tire rotation

[etlsport]

two of my tires look pretty worn out, and the other two look pretty new, which should i keep on the front? i thought i should have the ones with better treads in the front because of the engine weight.. but then its mainly rear wheel drive so then i thought they should be on the back...

[Ruflyf]

If they are the same tires bought at the same time, I would assume which ever way you would want to swap it to help even them out. However, I think generally you want the better traction in the front for steering purposes.

[Joe_Black]

You always want your best tread up front.

[etlsport]

i just bought it about 4 months ago... so i dont know the history of the tires... but im about 90% sure two of the tires were replaced much more recently than the other two (they might even still be from the factory?) because the treads on the front and the tread on the back are very different, which is a pain, cause i dont want to replace just two tires... and i also dont want to toss two perfectly good tires.. hopefully ill be able to find someone willing to buy the two in good shape when the time comes to replace (which doesnt seem too far off)

[rowhard]

Me too. Just got mine in Jan. Fronts were at 7/32, rears were at 12/32 which is new tread according to spec. for the Firestone HT Haulers.

[Raque Thomas]

I believe I remember reading here that best tread has to go on the front, otherwise the TOD sees the front tires spinning faster than the rears and goes nuts engaging all the time - IIRC

[kpaske]

FWIW, I just replaced all four the other day and even though I wanted to only replace 2, I wound up replacing all four anyways, for two reasons. First is the TOD issue - yes, you want your best tires up front, but if the difference in tread depth is signifigant (more than 3/32) it can mess up your transfer case (according to the folks at Discount Tire, anyways). Of course, if your TOD rarely ever kicks in, you'll probably be just fine. The other reason is because it'll look better. I went in to replace only the front. Nitto Terra Grappler AT's have a tread depth of 15/32, and since my rears still had 7/32, I figured they were only halfway worn. But once I saw what they looked like compared to the two new ones up front, I had to get them replaced. Just something to keep in mind.

[etlsport]

i had the deep treads on the front at first, then decided to try them in the back, didnt notice any significant changes in TOD or how often it kicked in... but for steering purposes ill probably move them back to the front til i wear the others out enough to replace al 4

[Ldub]

Joe_Black is right...you always want your best treads (newest) on the front axle.
If for no other reason, they're less apt to to blow out than an older tire.