Ok, I need to get new tires for my wife's wagon. We have a set of 5 wrx wheels for that car, so it has a full-size spare and we rotate through all 5 tires so they'll last a bit longer. The tires I am looking at getting are either Continental ContiExtremeContact or Avon Tech M550 A/S, both are directional. Now with 5 tires, rotating them evenly, they can't always be on the same side of the car. I don't mind running them all backwards, I don't think that hurts performance much, but would it be bad (or dangerous) to run the tires in different directions? (as in needing to put the spare on the wrong side, etc)... My thought it that it would be ok, I'd keep them all running the same direction when rotating the tires, and if she gets a flat she'll be ok to make it home and then we can re-rotate the tires again. Any thoughts? Thanks for any advice. Joel
id just skip putting the spare into the rotation. too confusing to remember which was where last. a directional the wrong way will give you way less traction.
less traction and they make HeLla niose. the tires were designed to go in 1 direction, so i would make sure they go in that direction. you would loose alot of predictability by runnign the tires in a way they are supposed to turn. you can test it out. put the tires on and drive realy fast in reverse. jk, lol.
Although Martin's opinion sounds like it's right, I think it would be okay to run directional tires in reverse on dry roads. A tire's tread is still tire tread. But just don't drive in the rain or else you'll be hydroplaning everywhere. All the water the tire contacts will be pushed into the middle of the tire. Not good when you need to get somewhere fast. And yes, keep the spare out of the rotation. It's just too confusing for both you and/or the installer.
Thanks. I had heard in the past that most directional tires lost only marginal performance running in reverse. But there seems to be a lot of debate on this. Some people claim you'll ruin the tires, some people say their Avons run better in reverse... Anyway, I guess it'd probably be best to get a symetric tread pattern, even just for liability reasons, now that I think of it. Rotating with 5 tires is no problem, the spare always goes on the right-rear and the tire destined for the right-rear is the new spare. That way as the tires wear the spare is always the right diameter and there's no risk running it in any position.
well, is that still true for newer consumer tires? I think it's just the tread itself that is directional. The problem of tread separation has been solved for non-directional tires, why would they still use an old design for directional tires?
What is your facination with getting drectional tires and running them backwards? Just get some non-directional tires.
Fo! Sho! i have heard from experienced people that running direcrional tires in teh wrong direction is not pleasent. the road noise you get is horrendous. also think about the tread pattern it was designed to be on the ground in a certain way (uber important fro water stuff) and when it doesnt go that way it wont work right. think what will happen when you drive in the rain (dont tell me your gonna not drive in teh rain) you tires will instead of displacing water out, wil be pulling water in. get non directinal or run in the correct direction (like everyone else)
Fascination? yeah,, that' it... :roll: Two of the tires in my price range that I liked happened to be directional. I'm not going out of my way to be difficult or anything, I was just wondering how big of a deal it was to run them backwards. I guess pretty big... Anyway, as I said in my second post, I'll go look for other tires. sheesh.
agreed. I really dont understand this thread at all or why you would ever want to do this. buy some azenis and be done with it.
That is noy safe at all! The winding of the steel in the tire is for one direction and could delaminate the tire if run backwards. In adition to that, if run in the rain it will not pump the water out and will lead to hydoplaning issues. I wouldn't ride in it and you want to put your wife in there? :roll: The owners manuel shows the proper rotation to att the spare into the process.
how we use to do it at Tires plus for directional tires on a awd front left to rear left and front right to rear right...vice versa
well, as a test i suggest you swap both fronts to the wrong side. then go out and hit a few big corners. slowly at first then take them faster.. note the speed of your car right as you understeer into the ditch. swap the tires arround the correct way, take the same corners and watch in amazement as you are able to keep the car shiny side up going 20% faster into the corners.
