The owners manual (for 2003) states that the rears go to the front same side and the fronts crossover and then go to the rear.

When I asked about this, I was informed that they always go front to back, back to front same side.

Any thoughts on this? I am not an engineer nor did I write the owners manual. However it seems to me that if GM wants it this way - their service departments should use the method advised by GM.

What do you all think? By-the-way, they did it the way I (and the manual) wanted after I asked.

Thanks...

JJM
 
Check out page 5-60 of your owners manual.....
GM says to bring the rears to the same side fronts...
The fronts go the opposite side rears.... Your right, your dealer is WRONG... Why! because the mechanic is lazy and does not want to take the extra 2 minutes to do the job right the first time, and the service advise does not want to say the mechanic was wrong......
Don't take it to the dealer, just do it your self... You may need to purchase some equipment to do it safely but its worth it in the long run.....
 
Actually for quite a while the only way that people would rotate radials was front to rear same side, then they started the rear-cross again. I still do mine front to rear same side and have had no problems with that.
 
i have directional tires, so i dont get a choice, need to just go frount to back....

havnt been able to rotate them myself yet tho. i HAD a 2 1/2 ton floor jack, cranked up the frount dirverside corner, and the avalanche crushed the jack! :eek: steel folded right up.

guess i put more accessories on the truck then i thought :rolleyes:
 
i rotate mine front to back same side .ive had problems with the modifed-x pattern with flipping belts in a tire on several different times.
just my 2cents
 
20 or more years ago, when radial tires were "new." the rule was to never reverse the rotation of a tire, which meant they would always need to stay on the same side of the vehicle. The reversing of rotation would cause the belts to break in some of these early tires. Needles to say times and tires have changed and what used to be true, just isn't true anymore, however some of these ideas die hard. The idea now is to rotate the tires as specified in the owner's manual. That way all tires eventually get to all locations on the vehicle. It is a sad that there is still so much mis-information accepted as fact in the automotive world. Generally the engineers that designed your vehicle and wrote the owner's manual know much more than the guy that changes the oil and rotates tires at the local garage! Rotating tires for eight hours per day does not make you a tire expert, although many would like you to believe it does.
 
FWIW,
The problem really only occurred in America, and only because the American tire manufacturers tried to manufacture (those new-fangled) radial tires on the same machines they had been manufacturing cross-ply tires on. As the engineers (who the rest of the world believed, go figure) had been telling them, that didn't work too well. The 'problem' went away when they re-tooled. If they'd done that these days, can you imagine the lawsuits?
 
j75player said:
i have directional tires, so i dont get a choice, need to just go frount to back....

havnt been able to rotate them myself yet tho. i HAD a 2 1/2 ton floor jack, cranked up the frount dirverside corner, and the avalanche crushed the jack! :eek: steel folded right up.

guess i put more accessories on the truck then i thought :rolleyes:

2.5 ton = 5000 lbs.
Curb weight of Av = 6000 lbs (roughly)

You said you cranked up the front driverside corner... which to me means only 1 wheel. But for argument's sake , let's say you jacked up the whole front end.... That would be (at a minimum) 3000 lbs.
Are you telling me you have over 2000 lbs of accessories on the front of your truck? ;D More than likely, your jack was somehow compromised.... rust? Not sitting level?

Your lift, bull bar, and Yakima MegaWarrior don't weigh THAT much. ;D
 
accualy, according to the dealership, av's GVW is about 7000Lbs. and with the addition of 5-125Lbs tires, and lift and other gear....i'm guessing she weighs somewhere arend 8000 Lbs....
i'm going to swing buy a truck stop if i get time to see if i can confirm it..
 
That 7000 lbs includes the standard payload of 1322 lbs. That would put the curb weight of a stock 1500 4x4 at 5678 lbs. I thought I was being generous allowing for a curb weight of 6000 lbs. Assuming your Av is fully loaded with all the heavy options you can get... You are correct, I forgot your 5 125 lb tires (625 lbs) ... but how much do the stock tries weigh? You'd need to subtract those.

I'm pretty sure this is how the GVWR numbers work, but I could be wrong... can anyone verify?
 
Rewbob said:
That 7000 lbs includes the standard payload of 1322 lbs.
I'm pretty sure this is how the GVWR numbers work, but I could be wrong... can anyone verify?

You are correct, sir!
 
I try to consult the manual for service items before taking my truck in for service. As smart as *some* of these service folks think they are, usually when I question them on their suggesting service outside of what the manual states (or in this case HOW the manual states), they rarely have a good reason for wanting to do it their way. I do hear them out as I believe there *could* be better info than in the manual, but when in doubt, the manual trumps a service advisor or manager as far as I'm concerned.

With something as simple, black and white, cut and dry as tire rotation, there is NO EXCUSE for a service department suggesting anything other than what is in the manual (they even usually put pictures/diagrams in there to really make it easy). I shouldn't have to request that they follow the manufacturer's recommendation BEFORE the service :rolleyes:

JMO
Rich
 
Big_Don said:
...what used to be true, just isn't true anymore, however some of these ideas die hard. The idea now is to rotate the tires as specified in the owner's manual. That way all tires eventually get to all locations on the vehicle. ...

What Big Don said....

However, I do notice some radial pull sometimes after performing the rotation according to the manual. Nothing serious, and I've grown used to it... It usually disappears after a bit. The tires have been wearing nice and even all around....
 
Why rotate at all? So, two tires wear out sooner than the other. It's easier on the pocket book to replace two tires at a time, then all four at once. Or am I missing something here and there's a significant benefit to rotating? Please set me straight. Thanks!
 
The tires will last longer with rotation. Trust me on this... MANY MANY moons of vehicle ownership.... Tire rotation is easier on the wallet.....
 
When you go out to buy these big tires, I bet you will wish you had rotated them and took better care of them.

Butch
 
btrav said:
Why rotate at all? So, two tires wear out sooner than the other. It's easier on the pocket book to replace two tires at a time, then all four at once. Or am I missing something here and there's a significant benefit to rotating? Please set me straight. Thanks!

Way back when I was first married and no money (before radials BTW) that's exactly what I did, and why. But back then I was running re-caps. Good for about 10 -12k miles. :cautious:
 
When you rotate the tires wear evenly and enhance braking and perfomance as a whol around the vehicle.....

So on in the long run you will spend less money on tires because they will actually last longer and have less tread wear......ALso a balance done every 10-12K helps too....
 
I have rotated my tires the way that the owners manual states - back to front, front to opposite rears -for many many yrs (20+) and have had no tire problems.

I just got new tires for the Av, 48.5K on the stock GY tires!
 
For the cars that I've owned, I typically rotated the tires maybe every 12-15,000 miles and would get 50-60,000 miles on a set of tires. I had planned on doing the same with the AV but after seening so many folks on this site complain about having to replace their tires in 25-40,000 miles, I started to get a new religion about rotating the AV tires. I've been rotating them per the owners manual every 6,000 miles. I'm a tick short of 30,000 miles and they look like they have another 30,000 miles left. I did have to buy a 3-ton jack but I got it on sale for under $30.
 
But I don't want the same tires on my Av for that long. I need an excuse to get new ones. >:D (y)
 
So the front to swapped back adn rears to the front is correct?
Let me know-
 
sands611 said:
So the front to swapped back adn rears to the front is correct?
Let me know-

yes, except cross the fronts to opposite sides when moving to the back. At least that's what the manual says.

Got mine rotated this week (no balance). Noticed a little bounce in the front between 70-80mph. Guessing this is from uneven wear, and not the balance? Logic tells me that if balanced before the rotation, they should remain balanced after rotated.

Any experts care to comment on this?
 
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