All this talk about rotation direction and the early radials tendency to
failure reminds me of when I was working in a service station (remember
those?) in the '70s. I had a lady pull in with a brand new T-bird with a low
front tire. I could hear air hissing from the tire and stupid me I ran my
hand around the tread to see where the leak was. These were Firestone
radials. As I ran my hand around I ran into where the tire had chunked out a
good size piece of tread. The steel belts were exposed and I pulled back a
bloody hand. Then it dawned on me that Firestone had a big problem with
their steel belted radials throwing the tread. As the car was new I told her
to take it back to the dealer and let them deal with it. I never ran my hand
around any tires from then on. Sometimes it takes a little reinforcement to
remember little safety things like that.
Al
Allen Brenden
Lynnwood, WA USA
'76 TR7 FHC (Daily Driver)
'76 TR7 FHC (Long Term Project)
'79 TR7 DHC (project, for the daughter)
'80 TR8 DHC (current project)
Many assorted parts, all for sale
'65 Barracuda Slant Six (a whole 'nother project, daughter to practice on)
Uncles Al's Auto Wood (currently not taking orders)
http://mysite.verizon.net/res1zj1z/index.htm
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Randall" <tr3driver@comcast.net>
To: <shop-talk@autox.team.net>
Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 8:20 AM
Subject: RE: Tire rotation
>
> > That was an artifact of early US radial tire manufacture, which was
> > generally piss-poor in quality. Some tires were prone to belt
> > separation if the direction of rotation was reversed.
>
> Not just US radial tires, early Michelin radials had the same problem.
BTDT,
> had a terrible time figuring out why the car rode like it had a flat tire,
but
> all the tires had air in them.
>
> Even without reversal, carcass failure was a common problem with early
radials
> ... the tread just lasted longer than the carcass (body) of the tire.
>
> > Tires are better now. There's no reason to avoid changing the direction
> > of rotation of tires.
>
> I agree with John, modern tires don't seem to have a problem with
reversing
> rotation. Of course, I no longer buy "plain old all weather" tires, as I
> consider high performance tires to be a safety feature.
>
> But I still have a nagging suspicion that the main advantage of tire
rotation is
> that it gets you into the shop so they can try to sell you something.
>
> Randall
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