Hi Hugh. I believe that the reason you keep radial tires on the same side of the car (switch front and back each time, never L to R or R to L) has to do with the way the belts in the tire wear. There are certain tires (I have them) that are rotation specific; in other words when you buy them four you get two with an arrow pointing CW and two with an arrow pointing CCW. There is no change to what I do when I rotate, since F to R and R to F doesn't change the rotation.

My understanding is that this is a rule to be followed - on any radial tire (rotation specific or not), rotate F to R and R to F only.

In the old days, they had a procedure that included the spare and involved switching rotation every few changes. It was something like Spare to RR, RR to RF, RF to LR and LR to LF and LF to spare. So every two changes a tire would switch from CW to CCW.

That's what I go by. Regards, Don

'95 854T 174.7K